ASIAN JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT RESEARCH

Online Open Access publishing platform for Management Research

ISSN 2229 3795

Research Article

Brand equity and branding strategies in regional perspective of Saudi

Arabia

Alharthey Bandar Khalaf, Amran Rasli

1- Department of Management, Faculty of Management & Human Resource Development,
University Technology of Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia.
b4n-99@hotmail.com

ABSTRACT
Brand equity across global markets is an important subject in marketing. Considering the
implication of particular markets and cultures on the brand equity makes the subject very
intricate and complex. This paper will discuss the various considerations that need to be taken
into account while considering the branding options in specific geographic, linguistic and
cultural settings in general and the case of Middle East with specific reference to Saudi
Arabia in particular.
1. Brand name
A defined by the American Marketing Association and discussed by (Kotler & Keller, 2006)
a brand can be defined as a name, symbol, term, design, icon used in isolation or used
collectively for identifying a particular product or service. A brand name is thus needed for
differentiating a particular product or service from other similar. Two products or services
might be exactly similar in nature but branding can create a difference in the consumers
perceptions, mental image and preferences. Differentiation created by brands can be
relational, tangible or functional in nature, or it might be intangible, symbolic and emotional.
Branding not only helps the consumers in identifying goods and services that relate to their
particular needs, but also help the companies in leveraging the image created by their brands
and hence improving the return on their investment.
Since brands associate products and services with certain produces and service providers,
branding also helps the consumers make decisions based on the past experience and market
reputation of a particular brand. A bad historical reputation of the market, results in lower
worth of the brand in eyes of the consumer whereas good reputation enhances the worth of
the brand. Branding thus also acts as a tool for making the producers and service providers
act in a more responsible manner. (Brady et al., 2008).
Unique brand names help in tracing and recording inventories and shipments, help the owners
in legally protecting unique characteristics or attributes of the product, act as signals for the
product reliability and quality, create consumer loyalty and product demand in such a manner
that strong barriers are created in the way of the new entrants thus enhancing the competitive
advantage of the firm. Research has also indicated that brand loyalty and brand image can
safeguard a firms market share and allow the firm to demand higher prices for the products
or services even if the competitors completely replicate these products or services and even
offer better products or services at a lower price. For the firms, hence, brands are valuable
and precious legal assets that can ensure continuous cash flow in wake of competition from
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Brand Equity and Branding Strategies in Regional Perspective of Saudi Arabia

Alharthey Bandar Khalaf, Amran Rasli

market. (Aaker & Keller, 1990; Burmann, Jost-Benz & Riley, 2009; Laforet & Saunders,
1994)
2. Brand equity
Brand equity is thus the value added to the products or services of a firm by virtue of the
brand names of these products or services. Although brand equity can be studies from many
perspectives, it is advantageous to look at the brand equity from customers perspective
because the customer has the power to choose amongst various options available and hence
the final arbiter of the worth of a brand (Konecnik & Gartner, 2007; Yoo & Donthu, 2001).
There are two dimensions of customer based brand equity, firstly there are differences in
customer response to different brands for similar products or services and secondly these
differences are based upon the knowledge of the customer with respect to the brand itself and
the surroundings and environment of the customer. (Burmann, Jost-Benz & Riley, 2009;
Douglas, Craig & Nijssen, 2001; Laforet & Saunders, 1994).
The above discussion leads to a very important aspect of brand equity, i.e. since the brand
equity is created by the difference of customers opinion about different brands, and since the
customers experience is based on the knowledge base of the customers, it is important to keep
the implication of the cultural, social, economic, linguistic, geographical and religious milieu
of the customer on the brand equity. This observation gives leads to a very interesting
question and the question is about the equity of a particular band in different environmental
and cultural settings as discussed above.
3. Branding levels
There are different levels of branding that are adopted by firms. According to (Aaker &
Keller, 1990) companies have two types of branding strategies, i.e. corporate branding and
product branding. (Laforet & Saunders, 1994) have further refined the concept and identifies
three levels of brand identities, i.e. corporate brands, mixed brands and brand dominant.
These broad categories have been further subdivided into more refined subcategories, e.g. the
corporate brand can be subdivided into corporate brands and house brands like Walls icecream of Unilever, the mixed brand can be subdivided into endorsed brands like Nestles
Kitkat and mixed brands like Colgate Palmolive. The third category, i.e. brand dominant
comprises product level branding only like Colgate Palmolives Darkie toothpaste. These
observations were confirmed by (Douglas, Craig & Nijssen, 2001) and it was further
observed by (Douglas, Craig & Nijssen, 2001) that while corporate, product focused and
hybrid strategies are evolving in international branding perspective, there are many variations
in these categories that have to be taken into consideration. These variations arise from the
organisations desire to operate internationally or to expand its market into different cultural,
socio-economic, religious and geographical domains.
The firms focusing on corporate dominant branding essentially seek to maintain a uniform
global brand throughout the world. Examples of such corporate identities are Philips, Shell,
Nike, Apple etc. These brands consciously try to build a global image rather than a local
image. The companies using product dominant branding are essentially the ones who have
either globally developed powerful product named brands or acquired local or international
brands with well-known product names. Since the acquired brand names are usually well
established and create a strong impression in the consumers mind, i.e. these brands have
well-established brand equity, and it is expeditious to exploit the existing brand equity of
these products and services. In case of the mixed and hybrid branding strategies several
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Alharthey Bandar Khalaf, Amran Rasli

considerations come into action like image that the company wants to create with the
corporate name and the image that can be created by associating a specific product or service
with the product or service. A generic example can be a food products company which also
produces chemicals and pesticide. Using the same corporate brand for pesticides and yogurt
would create negative images in the mind of the people using the food products and the
yogurt become less palatable or acceptable for the consumer due to the fact that same brand
name is associated with a chemical.
4. Branding strategies for Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia is a large consumer market and the firms operating in Saudi Arabia or providing
different products and services need to take the specific environment of Saudi Arabia and the
specific considerations to for the Saudi market in mind.
While a detailed and focused research needs to conducted by me in the course of the PHD
programme for assessing the specific branding requirements and particular impact of the
social , cultural, religious and economic peculiarities of the Saudi society on the brand
strategies adopted by the firms, a general discussion of the salient features of the Saudi
society and Saudi market can be discussed in this paper to form a foundation and guiding
light for the research to be undertaken in the PHD programme.
Language, culture, geographic realities and economic consideration need to be taken into
consideration (Rashid, 1987; Rayburn, 1997) while choosing a branding strategy for Saudi
Arabia. Religious sensitivities and norms of the Arab culture are most dominant factors that
can affect the consumers behaviour and hence affect the brand equity in Saudi Arabia.
Certain products like pork and alcohol are restricted in the Kingdom and hence images
associated with items can affect the other products of particular brand as well (Shaw, 1982).
There are certain unique products like the services required during the Hajj season, camel
milk etc. which are specific to Saudi Arabia and any international player venturing into this
domain. Furthermore there are many other social and cultural attitudes which can cause a
negative image to be formed for a particular brand e.g. if a brand gets strongly associated
with a sexual depiction of women, a local brand image might have to be created to offset the
effects of the consumers perceptions.
5. Conclusion
As discussed in the online portal Netmba.com, building brand equity requires a significant
effort, and some companies use alternative means of achieving the benefits of a strong brand.
For example, brand equity can be borrowed by extending the brand name to a line of products
in the same product category or even to other categories. In some cases, especially when
there is a perceptual connection between the products, such extensions are successful. In
other cases, the extensions are unsuccessful and can dilute the original brand equity. However,
brands have an equity value and there are different branding strategies that are adopted to
enhance this equity value. In culturally rich societies with strong religious influence, the
branding strategies need to be adopted accordingly.
6. References
1. Aaker, D. & Keller, K (1990), Consumer Evaluations of Brand Extensions,
Journal of Marketing, 54(1), pp 27-33.
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Alharthey Bandar Khalaf, Amran Rasli

2. Brady, M. K., Cronin Jr, J. J., Fox, G. L. & Roehm, M. L (2008), Strategies to
offset performance failures: The role of brand equity, Journal of Retailing, 84
(2), pp 151-64.
3. Burmann, C., Jost-Benz, M. & Riley, N (2009), Towards an identity-based
brand equity model, Journal of Business Research, 62(3), pp 390-7.
4. Douglas, S. P., Craig, C. S. & Nijssen, E. J (2001), 'Integrating Branding
Strategy Across Markets; Building International Brand Architecture', Journal of
International Marketing, 9(2).
5. Konecnik, M. & Gartner, W. C (2007), Customer-based brand equity for a
destination, Annals of Tourism Research, 34(2), pp 400-21.
6. Kotler, P. & Keller, K. L (2006), Marketing management / Philip Kotler, Kevin
Lane Keller, Pearson Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, N. J.
7. Laforet, S. & Saunders, J (1994), Managing Brand Portfolios: How the Leaders
Do It, Journal of Advertising Research, (September/October), pp 64-76.
8. Rashid, N (1987), King Fahd and Saudi Arabia's great evolution, International
Institute of Technology, Joplin Mo. U.S.A.
9. Rayburn, R (1997), Living & working in Saudi Arabia: how to prepare for a
successful short or long term stay, How to Books, Oxford.
10. Shaw, J (1982), Saudi Arabian modernization: the impact of change on stability,
Center for Strategic and International Studies Georgetown University,
Washington D.C.
11. Yoo, B. & Donthu, N (2001), Developing and validating a multidimensional
consumer-based brand equity scale, Journal of Business Research, 52(1), pp 114.
12. Brand equity, (2011), available at http://www.netmba.com/ marketing/brand/
equity/, accessed during December 2011.

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