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net Brand equity is a phrase used in the marketing industry which describes the value of having a well-known brand name, based on the idea that the owner of a well-known brand name can generate more money from products with that brand name than from products with a less well known name, as consumers believe that a product with a well-known name is better than products with less well known names

What Is a Brand?

In Principles of Marketing, by Philip Kotler and Gary Armstrong a brand is defined as a name, term, sign symbol or a combination of these, that identifies the maker or seller of the product P.Tailor of www.learnmarketing.net defines a brand as a Marketing tool that allows consumers to recognise the maker of a product.
Why Brand?

A brand name helps an organisation differentiate itself from its competitors. In today's competitive world customers expect products to have branding. Customers often build up a relationship with a brand that they trust and will regularly purchase products from that brand. Some people will only purchase a particular brand even though there are acceptable alternatives on the market. For example Apple Inc or UK retail chain John Lewis Partnership have a loyal customer base, who provide them with repeat business.
Brand Equity

How much is a brand worth? Brand equity refers to the value of a brand. Brand equity does not develop instantaneously. A brand needs to be carefully nurtured and marketed so consumers feel real value and trust towards that brand. Nike, Adidas, Harrods, have high brand equity. These brands command high awareness and consumer loyalty. But how much are these brands worth? It is difficult to put a value on brands, but we all know that a pair of Nike trainers without the logo on them, is worth a fraction of the price of a pair of trainers containing Nike's logo and branding. Franchisebusinesses pay to use branding belonging to someone else. For example McDonalds, Subway and Nandos. Sometimes businesses will buy the names

of businesses that have gone into administration. For example in 2009 Shop Direct Group purchased the right to use "Woolworth's" the name of the high street retail chain that had gone into administration in the UK.
Branding Strategies

When a company manages its brands it has a number of strategies it can use to further increase its brand value. These are:

Line extension: This is where an organisation adds to its current product line by introducing versions of its products with new features, an example could be a crisp/chips manufacturer extending its line by adding more exotic flavours. Brand extension: If your current brand name is successful, you may use the brand name to extend into new business areas. For example Virgin Group extending its brand from records, to airlines, mobiles and banking. Multi Branding: The company decides to introduce more brands into an existing category. Kelloggs for example have a number of brands in the cereal market and the cereal bar market. Multi-branding can allow an organisation to maximise profits, but a company needs to be weary over their own brands competing with each other over market share. New Brands: An organisation may decide to launch a new brand into a market. A new brand may be used to compete with existing rivals and may be marketed as something new and fresh.

David Garvin suggested that there were eight dimensions to quality. Lets briefly look at each of Garvin's eight dimensions. Dimension 1: Performance A quality product will perform as expected by the user and as specified by the manufacturer. If products do not do as buyers expect, users will be disappointed and frustrated. Worse still poor performing products get negative reviews and lose sales and reputation. Dimension 2: Features What additional benefits will be added to the product? Will they be they tangible or non-tangible benefits. For example this could be after sales service, or guarantees. Some features will be present in all products but other features will only be found in "quality" products. For example all cars have wheels, steering wheel, gears, windows and seats but only some cars have heated seats, assisted parking and bluetooth. Dimension 3: Reliability Is the product consistent. Will it perform well over its expected lifetime and perform consistently. Many brands have developed trust with customers because of their reputation for reliability. Dimension 4: Durability How durable is your product. Will it last with daily use?

Dimension 5: Conformance Does your product meet with any agreed internal and national specifications? For example safety regulations and laws. Dimension 6: Serviceability Is the product easy to service. Does the organisation offer enough service support. Dimension 7: Aesthetics

Is the product appealing to the eye? Design is important for many products; the colour picked indicates certain things. Dimension 8: Perceived Quality What sort of quality perception does the marketing team want to convey in their marketing message? Will price charged reflect the quality of the product? What brand name is going to be used and does this convey any sort of quality perception.

Summary