Brand equity assignment: Case of Amazon

Question

Task Description: You have been assigned to develop a new 'service product concept' for a reputed service providing company. You will consider consumers' recent feedback and map those to understand and outline expected consumer values for the 'service product concept'. The poster should explain how you have developed the 'service product concept', what value propositions you are offering to your target market, and explain why the 'service product concept' has a potential in the market.

Your poster presentation should include the following key features.

• Explanation: Identify the key facts about the company/industry and consumers' online reviews/feedback.
• Demonstration: Provide the detailed search process you have conducted to find an innovative 'service product concept'.
• Identification: Analyse consumers' reviews and identify the critical value propositions.
• Justification: Explain why the 'service product concept' is innovative and attractive to the market.
• Presentation: Present the poster with greater clarity including expression, style and format, citations and references (max. 3).

Please find below some notes for this task.

• Consider Web sources, including 'product reviews', 'google reviews' etc. to search consumers' reviews of a company/brand you would like to work with. The mapped and designed 'service product concept' should be presented as a poster on a A3 size paper.
• You also need to study various secondary sources, including annual reports, trade journals, published research studies, company Website, reviews, company press releases and News, advertisements and the like to identify an authentic 'service product concept' for the company of your interest.
• For distance/flex students: you have to prepare the poster in PDF format and upload it via a specified Moodle link by week 4.
• Metro-campus students: you have to present the poster in class or at a common place by week 4. Your campus lecturer will organize a poster presentation event. However, you also need to upload the PDF version of the poster by week 4.
• As per the policy, a late submission of an assessment task will attract a 5% deduction of available marks for each day after the due date.
• If you need to submit an assessment extension request, you can only apply through the unit Moodle site at least 24 hours before the deadline ends.
• Please consult your lecturer and tutor to develop this assessment task.

Answer

Introduction
The concept of brand equity explored in the segments of brand equity assignment refers to the commercial value of a company and its product or services that is derived from perception of the consumers about the brand name of the products or services rather than just the product or services alone. There are many different views on brand equity in which some defines it as a financial perspective, while others define it as a consumer perspective (Zetterberg, Davidsson & Johansson, 2015). Hashim & DeRun (2013) stated that brand equity is considered to be one of the most important factors for products as well as service to make the brand recognized among the potential customers. Similar products in the market are sold by different brands; however, some has high brand equity than others. This means that products or service sold by some brands proves to be more valuable for the customers than other brands in the market.

The report on brand equity assignmentanalyses the factors that affect the development of service brand equity and evaluate the ways in which the identified factors would help in achieving the brand equity of Amazon. Further, the report on brand equity assignment formulates realistic 7Ps strategies for the identified factors that could help enhance brand equity of Amazon.

Discussion
What are the factors affecting the service brand equityin regards to the case scenario of brand equity assignment?
Brand equity of a product is very different from that of a service in any given region. The readings of Hashim & DeRun (2013)considered herein brand equity assignmentfurther explains that brand equity for a service is more important than that for products. This is because deriving brand equity for services is much difficult. Service brand equity thus refers to the value a customer holds for taking service from a particular brand in comparison to the others. Understanding the factors and the ways in which service brand equity is measured is an important factor for the customers so that they can make an easy service purchase decision (Kumar, Dash & Malhotra, 2018). There are number of factors as provided in the brand equity assignment that are seen to important the service brand equity of any service brand. Gordon & James (2017) has further stated that brand equity in service plays an important role while explain the service value across different service categories. Thus, developing equity across all categories becomes highly difficult and challenging due to differentiated needs of the customers from each service. However, there is wide variety of factors and considering essential factors among them becomes difficult.

Zetterberg, Davidsson & Johansson (2015) has stated that service brand equity is highly based on the Aaker model and their factors when measuring the extent of brand equity created in the services of a brand. The Aaker model developed within this brand equity assignment represents that there are five factors that defines the equity of a brand such as brand awareness, brand loyalty, perceived quality, brand association and brand assets. In addition to this, there are other factors as well such as organizational association, emotional environment, learning environment and reputation that plays an important role in delivering high brand value ad equity. However, for the service brands only three of these factors play an important role in developing their brand equity such as brand awareness, brand loyalty and perceived quality.

Brand loyalty
Hashim & DeRun (2013) defines brand loyalty in regards to case scenario of brand equity assignmentas the willingness of the consumer to retake service from a particular brand again and again even if there is other cheaper service alternative available or influences coming from other companies or brands. Trust has been the perceived attention of the scholars for years where it states that a trust of a consumer towards a brand is the belief that the brand will offer good quality service that is consistent, competent, honest and responsible. This in turn drives the loyalty of the customers towards the service and their decision to make a re-purchase. However, trust is not the only factor that enhances the factor of brand loyalty (Gordon & James, 2017). Moreover, it is also difficult to analyze which attributions help to form brand trust and this makes viewing brand loyalty a difficult factor. However, in online service company’s trust is a big factor in generating brand loyalty and enhancing service brand equity. The brand equity assignment considers the words ofY?ld?z& Kurtuldu (2014)which states that responsive service nature of an online service brand helps increasing loyalty of the customers and a key factor to differentiate the brand from other online service based on satisfaction and relationship. This in turn helps increasing the value of the online service among the customers and others.

Brand awareness
The role of brand awareness illustrated in the brand equity assignment is defined as the perceived belief that the brand has on the mind of the consumer. In order to increase the attention of the customer towards a service brand and helping built brand equity it is important that the company builds positive brand awareness. There are several levels of brand awareness caused in the market such as mere recognition to dominance. In dominance it is seen that the brand involved in providing service is the only brand recalled by the customers. This means that brand awareness helps in increasing brand recognition and brand recall and this in turn increases brand equity (Y?ld?z& Kurtuldu, 2014). This is because being aware of the brand and retrieving the service taken from the brand a consumer is able to increase the value of the service brand in the market and influences other service decisions. However, developing the awareness becomes difficult for building brand equity when the service is similar to that given by any other service brands.

As per the investigation carried on this brand equity assignment, for online service companies brand equity is enhanced and affected by web awareness. This means the extent to which the consumers are aware of the brand’s website and the ways to attain service from that website. This is created through various processes such as traditional advertisement as well as online advertisement (Chahal & Bala, 2012).

Service quality
Quality of the service is yet another factor that is seen to impact the equity of the brand because the service companies not only sell their service, however, it also sell quality that helps in increasing their value. This means that service brands can develop the image of its brand through its exceptional service which in turn helps in increasing its brand equity. There is a close relationship between the perceived service quality, brand equity and the behavioral intention of the customers to purchase service from a particular brand. In this respect it is seen in the brand equity assignment that the service brands are under continuous pressure to increase the quality of their service and differentiate their service from other similar brands to achieve high brand equity (Wang & Li, 2012). However, in case of online service brands the web image is built through a combination of consumer’s perception of the service, the website quality, the seller and the communication from marketers.

Kumar, Dash & Malhotra (2018) has pointed out that in case of online brand equity there are other factors as well that plays supporting role in building brand equity such as online experience, emotional connection, responsive behavior, trust and fulfilment. This is because each of these factors noted herein brand equity assignmentis seen to offer value to the customers either through emotional bonding or satisfaction from the nature of service they expected. The online experience of the brand changes the perception of the consumers and helps them be aware of the brand through the experience they get. Moreover, the higher responsiveness service nature is yet another way by which the online service brands differentiate each other. In this brand equity assignment, these two factors together are seen to have an impact on the awareness and loyalty of the brand together. Zetterberg, Davidsson& Johansson (2015) describes responsiveness nature of the service is yet another factor that enhances brand awareness, loyalty and quality and in turn make an impact on brand equity. This information provided within this brand equity assignment shows that the three major factors identified above are the ones that influence online service brand equity the most by forming an association of trust and emotional connection with the customers.

Ways Identified Factors Help Achieve Brand Equity for Amazon
Amazon is one of the largest online firms across the world offering wide range of online services such as digital distribution, selling as well as business opportunities. The brand is known to hold a market share of 37% in 2017 and is planning to grow by 2021. Amazon is known to hold a brand value of 315.51 billion US Dollars in 2019 (Statista, 2018). The brand value of the company is seen to increase continuously over the years and has reached its height in 2019. Amazon takes different steps in enhancing their online services in a manner that can drive brand awareness, perceived quality and brand loyalty, which in turn help increasing the service brand equity (Hammett, 2018). This is because through these factors Amazon will be able to improve their commercial value and perception of the consumers about their service.

There are number of factors that have been identified in the context of brand equity assignmentto enhance the service brand equity of a company such as trust, responsive behavior, emotional connection and others (Zetterberg, Davidsson& Johansson, 2015). As seen from the literature utilized to prepare this brand equity assignment online service brand equity refers to the web equity and is majorly consists of three parts such as web awareness and web image or perceived web service quality.

Brand awareness in relation to online service brand is increased through proper communication and through advertisement efforts. This in turn makes the consumers to be aware of the brand and in turn increase brand equity (Zetterberg, Davidsson& Johansson, 2015). This will be applied in case of Amazonpresented in the current brand equity assignment as well where the service brand makes effort to increase their web service awareness among the potential customers and in turn achieve positive brand equity. Amazon is seen to continuously draw customers with its marketing activities and ideas such as expanding its services to product selling, to offering video and music to help improve overall experience. This shows that Amazon make efforts continuously increase their awareness among its customers through wide range of services. It is evident that through increased awareness of the brand Amazon will be able to increase their brand equity (Mahendra, 2018). This is because with their activities the brand will be able to initiate their consumers’ perception and increase their likelihood of the consumer to think about Amazons website when they want services like buying and selling products, better return and exchange, subscribing to video and music and others. Further, it is also seen that Amazon will be able to increase their brand equity through its customer backward and objective backward media strategy it is implementing. Through this the brand will be able to reach relevant touch points and messages that drive consumer’s perception for their service and create right level of awareness and consideration (Kumar, Dash & Malhotra, 2018). This in turn will help increase market value and recognition of Amazon and achieve brand equity.

The Brand Loyaltymentioned in the context of brand equity assignmentis yet another factor that can help Amazon to achieve high brand equity because loyalty increases the positive perception of the consumers and make them indulge in repeat purchase. It is seen from the literature that brand loyalty is considered as a long term commitment that a customer gives a brand to repurchase a product or service irrespective of situational factors and marketing efforts (Mukherjee & Shivani, 2016). This means that through developing loyalty towards their services, Amazon will be able to increase their brand value and equity (Hammett, 2018).

Loyalty is something that is generated through trust and make the consumers believes in the service given by the company. In case of Amazon it is seen in the brand equity assignmentthat the brand is known to offer multitude of branding features such as Amazon stores, A+ content, Premium contents and enhanced brand content. Herein brand equity assignment, these features allow the businesses selling in the online application to achieve new opportunities and traffic and in turn make them a loyal third party sellers of Amazon (Sawhney, 2018). Moreover, through driving loyalty Amazon will be able to rewire expectation of the customers and win their trust as the most valuable online brand in the world. This means that by offering the service customers love and the price and quality they demand, Amazon is able to build their pillar of success and brand equity (Chahal & Bala, 2012). Thus loyalty factor can help fuel the success of the brand as well as awareness of Amazon.

Perceived quality is another way by which Amazon will be able to increase their brand equity by making the customers believe and value the kind of online service they are providing. The more the customers such as household consumers and third party sellers are assured of the quality of service the brand is offering the more they will consider the brand valuable (Zetterberg, Davidsson& Johansson, 2015). The benefits and quality service that Amazon offers makes its third party brands and customers to stick to the brand for all kinds of online services. as seen from the literature that perceived quality in online services is related to web image because qualities of service helps in creating a strong brand image through positive consumer perception. This means that Amazon will be able to improve the image of its website through positively increasing the perceived quality of their services such as selling, buying, customer service and others (Schulte & Lee, 2019). This in turn makes the customer value their website services and increase their brand equity.

Moreover, through improved and high quality online services, Amazon will be able to change the perception of the customers, make them more happy and satisfied and in turn increase their brand value and equity. In addition to this, high perceived quality of service means better brand association and brand experience (Mourad, Meshreki & Sarofim, 2020). For example, through one day delivery options and hassle free return Amazon is able to generate high perceived quality of its services in front of its customers. This means that through this whenever customers will think of purchasing their needs in one day and reduce risk of return and exchange they will recall of Amazon and make a purchase decision (Wang, & Li, 2012). This in turn helps in increasing value added to the service and total branded utility that it offers to the customers.

Thus, from the discussion build on the theme of brand equity assignment it can be seen that through customer familiarity and unique association that is created by high quality, brand awareness and brand loyalty Amazon will be able to increase brand equity. This is because all these factors help in creating a positive consumer’s perceptions and that is reflected through their behavior towards the brand. Together Amazon will be able to create effective position in the market and in front of its customers and increase their brand value and equity (Bittar Rodrigues & Prideaux, 2018). This is because brand equity is made up of these multi-dimensional constructs and factors that are awareness, quality perception and loyalty of the customers.

Strategies to Enhance Brand Equity
The concept of branding explored in the context of brand equity assignment is seen to be the most important activity in the service market compared to that of product market because of the unique characteristics that service companies holds. Keeping this view it is important to come up with realistic and specific strategies that can help enhance brand equity for each of the identified factors in Amazon. The strategies discussed in the sections of brand equity assignmentare clustered under the 7Ps of the service marketing mix elements that will help enhance the brand awareness, brand loyalty and perceived quality and in turn equity of the brand (Mukherjee & Shivani, 2016).

Strategies formulated for Amazon
The strategies formulated for allowing Amazon to enhance its brand equity through improved brand loyalty, awareness and quality is clustered under 7P elements of service mix.

Perceived Quality
Product- the most important products of Amazon in its online service provision is its website, electronic devices, media content and Amazon Web Services. The brand can develop their own branded consumer good or grocery products to enhance its service and attract customers. For this the company cancustomize its own personal brands according to the local needs and preferences. Moreover, upgradation of the slimmed down version of its app can further help customers even during slow networks (Yadav & Sagar, 2018). This will help add better value to the customers and an emotional connection with the company. It is an effective way to enhance perceived service quality of Amazon and increase its brand equity.

Process- this aspect noted in the brand equity assignment is the integral part of developing service quality by a service brand and in turn impacts their service brand equity. Amazon should implement their drone services that it has been testing and planning in the past. Drones will help give fast delivery option within one hour to the prime and loyal members and allow them to reach out to areas that are difficult to access. Few areas are not accessible by many online service brands and the drone service will allow Amazon to adopt differentiated service and make use of these unexploited areas (Schulte & Lee, 2019). This will help the brand to improve the perceived quality of their service through improved coordination as well as their value among consumer markets. Thus, improved processes through drones will be yet another way to increase brand equity.

Brand Loyalty
Price- amazon should work continuously to develop and offer timely discounts for its products and form valuable agreement with its sellers so that it can offer products at economy prices compared to other online e-commerce brands (Mansouri & Hosseini, 2018). In addition to this fact provided within this brand equity assignment, Amazon should enhance its loyalty programs where loyal or frequent customers are given added benefits like discounts, point’s redemption and other options that they can use during their shopping. This will help Amazon to increase their brand equity in the market through enhancing brand loyalty or trust of the customers.

People- Amazon should increase the training of the customer service personnel for indulging in personal follow-up with the customers. The customer service executives should take up personal follow-up after all purchase with the customers through calling them. The executives should be given training about the way to communicate with customers along with protocols. This is the best way to make the consumers feel valuable and help the brand give improved services (Mahendra, 2018). Through this it is seen that Amazon will be able to increase brand loyalty through improved image of the brand service in front of the customers. This in turn help increase brand equity by creating positive consumer perception.

Brand Awareness
Place- In this brand equity assignment, this factor is used to increase the convenience of the customers so that they can readily shop their products and take Amazon services without any issue. For this purpose the brand can develop virtual robot in the application that can take voice instructions from the customers in any language and guide them find the product or service they want to take from their website. This will help improve the convenience of the customers to shop from Amazon app or website without any language or other barriers. There are many customers that find it difficult to search items or use app due to lack of language knowledge. This is the way Amazon will be able to enhance the awareness of the brand by making the customers aware of the unique feature the company is giving being a known online service company (Zetterberg, Davidsson& Johansson, 2015). It will create a differentiated image of itself in the market and among its customers by making shopping convenient for them.

Promotion-Amazon should increase their promotion of their on-boarding assistance service that it offers to their party sellers so that local small sellers are even aware of the Amazon selling service. The brand will take up banner advertisement strategy to promote their “Tatkal” services so that even small sellers are aware of the Amazon selling services and making use of the website. This strategy outlined in the brand equity assignment will help Amazon to increase the awareness of the brand as the one offering best web selling services with improved benefits to sellers. Banner advertisement is a traditional marketing method that can be the best strategy to make local and small sellers aware and increase their customer base. In addition to this, Amazon can also increase their awareness among customers through integrated marketing communication channel that has been the major type of marketing communication used by businesses.

Physical evidence- this point mentioned in the brand equity assignment is one of the best ways to develop the confirmation about the existence of the brand that help increase trust and image among the consumers. Amazon should develop a better and improved way of packaging its products with its Logo such as using sustainable options like paper instead of plastic. Sustainable packaging and logo will help make the brand to confirm the consumers that the brand values the health of the environment as well as the consumers. This will in turn help enhance brand awareness and trust creating improved brand equity.

Conclusion
From the above analysis on brand equity assignment it can be concluded that to help increase brand equity among service brands it is important to enhance and work on three major factors such as brand loyalty, brand awareness and perceived quality. This is because it is only through these the brand will be able to increase the trust and image of the service among the customers and in turn create a positive brand value. In case of Amazon itself it is seen that the brand will be able to increase brand equity by making the customers trust their service, be aware of all the benefits offered and holding a positive image for its services like shopping, music, movies and others. Moreover, it is seen that Amazon will be able to develop their brand equity through these factors by implementing various strategies related to prices, promotion, place, people and others. Overall it is seen in the brand equity assignment that brand equity is generated through various other factors and not a particular element in itself.

References
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