Brand Image: A Seasoned Review

 

Nitin Kumar Saxena¹* , Dr. Upinder Dhar²

¹Research Scholar, J K Lakshmipat University, Jaipur, India

²Vice Chancellor, Shri Vaishnav Vidyapeeth Vishwavidyala, Indore, India

 

ABSTRACT:

Brand Image is the foundation for making better strategic marketing decisions in context to targeting a specific market segments and positioning a service or a product. The term brand image, has been defined and applied in diverse ways by different researchers. The dissimilarities in definition can be confusing in connection with brand image measurement and consequent assessment of brand equity and brand positioning. As brand image is the vital element to establish a higher level of brand equity and distinguish brand positioning, the course of readdressing the concept is necessary. The lack of agreement regarding the definition of the term brand image restricts the efficient management and positioning of a brand. Brand image is a multidimensional construct that is set off by cognitions, emotions, messages, symbols, values and attitudes of consumers. Still, many researchers measured it as a unidimensional construct. The paper presents the different perspectives defining the brand image concept. The focus on qualitative research for measuring the brand image is now a newest drift in brand image research.  The suggestions for road map are presented too.

 

 

INTRODUCTION:

It is interesting to explore how branding can have emotional impact on a human mind. For a brand to leverage, it is very important to understand the consumers’ perception. Proper understanding of how a consumer perceives a brand will help the marketers to get maximum benefit. How a consumer perceives a brand is called as brand image. “Brand image” is the customer’s net extract from the brand. Brands have become valuable assets to companies and therefore, learning and understanding how to construct, measure and manage brand image is a paramount (Kapferer, 2005).

 

Brand equity is totality of brand’s perception, including the quality of services and products, customer loyalty, financial performance, customer satisfaction and overall admiration of the brand.         

 

The key concept between the brand and equity is the brand image, which works as an intervening variable. To establish brand equity, industry marketers seek to establish a favorable brand image. Biel (1992) emphasized that brand image is a core driver of brand equity. An essential feature in an image is that it is always subjective and personal. It is always based on a person’s attitudes, beliefs and personal values and it is not based on any objective truth.

 

BRAND IMAGE:

Gardner and Levy have been recognized (Levy 1955) for coining “brand image” in a meaningful form in their 1955 article. Brand image represents an important portion of marketing activities; market offerings and branding with diverse definition and approaches to its conceptualization (Dobni and Zinkhan, 1990). An extensively accepted view is that brand image represents the brand associations that a customer perceives and store in his/her memory (Keller, 1993). Brand image reflects "the reasoned or emotional perceptions that the consumers attach to a specific brands" (Low, G.S. and Lamb, 2000).

 

According to Hsieh et al (2004), a winning brand image helps consumers to recognize the needs that the brand fulfills and to distinguish the brand from its competitors and as a result increases the chance that consumers will purchase the brand. Additionally, several empirical studies have confirmed that a favorable image (i.e. brand, store/retail) will lead to loyalty (Kandampully and Suhartanto, 2000), brand equity (Faircloth et al, 2001), purchase behavior (Hsieh et al, 2004) and brand performance (Roth, 1995).

 

Gardner and Levy (1955) and Bullmore (1984) signified the brand image as beliefs, feeling, perceptions and attitudes towards a brand. Effective communication of brand image helps consumers identify the needs that a product or service can satisfy of its users (Park et al, 1986). Roth (1995) described brand image as a key to a product’s success in market. The concept of brand image has been defined and applied in several ways by different authors and researchers. The Chronological Transition of Brand Image Definition is shown in Table- 1.

 

The Chronological Transition of Brand Image Definition         Table 1: The chronological transition of brand image definition

Time (years)	Authors	Definition
1950s	Gardner and Levy, 1955	The sets of ideas, feelings and attitudes that consumers have about brands -"the social and psychological nature of products"
	Martineau, 1957	Brand image is a symbol of the buyer's personality
	Newman,1957	A brand can be viewed as a composite image of everything people associate with it
1960s	Herzog, 1963	Brand image is the sum total of impressions the consumer receives from many sources
	Sommers, 1964	The meaning that a product has perceived product symbolism -"perceived product symbolism"
	Grubb and Grathwohl, 1967	The psychic or symbolic value of goods purchased in the marketplace
1970s	Pohlman and Mudd, 1973	Product image is value for its utility as a prestige symbol
	Levy and Glick, 1973	The concept of brand image aptly sums up the idea that consumers buy brands not only for their physical attributes and functions, but also because of the meanings connected with the brands
	Levy, 1978	A mixture of the physical reality of the product and the beliefs, attitudes and feelings that have come to the attached to it meaning as being learned or stimulated by the component experience that people have with the product
	Bettinger, Dawson, and Wales, 1979	(BP) Products have personality images, an "adult" image and a "child" image of the product-age image
1980s	Swartz, 1983	In symbolic consumer, interest lies in investigating the role of products as “messages” - "the messages communicated by products"
	Reynolds and Gutman, 1984	Product imagery- stored meanings that an individual has in memory, personal and social meanings
		The set of meanings and associations that serve to differentiate a product or service from its competition
	Hendon and Williams, 1985	Brand personality or brand character involves nothing more than describing a product as if it were a human being -"brand character"
	Sirgy, 1985	Products are assumed to have personality image, just as people do -"personality image"
	Dichter, 1985	Brand image is the configuration of the whole field of the object, the advertising, and more important, the customer’s disposition and the attitudinal screen through which he observes.
	Friedmann and Lessig, 1987	A mental position, understanding or evaluation of the product that develops in a nonrandom way form interaction between perceiver and product stimulus - psychological meaning
	Durgee and Stuart, 1987	Each product or brand has a "meaning profile" which is defined as the complex of key meanings associated with the product or brand of what the product means symbolically in the eyes of consumers - "Brand meaning"
1990s	Dobni and Zinkhan, 1990	Meaning that the consumers associate with the product based on {experiences, impressions, perceptions} of {functional, emotional, symbol} benefits of the brand
	Aaker, 1991	(BA) Anything in a consumer's memory linked to a specific brand (p.109)
		A set of associations usually organized in some meaningful way
		The associations linked to brand
	Biel, 1992	Cluster of attributes and associations that consumer's connect to the brand name
2000s	Keller, 1993	Perceptions about a brand as reflected by the brand associations held in consumer memory (p.3)
		(BA) The informational nodes linked to the brand node in memory and contain the meaning of the brand for consumers
	Aaker, 1996	(BI) A unique set of associations that the brand strategist aspires to create or maintain
	Ross, James, and Vargas, 2006	(BA) The thoughts that come to mind immediately after the brand is recalled
	Keller, 2008	Consumer perceptions of any preferences for a brand, measured by the various types of brand associations held in memory (p. 636)
		The consumer’s perceptions about the brand as reflected by a set of brand associations held in consumer’s memory (p. 384)
	Roy and Banerjee, 2014	The perception of a brand that is being formed in the process of decoding brand identity facets (p. 2)
	Anselmsson, Bondesson, and Johansson, 2014	The associations and beliefs that the customer has regarding the brand (p. 4)

Source: Note: Adapted and modified from ‘In search of brand image: a foundation analysis.’ (p.112), by Dobni, D. and Zinkhan, G. M. (1990), Copyright 1990 by the Association for Consumer Research. BP= Brand personality, BA=Brand associations, BI=Brand image.

In 1950s to 1970s era, brand image was considered as the sum of a customer’s cognitive and affective perceptions besides the product’s physical attributes (Garner and Levy, 1955; Herzog, 1963; Levy, 1978; Newman, 1957; Pohlman and Mudd, 1973). Some researchers used meanings (Levy, 1978; Levy and Glick, 1973; Sommers, 1964), symbols (Grubb and Grathwohl, 1967; Martineau, 1957; Pohlman and Mudd, 1973) and associations such as beliefs, feelings and attitudes to describe brand image. The symbolic perception of brand gained recognition throughout the 1980s (Dobni and Zinkhan, 1990). Researchers used messages (Swartz, 1983), meanings (Durgee and Stuart, 1987; Reynolds and Gutman, 1984) and associations to depict intangible perceptions of their customers’ minds.

 

From the start in the 1990s, brand image was described as being separate from product image. The image of a service now forms a part of brand image. Aaker (1991) and Keller (1993), two distinguished authorities on branding, dominated the definition of branding, incorporating brand image. Aaker (1996) introduced the concept of brand identity, referring to a unique set of associations that the brand marketers aim to create or maintain. He explained brand identity is the image that the companies aspire for the customer to perceive. Brand image was corresponding to the sender’s perspective. Aaker pointed out that brand image is just one input along with resources or expertise which were consideration to comprise brand identity, the definition itself tends to be similar and incorporated in Keller’s (1993) brand association notion (i.e., the sum of the customer’s perceptions), which was most acknowledged in this period. Moreover, his term brand identity, resulted in a greater confusion for researchers and practitioners by using different terms to describe part of the entire concept.

 

Brand Image Building Literature

Year	Author (s)	Contribution to Brand Image Building
2007	Essoussi L. and Merunka	Bi-national brands borrow image factors from both the countries.
2007	Koubaa Yamen	A study on country of origin, brand image perception and brand image structure revealed that country of origin has multidimensional impact on brand image
2007	Salciuviene et al	Functional, experiential and symbolic benefits are associated with brand image
2008	Drengner et al	Customers take an active participation during the event which provides consumers with a holistic sensation coupled with increased involvement results in flow of emotions and a positive word of mouth communication.
2008	Jaiprakash A	Repeated endorsements transfer celebrity image to brand image. A careful selection of celebrities with image similar to product image is required for effective transfer
2009	Ghose Kamal	Quality of customer interaction (CI) occupies a prominent place in building service brands
2009	Guzman F. and Paswan A.K.	Cultural brands: When these brand cross national boundaries the cultural roots are often deepened. Expatriate customers residing in another country show a deeper affinity towards these cultural brands.
2009	Hawabhay and Abratt	Brand image can be built around product offerings (customer value) or corporate identity (Company Vision). Corporate image is built around this core value.
2010	Bruwer John	Building wine brands depends on quality and region of production.
2014	Bellezza Silva and KeinanAnat	Brand image enhancement by Non-Core users (Brand Tourists) by Eliciting pride.
2014	Paco Arminda Do et al	Branding for NGOs and influence on the intention of Donation
2015	Francois et al	Brand stereotyping and image transfer in concurrent
2015	Kim H C and Kramer T	Brand-as-Servant in Materialistic world
2015	Yeh Hsiaoping	Effects of information and communication technologies' innovative application on brand image

Source Note: Adapted and modified from Building Brand Image: A Historical Prospective (Bhagwat, J. and Dhar, U. 2016)

 

CONCLUSION:

Brand image is an important phenomenon for any organization and has a direct relationship with brand equity and in turn affects the profitability of an organization. Secondly looking at the market scenario where consumers are bombarded with flood of choices to confuse them about selection criteria, consumers are expected to look at something other than tangibles associated with the products, and that something is brand image. In addition, competitive intensity in the market is such that retaining the consumer is a tough task. To develop a brand image the practitioners has first to know how people generally imagine a brand.

 

The review of literature reveals that there is a huge gap in understanding the attributes, factor responsible for building brand image in Indian context. A review of research studies has exposed that a very few authors have made some remarks about the brand image. There is probability of change in the perception of brand image due to revolutionize in economic scenario of customers. New viewpoints are evolving and old beliefs are losing relevance. Thus a study is required to fill the vacuum in the area of brand image theory.  Furthermore, it must provide an answer to questions regarding psychological processes underlying the development and reinforcement of brand image which will help in differentiating the brand image construct from other construct like brand personality and brand character. Besides these, the study should also bridge the gap and identify the factors and dimensions of brand image. This study should also facilitate the practitioners in particular for formulating strategies to strengthen the image of a brand and to the academicians in general to venture into new area of research.

 

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