Three Discussion Points on the Route to Brand Growth : Acquiring More Buyers vs. Higher Loyalty, Brand Positioning, and Building Brand Equity

This paper examines three important issues in brand management – the route to brand growth, the idea that brands should be uniquely differentiated, and the building and maintenance of brand equity. The chapter presents evidence from numerous studies to show that:(1) the route to brand growth must focus on customer acquisition, i.e. simply getting more of all sorts customers to buy (less so loyalty – loyalty increases as the size of the customer base increases); (2) brands tend not to have strong, differentiated positioning, but this lack of differentiation does not stop them being successful; and (3) brand-equity endeavours should focus on building the prevalence of brand associations across a wide population group, and focus less on the extent to which customers have strong emotional connections or attachment to the brand