Consumer based Brand Equity

When one reads about the cases and histories of major brands in the developed one realizes the time and effort which goes into building a Brand, and the kind of valuations which the brands get in many of the cases the brands of the companies are valued many times more than the total physical assets of the company.....

But one needs to realize or question where does this equity reside, within the company? in the marketing department? or within an individual in the organization ( Maybe a Steve jobs........). The truth is that though the some of the source of equity would lie in all mentioned above , the marketing department of the company, the dynamic brand manager and so on........... but brand equity mostly lies in the minds of the consumers who use the brand. Though it might sound very obvious but marketing implications need to be carefully assessed.

In Indian context one finds many of iconic and old brands entering India and not making much of an dent with consumers, the other day I wanted to buy a lemon drink, asked the guy for Sprite, he gave me 7up, I drank it reading the new POP of Mountain Dew hanging in the shop.

Most of us would actually have a preference for Limca (for or against), but we are insensitive to the other lemon drinks. Which emphasizes the point which I had made earlier on the consumer held equity, because Limca has been there in India for longer than most of the other brands and we have been exposed to its communication campaign from the pre-lib days, we perceive it to be different. But it is not same with Mountain Dew, about which I have written earlier also...

And that is why one can see the older brands going in for a change in the logo and design of the brands, Ex- Godrej.....with the hope that they would be able capture consumer equity with the newer generation of consumer, who don't connect with the Brand as their parents did.....

A related article which came in Business World talks about how old brands are being revitalized, Link