Our Brand Pyramid Framework Framework

Brands have evolved over time from being a mark of ownership to a legal mark, a trust mark, a love mark, and now to date, the most strongest brands are an identity mark. 

How do we get there? How do brands evolve to become such high stature? 


Jif Batra in his Batra Brand Pyramid

  1. The starting point for strong brands is awareness. High awareness - it's a measurement of how familiar people are with the brand or branded product. Awareness acts in two different ways:

  • unaided awareness - where people express knowledge about the brand without being prompted (brand recall)  e.g. name some pizza brands

  • Aided awareness - when people express knowledge of the brand when prompted (brand recognition) e.g. do you know Blaze Pizza?

These two ways of awareness are not analogous, but either or they sit at the bottom of the brand pyramid. Why is that? Because there are tons of brands that we know about that we don't think are strong brands or that we don't consume from – Awareness isn't enough to reach the stature of a strong brand – we have to have some semblance of perceived quality.

  1. Perceived quality – do we know that brands products are good? (Is it high or low in rankings?)

  2. Leadership reputation – which brand is a leader? (Is it considered to be a leader?)

  3. Trust/Confidence – do we trust brands offerings? (will their products let you down or do you perceive them so?)

  4. Relevance and Association – That is, do we ask ourselves, is the brand relevant for me and what are the imagery that are associated when we think about the brand? (People buy things because they are cool and not for they supposed value = stronger association with people’s identity)

  5. The last point for strong brand is Ideology – beliefs, the way the brand sees the world, its point of view, its soul, its driving purpose transcends the value propositions of its products, allow it to operate at a higher fidelity. 

Brown, Kozinets, and Sherry “ the soul of the brand offers an opening for consumers to invest themselves emotionally into a mass-produced good or service, and thereby form the elusive connection that result in long-lasting loyalty. “

Summary

This is how brand are build this way: They move beyond the transactional and the value propositions (product focused) and they reside at an ideological state. As a result: they move beyond being a legal mark, trust mark, love mark, to be an ideological congruent identity mark(identity focused). 

When starting a brand – invert the pyramid and work from the bottom up:

  1. Ideology (what do I believe?)

  2. Relevance and Associations (how do I see the world and for whom is that point of view relevant? What are the thoughts and feelings, the associations that I want to be signified by my brand when people see it such that people not only buy because of what it is, but they buy because of who they are? )

  3. Trust and confidence

  4.  Leadership reputation 

  5. Perceived quality 

  6. Awareness