How to choose Branding Elements to build Brand Equity

There are 6 integral criteria for choosing your brand elements:

1)      Memorability

2)      Meaningfulness                             

3)      Likability

4)      Transferability

5)      Adaptability                        

6)      Protectability

1. Memorability: Brand elements that help achieve a high level of brand awareness or attention to the brand, in turn facilitate the recognition and recall of a brand during purchase or consumption.

2. Meaningfulness: Here a marketer needs to ensure that brand elements are descriptive and suggesting something about the product category of the brand. This is important to develop awareness and recognition for the brand in a particular product category.

Secondly, the brand elements also need to have a persuasive meaning and suggest something about the particular benefits and attributes of the brand. This is necessary for defining the positioning of the brand in a particular category.

3. Likability: Brand Elements need to be inherently fun, interesting, colourful and not necessarily always directly related to the product.

A memorable, meaningful and likable brand element makes it easier to build brand recognition and brand equity, thus reducing the burden on the marketer and thereby reducing the cost of marketing communications.

The above 3 criteria constitute the "Offensive Strategy" towards building brand equity

4. Transferability: is the extent to which brand elements can add brand equity to new products of the brand in the line extensions.  Another point, a marketer needs to keep in mind is that the brand element should be able to add brand equity across geographical boundaries and market segments. For example, brand names like “Apple”, “Blackberry” represent fruits the world over, thus as a brand name it doesn't restrict brands and product extensions.

5. Adaptability: Consumer opinions, values and views keep changing over a period of time. The more adaptable and flexible brand elements are the easier it is to keep up changing and up to date from time to time to suit the consumers liking and views. For example, Coca -Cola has been updating it's logo over the years to keep up with the latest trends, fashions and opinions.

6. Protectability: the final criteria in choosing a brand element is that it should be protectable legally and competitively. Brand elements need to be chosen in such a way, that they can be internationally protected legally, legally registered with legal bodies. Marketers need to voraciously defend their trademarks from unauthorized competitive infringements.

The above 3 criteria constitute the "Defensive strategy" towards leveraging and maintaining brand equity

The most ideal brand elements would be those which satisfy all the criteria. But it is not possible have a brand element which would satisfy all the above criteria. For example, if we choose a brand name which is most meaningful in a country or culture or a market segment, it would be very difficult to make it transferable to other brand extensions and to other cultures and market segments.