Branding and Brand Equity Analysis: Exploring Strategies, Challenges, and Opportunities in Brand Management

Choose a product. Conduct a branded and unbranded
experiment. What do you learn          about the equity of the brands in that product
class?
Can you identify any other advantages or disadvantages of
the comparative methods?
Pick a brand and conduct an analysis similar to that done
with the Planters brand. What do you learn about its extendibility as a result?
Go to Interbrand’s Web site (www.interbrand.com). Compare
the top 10 brands from the current year to the list from the previous year.
What brands entered the top 10, and which ones    left the top 10? What
contributed to these shifts in brand value? Which brands showed the   most
increases or decreases in brand value? Why?
Select a brand from Interbrand’s top 100 brand names (one
which you know is publicly           traded on a stock exchange). Go to a finance Web
site (e.g., Google Finance or Yahoo Finance) and locate its market
capitalization. Determine how much of the brand’s value is as a     percentage of
its market capitalization. Describe what this percentage means, and how it    relates to brand valuation.
Pick a company. As completely as possible, characterize its
brand portfolio and brand           hierarchy. How would you improve the company’s
branding strategies?
How do technology companies leverage their brand name, and
what key characteristics of their brand architecture do they typically follow?
For example, contrast the brand                     architecture of Google and Yahoo! over the
years.
Contrast the branding strategies and brand portfolios of
market leaders in two different         industries. For example, contrast the approach
by Anheuser-Busch and its Budweiser brand with that of Kellogg’s in the
ready-to-eat cereal category.
What are some of the product strategies and communication
strategies that General Motors could use to further enhance the level of
perceived differentiation between its divisions?    How can online digital
marketing and social media be utilized to strengthen the distinctions across
brands within a particular portfolio?
Identify a company that has organized its brand architecture
using multiple levels in the       hierarchy. Review the design principles summarized
in Table 12-1, and describe whether the brand architecture successfully follows
these design principles. If not, how would you improve the brand architecture?
Scan recent news stories for an announcement concerning an
acquisition of a brand.            Provide a justification for the acquisition from the
acquirer’s standpoint. Describe pros and   cons of the acquisition.
Consider the companies listed in Branding Brief 12-3 as
having strong corporate reputations. By examining their Web sites, can you
determine why they have such strong corporate           reputations?