brand is an aggregate of name, symbol and design used to identify the source of a product. Branding is crucial for a company to differentiate its product from competitors. When a brand is well recognized and has positive association with the perspectives of consumers, the value of a brand will increase. The marketing and financial value of a brand is often referred to as brand equity. In other words, brand equity is “the good will associated with a brand name, which adds tangible value to a company through the resulting higher sales and profits” (Jobber, 2004). High brand equity helps a company to gain competitive advantages. The advantages involve the increase of marketing efficiency and effectiveness, the reduction of marketing costs relative to revenues, the building of a significant barrier for prospective competitors to enter the same market, the wide acceptance of the market and stronger bargaining ability with retailers.
There are many theories exploring the components of brand equity and have different opinions. Between them, Aaker’s (1991) theory is more complete and is most widely adopted. He mentioned that brand equity has five components, brand loyalty, brand awareness, perceived brand quality, brand association and other proprietary brand assets. The sources of Russian Standard’s brand equity will be analyzed according to these five constituents.
Brand loyalty
Brand loyalty is “a strongly motivated and long standing decision to purchase a particular product service” (Dibb et al, 2001). The main source of Russian Standard’s brand loyalty is its brand name. The name directly demonstrates the Russian spirit and pride and conforms to the psychological requirement of Russians. Anyone who seeks Russian identity may generate brand loyalty. ...