Red Bull

According to Keller(1993) the effective brand positioning gives a brand a competitive advantage or “unique selling proposition” that determines a reason why consumers are buying this product or service (Keller, 1993). Similarly, Kay (2004) argues that brand’s strength depends

Kotler and Keller (2012, pp. 271-272) maintain that there are three main sets of brand equity drivers:

Brand image ,as an indispensable complementarity, impact consumers ' decisions through brand associations. Brand associations make consumers have different, positive and exclusive links to products. To build a strong brand equity, companys should convey exclusive and positive brand association to consumers. For example, considering Sony, consumers alway link with colourful, creative, digital and so forth. Diverse associations have been linked with this brand. These brand associations ultimately work on consumers ' decisions.

It is closely linked to the strength of its brand as the stronger the brand the more respect and goodwill that will be associated with it and in turn will lead to higher sales and market share growth. According to MRA (2015), there are two main ways of measuring a company’s brand equity- measuring through brand awareness and brand image. In terms of brand awareness a measurement of quantitative brand recognition and quantitative aided and unaided recall are used (MRA, 2015). In regards to the brand image a mixture of qualitative and quantitative measurements are used including; free association, interviews, means-end chain analysis and Asker Scales (MRA, 2015). It is clear that brands like Apple have a high brand equity and it is an important factor that makes companies like Apple top in the world

Brand equity not only concerns itself with the measurement in terms of the financial position of the company but also the consumers’ attachment and attitudes towards the brand (Baines & Fill, 2014).

We evaluated the brand personality using the five dimensions sophistication, competence, sincerity, excitement, and ruggedness on a scale of 1 to 5, 1 being the lowest score on that dimension. As we can see on the chart, sophistication and ruggedness have lower scores, while all other dimensions achieve high grades. Red Bull is especially perceived as exciting and competent through its sponsoring of events (see advertising B and C in Appendix 1). Red Bull does not emphasize associations to its history or the country in which it is produced.

BRAND IMAGE AS A SUM AFFILIATIONS OF BRAND IN CUSTOMERS ' MEMORY, LOYALTY, AND PURCHASING DECISIONS (HE AND LAI, 2014)

Brand Equity is the added value given to products and services – reflecting how consumers think, feel and act towards a brand (Kotler et al 2009). Red Bull sells “cool” as added value to their hyped-up liquid. They sell a life

As a part of the beverage market around the world, energy drink is becoming more and more popular and can be defined as a type of beverage which contain mainly

This is why it’s essential for brands to get to know their markets, their buyers & the brand elements required of them, in order to build and create effective branding strategies. The following essay discusses this further.

Over the years brand equity has gained renowned attention all over the world. Organizations all over the world have been formulating strategies in order to enhance the brand equity of their brand. Many researchers have worked on brand equity and have come up with different models of brand equity. There are many factors which have been discussed by many researchers from time to time regarding brand equity identified by researchers from time to time which

A brand is a way for customers to identify goods and/or services that a company is providing and helps differentiate them from competitors, and their experience of the company and the products will reflect their brand equity (Kotler, Bowen, & Makens, 2014; Bailey & Ball, 2006). There are two definitions of a brand; the first is the product plus definition, where a brand is seen as an identifier for the product (Ambler & Styles, 1996). The second definition, which more relevant to today’s environment is the holistic view, where the brand includes all elements of the marketing mix and is not solely based on the product (Ambler & Styles, 1996). Keller defines brand equity as “the differential effect that consumer brand knowledge has on their response to marketing activity” (1999). A brand aims for positive brand equity so that consumers will choose their products/services over the competition and therefore increase their market share (Kotler et al., 2014; Rangaswamy, Burke, & Oliva, 1992).

According to Aaker (1991), Kapferer (2004) and Keller (2003), “Building strong brands is one of the most important goals of product and brand management. Strong brands result in higher revenue streams, both short term and long term”. “Therefore, the stated goal of strategic brand management is to build brands that last for decades and can be leveraged in different product categories and markets” Aaker (1996). To understand how branding effects the purchasing decision of consumers, many theories emerged in which according to Aaker (1991) has framed a model called Brand equity model and Keller (1993) has identified a model called the customer based brand equity model. Both the frameworks have profoundly focused on how consumers recognize and appraise brands by studying certain information structures (Keller, 1993; Aaker, 1991, 1997).

Several researchers (Jiang, 2004) have found brand awareness to be an important element that plays a vital role in consumer’s choice of brands. Lin and Chang (2003) established in their study that brand awareness has the most powerful influence on consumers’ purchase decisions and ultimately leads to consumer brand loyalty. Keller (2009) argues that in order to gain customer-based brand equity, the consumer must be aware of, and be familiar with the offering and hold brand associations that are strong, favorable and unique in comparison with other brands offered in the same category. Similarly, Esch et al.(2006) assert that customer- based brand equity occurs when the consumer is aware and familiar with the brand and holds positive associations about the brand in memory. In discussing the concept of brand awareness, Keller (2009) refers to it as the strength of the brand node in memory, which explains how easy it is for the consumer to remember the brand. Hence, the first task of advertising is to build brand awareness and expose the brand to all

The basic assumption that ongoing interactions help consumers form deep attachment to brands, fails to address both the intrinsic and extrinsic factors impacting consumer choice and preference, and the multi-dimensional context in which consumers and humans operate. Today, brand meanings are no longer created unilaterally, under the sole control of a firms marketing efforts, rather, it is the active role of multiple stakeholders in conveying the essence of the brand (Berthon, Pitt and Campbell 2009).