Assessing Branding Strength: Comparing Marketer Judgement and Consumer Data for Brand Identity Elements
A brand’s identity, which is made up of brand elements like logos, colours, and taglines, helps consumers to recognise the brand. Marketers are responsible for building a strong, unique brand identity over time: deciding which brand elements to use and where, with some brand elements better able to cue the brand for consumers at a given point in time (reflecting past investments). These decisions are often made using intuitive judgements based on marketers’ own brand knowledge and experience to prioritise or retire certain brand elements. This research explores whether these judgements are an adequate substitute for consumer knowledge, which marketers are looking to affect. We compare marketers’ intuitive judgements with consumers’ brand associations measured on two dimensions (fame and uniqueness) for 405 brand elements used by 50 brands in five categories, considering multiple conditions. Results show marketers’ judgements are rarely accurate, typically overestimating fame and underestimating uniqueness of consumers’ associations with brand elements, though stronger brand elements are more accurately judged. The results recommend that brand managers should rely on consumer research to manage their brand’s identity or, where this is not possible, make judgements with a group of their colleagues.
CitationBrus, R., Hartnett, N., Faulkner, M., Driesener, C. (2025), "Assessing Branding Strength: Comparing Marketer Judgement and Consumer Data for Brand Identity Elements". Forthcoming in the Journal of Brand Management.
The Role of Market Research in Pack Redesign Performance
The visual design of consumer packaged products is crucial for brand success, as consumers learn to recognise pack styles and look for these in buying situations. Therefore, any pack redesign is risky, as the change could interfere with consumers’ ability to find and buy the brand. Market research is often undertaken to reduce the risk of poor pack redesign decisions. Many different approaches are available, meaning marketers must select an appropriate method to increase the chance of pack redesign success. As such, our paper investigates the role of market research in packaging redesign performance. The findings challenge the assumption that conducting pack redesign research will boost its success.
CitationCaruso, W., Romaniuk, J., Anesbury, Z., Page, B., Williams, J. (2024), "The Role of Market Research in Pack Redesign Performance". Forthcoming in the International Journal of Market Research (A).
Branding consistency across product portfolios in the wine industry
Purpose
The front label on wine bottles are important for identifying the brand and aiding purchase. Many brands are part of brand families, with the sub-brands linked to the overall brand family. This research provides an overview of how the front label varies across product portfolios of wine brands, noting the importance placed on branding elements and the level of consistency in their use across the brand portfolio.
Approach
We propose and test a new method to measure branding consistency on labels from the same brand family. Two coding frameworks were created. The first recorded the incidence of brand elements and wine attributes. The second coded wine labels within a company’s portfolio based on the consistency of various brand elements. A total of 3000 branding elements and wine attributes from 300 wine labels were examined across 60 wine brands from a list of Australian wineries.
Findings
Grape variety, brand name, and region are used across >90% of wine labels. Branding is presented more prominently than wine attributes. Sub-brand, region, price, and variety did not influence branding consistency. Logo presence, logo image on label, and colour elements contribute to the greatest variation in branding consistency across a product portfolio.
Originality/value
This study proposes and tests a novel method to measure branding consistency on wine labels and explores the extent to which consistent branding is used across product portfolios. Descriptive research is the first step to theory building. We provide industry norms for attribute use and a measure of branding consistency for product portfolios giving valuable descriptive knowledge.
CitationJeffery, T., Hirche, M., Faulkner, M., Page, B., Trinh, G., Bruwer, J., Lockshin, L. (2016), "Branding consistency across product portfolios in the wine industry". Forthcoming in the International Journal of Wine Business Research.
An investigation of variation in brand growth and decline across categories
This study investigates the variation in brand growth and decline across many different product categories. The study finds that most brands in the consumer packaged goods market are stationary, as only 14% of the brands change their market share by more than three points. However, some categories are more dynamic than others. The study further examines some potential factors that can affect the variation and finds that category penetration and purchase frequency have significant effects on the variation. The lower the category penetration and category purchase frequency, the lower the brand share stationarity. On the other hand, proportion of sales on promotion in the category and new SKU introductions do not have a significant effect on the variation.
CitationAnesbury, Z., Trinh, G. (2015). “An investigation of variation in brand growth and decline across categories”. International Journal of Market Research, Vol. 57 Issue 3
Valuing the contribution of ultra-light buyers
Ultra-light buyers, those who, on average, buy a brand once a year or less, are important by number and their contribution to brand purchase occasions. By examining over 850 brands in almost 60 categories, we identify that ultra-lights make up 62% of a brand’s buyer base over five years and contribute 32% of purchase occasions and 31% of sales volume and value. In line with previous findings, we find the prevalence of ultra-light buyers is higher for national brands than private labels, likely reflecting the higher loyalty often observed for private labels. We also find no difference in ultra-light buyers’ contribution between high and low-price brands, indicating that price is not a significant factor affecting the contribution of ultra-light buyers. Finally, we find that both growing and declining brands have fewer ultra-lights than stable brands. As growth occurs via increasing penetration and loyalty, for growing brands, new buyers may be more ‘light’ than ‘ultra-light’ in terms of their loyalty; while for declines, these findings imply that there are not enough ultra-light buyers to maintain brand sales. A failure to recruit ultra-light buyers may be very dangerous for brand health.
CitationHossain, A., Anesbury, Z., Driesener, C., Trinh, G. (2023). “Valuing the contribution of ultra-light buyers”. Forthcoming in the Journal of Consumer Behaviour.
Where is the brand growth potential? An examination of buyer groups
Practitioners and academics have long discussed strategies for brand sales growth. A recent example is an industry debate in which different brand growth strategies were argued: https://www.mmaglobal.com/thegreatdebate (MMA Global & Neustarr, 2021). A central question in this arena is whether a brand should focus on its heavy, light, or non-buyers in its efforts to grow its sales. This study contributes to our knowledge about how sales growth can occur by investigating the potential contribution these three buyer groups can make to any sales gain. Using both a simulation study and an empirical study of purchases of approximately 12,400 households in the UK, across different brands and categories, we show that almost any brand’s headroom growth potential lies mostly in light or non-buyers of that brand. Even for large brands with high penetration the growth potential of light brand buyers eclipses heavy brand buyers.
CitationTrinh, G., Dawes, J., Sharp, B. (2023). "Where is the brand growth potential? An examination of buyer
groups". Forthcoming in the Marketing Letters.
Investigating undercurrents of stationarity and growth with long-term panel data
There have been frequent calls in the literature for a more comprehensive understanding of marketing impact on long-term firm performance. Retail scanner data has been the principal source of empirical evidence in this strategic domain, but it cannot explain the behavioural shifts that underpin the sales dynamics it reports. With the availability of far larger and extended household panels, it is now possible to observe the effects of accumulating penetration on brand and category buying over many years. This type of data nevertheless presents theoretical and methodological challenges to researchers. In this paper we discuss an approach to extending established marketing theory to long-run repeat buying, then outline the inherent constraints of long-term panels. We illustrate these challenges using one, five, and ten-year panel datasets and present a research agenda to progress explanatory theories of long-run brand building and category growth in this new but so far mostly untapped resource.
CitationDunn, S., Tanusondjaja, A., Nenycz-Thiel, M., Graham, C. (2021) “Investigating undercurrents of stationarity and growth with long-term panel data”. Forthcoming in the International Journal of Market Research.
Market share growth requires building mental and physical availability among all category buyers. However, if younger category buyers are more likely to purchase new-to-market products, then perhaps younger buyers are, relatively speaking, more important for growth. This research investigates the relationship between category buyer age, brand buyer age, and brand failure. When sub-brand buyer age is younger than category-buyer age, the sub-brand is likely to be (a) new-to-market, or (b) growing in market share. Older-than-category sub-brand-buyer age is likely for sub-brands that are (a) declining, or (b) dead. Results from 17 years (1998-2014) of UK household panel data, including 5,913 sub-brands from 101 categories, show that age skews were uncommon (only 18% of sub-brands), and secondly, that growing, stable and declining sub-brands appealed equally to all ages. Finally, we identified that new launches and dead brands tend to skew to younger consumers, suggesting that new launches need to appeal to all ages to avoid failure.
CitationAnesbury, Z., Bellman, S., Driesener, D., Page, B., & Sharp, B. (2021) "Ageism Kills Brands. Forthcoming in the Australasian Marketing Journal.
A rising tide lifts all boats: The role of share and category changes in managing organic sales growth
The strategic objective of marketing activities is to drive business growth by promoting the firm’s products. Beyond merger and acquisition, organic growth can be targeted from two sources: Market Share Gain and Category Growth. Market share is often the focus for corporate objectives and used as a success measure. This research explores the relative impact of these two elements on firm growth across product category and addresses whether market share should be the main focus for all organisations. The study covers 39 consumer packaged goods’ categories from the UK and US, across 189 manufacturers over three to five years of data, post-2010. We show that firm growth through market share gain is likely to benefit small firms, and large firms’ growth is likely to be driven by category growth. The results provide empirical support in the area of business growth and how marketing plays a crucial role in this pursuit.
CitationTanusondjaja, A., Graham, C., Dunn, S., Nenycz-Thiel, M., McColl, B. (2020) "A rising tide lifts all boats: The role of share and category changes in managing organic sales growth". Forthcoming in the Journal of Strategic Marketing.
In pursuit of effective charity advertising: investigating the branding and messaging execution tactics used by charity marketers
Charities operate in a highly fragmented environment with many players competing for individuals’ support. The limited resources available for campaign development (creative, filming) and execution (media planning, on-air time) means that charity marketers need to use the most effective principles to ensure return on investment. Commercial marketers can use clear guidelines published on how to execute the brand to enhance advertising effectiveness and, more specifically, brand recall and recognition. Whether such guidelines are adhered to by charity marketers is unclear as no known research exists on this topic. In this paper, we draw on well-regarded memory theories and their past applications to commercial brand and messaging execution studies, documenting the evidence of these in the advertising collateral of 40 Australian charities. The results allow us to report on the characteristics of charity advertising and to derive guidelines for the future development and testing of effective charity advertising initiatives.
CitationNguyen, C., Faulkner, M. (2019). "In pursuit of effective charity advertising: investigating the branding and messaging execution tactics used by charity marketers". Forthcoming in the Third Sector Review.
