A study of the brand characteristics of Oakley

Any brand has a specific identity that the company wants to portray to consumers in its targetmarket – its brand identity – what the brand stands for. This is also the case for Oakley, aluxury brand competing in the sports and fashion industries. In essence the brand identity ofa company is that what the brand is characterised by and what it stands for in the minds ofconsumers. By communicating its brand identity to consumers, a company createassociations with the brand, which in turn forms the brand image that consumers have of thebrand. The greater the degree to which consumers associate the brand with thosecharacteristics that the brand in effect stands for, the greater the congruence between brandimage and brand identity. The aim for a company is to realise a brand image in the minds ofconsumers that is similar, if not the same as the brand identity that it has identified for itself.In this study, the brand identity of Oakley is identified and the brand image that consumershave of the brand examined. The two concepts are then compared to find out to what degreethe two are related and whether Oakley has in fact managed to portray their brand identityaccurately (as reflected through the brand image).The relationship between price and quality for a brand represents the degree to whichconsumers believe the brand to be worth the money paid for it. It is widely believed that abrand with a high price is also of high quality and vice versa. This is not necessarilyexclusively the case. The concept of quality and value differ from one individual to another,since it is based on the subjective perception of each individual. As mentioned earlier,associations form part of the brand image that consumers have of a brand. One of theseassociations might be their perception of quality of the brand, given the price of the brand. Aluxury brand can charge a premium price, on the basis of various characteristics, one of whichis the fact that the brand is perceived to be of high quality. Oakley is a luxury brand andcharges a premium price. The study examines the quality and price of the brand by looking atthe perceptions that consumers have of the brand with reference to the price/qualityrelationship, which represents one of the associations that contribute towards the formation ofconsumers’ brand image.