Figure 19 . When does an online ad get noticed ?
As mentioned in Chapter 1 , brands are the carriers of customer relevance . A brand need not necessarily be a registered name with a logo . Even a trade name , a family name or even the name of a region can be seen as a brand . Consumers group products and services under such a brand name and attribute value to it . Customer relevance is therefore measured per brand .
Portfolio management
Distribution and communications
Relevance is also one of the four pillars under the Brand Asset Valuator of Young & Rubicam 18 . Various researchers have – partly on basis of this model – studied how the different components of brand value relate to a company ' s financial results . All studies emphasise the predictive value of relevance and brand stature for financial results .
These studies always measure relevance on a relative scale . This means that one brand is compared to
Fulfillment of your brand promise several other brands , and is found to be , say , more powerful than 30 % of those brands , and less powerful than 70 % of the other brands . Research by Frank Verbeeten and Pieter Vijn among 70 brands has shown that there is a statistical relationship between brand power and that brand ' s profitability 19 . For every 10 % of brands that you leave trailing , your increases by around 0.2 %.
A brand is relevant if the fulfilment of its promise connects to actual customer need . This will happen if their actual need is answered by the promise that your brand makes , and how this is fulfilled in products , services , distribution or your marketing communications ( Figure 20 ). Customer relevance always starts with a clear brand promise .
Customer relevance
Actual customer needs
Generic needs
Context / Situation
Figure 20 . Customer relevance increases to the extent that brand promise and actual customer needs overlap
Every person has a number of generic needs : security , friendship , relaxation , efficiency and success . Depending on the context or situation you are in , these generic needs are translated into actual needs . Again depending on the situation , one or more of these generic needs will be dominant , complemented by needs that arise through a customer ' s expectations with respect to a certain
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