Brand knowledge

Brand is an important factor in marketing because people care about the products’

quality and brand often represents quality (Chiang & Jang, 2006). A strong brand depends on its unique and positive association with consumer’s memory (Farhana, 2012). Consumer brand knowledge can be defined as all descriptive and evaluative brand-related information stored in consumers’ memories and mind-sets (Keller, 2003). In other words, brand knowledge will bond consumers’ behavior and influence their buying decision. It is very important to understand the structure and content of brand knowledge because it can affect what comes to mind when consumers think about a brand (Chen & He, 2003).

Keller (2003) divided brand knowledge into two components: brand image and brand awareness. He found a conceptual model of customer-based brand equity that has differential effect on consumer’s brand knowledge which is conceptualized as brand image and brand awareness (Keller, 1993). These two different components may affect consumer response to marketing activities and become a part of consumer

18

memory. In fact, brand image and brand awareness can distinguish brand knowledge and influence consumer response and the strength, favorability, and uniqueness of the brand associations in consumer memory; further, brand awareness influences consumer decision making by affecting the formation and strength of brand association in brand image (Keller, 1993). Similarly, Alimen and Cerit (2009), Esch, Langner, Schmitt, and Geus (2006), and Faircloth, Capella, and Alford (2001), these studies uses two dimensions, brand image and brand awareness, to evaluate and analyze brand knowledge. The Figure 2-2 is shown to summarize the dimensions of brand knowledge, which is divided into brand image and brand awareness. Brand image consists of functional image, symbolic image, and experiential image. And brand awareness is composed by brand recall and brand recognition.

Figure 2-2 Dimensions of Brand Knowledge Source: Keller (1993), page 7

2.2.1 Brand image

Brand image plays a powerful role in marketplace where it is increasingly difficult to differentiate products on the basis of product quality (Mudambi, Doyle, &

19

Wong, 1997). It does not only act an important intangible asset for a firm, but also be one of the key factors considered by marketers (Ho, Chang, Hung, Chen, & Chiu, 2009). Brand image is defined as a subjective and perceptual phenomenon that is formed in the consumer’s mind through consumer interpretation (Dobni & Zinkhan, 1990). Brand image is the product for consumers to distinguish the firm's offering from competitors (Padgett & Allen, 1997). It can be a name, a design, and a color to represent a company (Chi, Yeh, & Huang, 2009). Brand image reflects consumer perception about a brand (Cretu & Brodie, 2007) because brand image is held by the consumer and linked to an offering (Dobni & Zinkhan, 1990). And this perception can influence the brand’s positioning in the market (Hu, Liu, Wang, & Yang, 2012) and is created by marketers' management of the brand, which includes three dimensions:

functional, symbolic, and experiential (Park, Jaowrski, & Maclnnis, 1986).

Specifically, the concept of functional image refers to a brand matches the utilitarian set of criteria that consumers prefer, and this utilitarian set is related to a brand’s tangible attributes, reflecting its functional performance (Hu et al., 2012).

Symbolic image means the desires for products that fulfill internally generated needs for self-enhancement, role position, group membership, or ego-identification (Park et al., 1986). And experiential image is defined as involving distinctly personal experiences and episodes or being related to past behaviors and experiences of friends, family or others (Keller, 2001). In sum, brand image includes what are the consumers’ experiences, opinions, attitudes toward the company and their brands as compared with other competitors (Akbar & Azhar, 2011), and it is characterized and stands for in the consumers’ minds (Keller, 2001).

2.2.2 Brand awareness

Brand awareness acts as a vital role in recognizing consumers’ preferred brand

20

(Farhana, 2012) and an important choice tactic when facing a new decision task (Macdonald & Sharp, 2000). It refers to the ability of a consumer to recall and recognize a brand in different situations (Aaker, 1996; Keller, 2001), regardless of product class but based on consumer perceptual frequency (Hellofs & Jacobson, 1999). Brand awareness can strengthen consumer’s memory to the brand and make consumers have ability to identify various brand names, logos, symbols, characters, slogans, and packaging under different conditions (Farhana, 2012). Hence, consumers can simplify decision making process for a common, repeat purchase products through brand awareness (Macdonald & Sharp, 2000). In short, brand awareness determines which brands enter to the consideration set, and it also determines which brands are chosen from the consideration set (Macdonald & Sharp, 2003). It is established by publicity and word-of-mouth and provided the compelling products with clear performance advantages (Keller, 2001). Thus, building brand awareness is important because it can help the brand stand out from others. Ensuring consumers know which of their demands the brand is designed to meet through the products to build brand awareness (Keller, 2001). Building brand awareness can not only lead to sustainable competitive advantages, but also maintain the long term value (Macdonald & Sharp, 2003).

Brand awareness can be distinguished from depth and breadth (Hoeffler & Keller, 2002). Depth of brand awareness means how to make consumers recall or recognize a brand easily (Keller, 2001). However, some studies argued that the meanings of brand recall and brand recognition are different. Brand recall refers that consumers can recall a brand name exactly when seeing a product category, and brand recognition means that consumers have ability to identify a brand correctly when there is a brand cue (Chi, Yeh, & Yang, 2009). Breadth of brand awareness is the range of purchase and consumption a product which its brand will come to consumers’ minds at once

21

(Keller, 2001). Chi, Yeh, and Yang (2009) pointed out that if a product owns brand depth and brand width at the same time, consumers will think of a specific brand when they want to buy a product. That is, the product has higher brand awareness.