Publishing Date: March 1999. © 1999. All rights reserved. Copyright rests with the author. No part of this article may be reproduced without written permission from the author.
Brand awareness and brand image
Chuck Chakrapani
Building brand equity To build brand equity, we need to start with the building blocks of brand equity. They include brand awareness, and brand image or the associations that a brand evokes. Brand awareness Brand awareness has two components: breadth and depth. Let us first consider depth . While a consumer may be aware of many brands, all brands are not equal in terms of awareness. The depth of awareness may vary and this may have profound implications for brand equity. For instance, a brand may be the first brand that comes to mind (top-of-mind recall ), or it may be one of the many brands mentioned by the consumer when asked (unaided recall ), or it may be recognized only when prompted (aided recall ). The breadth of a brand refers to its association with different consumption occasions. For instance, if Coke is associated with having lunch, going to the movies, relaxing with friends, relaxing alone, quenching thirst or watching TV, then it has a greater breadth compared to a brand of orange juice that may only be associated with being had at breakfast. Another way of looking at brand awareness is to view the brands known to customers as belonging to an evoked or an elicited set. The evoked set consists of those brands that are voluntarily mentioned by a consumer when asked to name brands. It is from this set that a consumer is likely to choose the brand he or she is likely to use. The elicited set, on the other hand, consists of brands that a consumer knows but doesn't think of unprompted. Brands in the elicited set have a lower likelihood of purchase since they do not come readily to mind. Brand image Brand image refers to brand perception, or the associations evoked by a brand. Brand perception may or may