Aspirational brand

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An aspirational brand is a term in consumer marketing for a brand or product which a large segment of its exposure audience wishes to own, but for economic reasons cannot.[ citation needed ] Because the desire for aspirational goods is relative to the consumer's purchasing power, an aspirational brand may be a luxury good if the person desires it, or it may simply be any product whether luxury or not if a consumer has less spending money.[ citation needed ]

Contents

The premise of this type of marketing is that purchase decisions are made at an emotional level, to enhance self-concept. [1] [2]

Target audience

A defining feature of an aspirational product is that its target customer base cannot easily afford to purchase it, but may be able to purchase it with sacrifice or at some point in the future. [3] [4]

This part of the exposure audience is referred to as the aspirational audience, whereas the part of the exposure audience that already can afford the product is called the consumption audience.[ by whom? ] Consumption audience and aspirational audience together form the aspirational product's target audience, which typically represents 30%-60% of the exposure audience.

Weak aspirational brands have target audiences that are almost as large as their exposure audiences (e.g., MP3 player brands), and are thus slowly becoming commodity brands (whose consumption audiences coincide with their exposure audiences, thereby lacking an aspiring audience). [5]

Pricing

As a general rule, an aspirational brand and its products can command premium pricing in the marketplace over a commodity brand. [5] This ability can to a large extent be explained by the consumer's need for conspicuous consumption for which he is willing to pay a price premium. The smaller the size of the product's target audience compared to the exposure audience, the more the product satisfies this need, and the higher the premium that such a consumer is prepared to pay.

To keep the premium level of a brand high, the consumption portion of the audience should not exceed 30% of the aspirational audience.[ citation needed ]

Aspirational brand strategy

Aspirational brand strategies are employed to re-position a brand within a marketplace. [2] The idea is that brand can lead organizational change and lead consumer opinion about a brand. Aspirational brand strategies are used when the current image of the brand is either negative or no longer relevant to the company.

Companies have to take great care in employing an aspirational brand strategy. [5] The company needs to be structured around truly delivering on the promise and must have employees who understand the brand goals and actively and daily work to achieve them. BP learned the dangers of aspirational branding during the summer of 2010 during the BP/Deepwater Oil Spill disaster. The aspiration of the company to be environmentally friendly and "Beyond Petroleum" backfired in a big way. [6]

One study examined interaction with brands on Facebook, and noted that user interaction in that platform with brands in general and asprirational brands specifically did not match marketplace purchasing behavior in an obvious way. [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Consumerism</span> Socio-economic order that encourages the purchase of goods/services in ever-greater amounts

Consumerism is a social and economic order in which the aspirations of many individuals include the acquisition of goods and services beyond those necessary for survival or traditional displays of status. It emerged in Western Europe before the Industrial Revolution and became widespread around 1900. In economics, consumerism refers to policies that emphasize consumption. It is the consideration that the free choice of consumers should strongly orient the choice by manufacturers of what is produced and how, and therefore orient the economic organization of a society. Consumerism has been criticized by both individuals who choose other ways of participating in the economy and environmentalists concerned about its impact on the planet. Experts often assert that consumerism has physical limits, such as growth imperative and overconsumption, which have larger impacts on the environment. This includes direct effects like overexploitation of natural resources or large amounts of waste from disposable goods and significant effects like climate change. Similarly, some research and criticism focuses on the sociological effects of consumerism, such as reinforcement of class barriers and creation of inequalities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pricing</span> Process of determining what a company will receive in exchange for its products

Pricing is the process whereby a business sets the price at which it will sell its products and services, and may be part of the business's marketing plan. In setting prices, the business will take into account the price at which it could acquire the goods, the manufacturing cost, the marketplace, competition, market condition, brand, and quality of product.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Consumer behaviour</span> Study of individuals, groups, or organisations and all the activities associated with consuming

Consumer behaviour is the study of individuals, groups, or organisations and all the activities associated with the purchase, use and disposal of goods and services. Consumer behaviour consists of how the consumer's emotions, attitudes, and preferences affect buying behaviour. Consumer behaviour emerged in the 1940–1950s as a distinct sub-discipline of marketing, but has become an interdisciplinary social science that blends elements from psychology, sociology, social anthropology, anthropology, ethnography, ethnology, marketing, and economics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Luxury goods</span> Good for which demand increases more than what is proportional as income rises

In economics, a luxury good is a good for which demand increases more than what is proportional as income rises, so that expenditures on the good become a more significant proportion of overall spending. Luxury goods are in contrast to necessity goods, where demand increases proportionally less than income. Luxury goods is often used synonymously with superior goods.

In advertising and marketing, aspirational age is an ideal age whose characteristics consumers aspire to embody. Thus, marketing messages aimed at that target age will resonate with consumers of other ages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Advertising management</span> Part of the advertising industry

Advertising management is how a company carefully plans and controls its advertising to reach its ideal customers and convince them to buy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Advertising campaign</span> Advertisements based on a theme

An advertising campaign is a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme which make up an integrated marketing communication (IMC). An IMC is a platform in which a group of people can group their ideas, beliefs, and concepts into one large media base. Advertising campaigns utilize diverse media channels over a particular time frame and target identified audiences.

Masstige is a marketing term meaning downward brand extension. The word is a portmanteau of the words mass and prestige and has been described as "prestige for the masses".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pricing strategies</span> Approach to selling a product or service

A business can use a variety of pricing strategies when selling a product or service. To determine the most effective pricing strategy for a company, senior executives need to first identify the company's pricing position, pricing segment, pricing capability and their competitive pricing reaction strategy. Pricing strategies and tactics vary from company to company, and also differ across countries, cultures, industries and over time, with the maturing of industries and markets and changes in wider economic conditions.

A lifestyle brand is a brand that attempts to embody the values, aspirations, interests, attitudes, or opinions of a group or a culture for marketing purposes. Lifestyle brands seek to inspire, guide, and motivate people, with the goal of making their products contribute to the definition of the consumer's way of life. As such, they are closely associated with the advertising and other promotions used to gain mind share in their target market. They often operate from an ideology, hoping to attract a relatively high number of people and ultimately become a recognised social phenomenon.

The target audience is the intended audience or readership of a publication, advertisement, or other message catered specifically to the previously intended audience. In marketing and advertising, the target audience is a particular group of consumer within the predetermined target market, identified as the targets or recipients for a particular advertisement or message.

The term "mass market" refers to a market for goods produced on a large scale for a significant number of end consumers. The mass market differs from the niche market in that the former focuses on consumers with a wide variety of backgrounds with no identifiable preferences and expectations in a large market segment. Traditionally, businesses reach out to the mass market with advertising messages through a variety of media including radio, TV, newspapers and the Web.

A touchpoint can be defined as any way consumers can interact with a business organization, whether person-to-person, through a website, an app or any form of communication. When consumers connect with these touchpoints they can consider their perceptions of the business and form an opinion.

Premium pricing is the practice of keeping the price of one of the products or service artificially high in order to encourage favorable perceptions among buyers, based solely on the price. Premium refers to a segment of a company's brands, products, or services that carry tangible or imaginary surplus value in the upper mid- to high price range. The practice is intended to exploit the tendency for buyers to assume that expensive items enjoy an exceptional reputation or represent exceptional quality and distinction. A premium pricing strategy involves setting the price of a product higher than similar products. This strategy is sometimes also called skim pricing because it is an attempt to “skim the cream” off the top of the market. It is used to maximize profit in areas where customers are happy to pay more, where there are no substitutes for the product, where there are barriers to entering the market or when the seller cannot save on costs by producing at a high volume.

A target market, also known as serviceable obtainable market (SOM), is a group of customers within a business's serviceable available market at which a business aims its marketing efforts and resources. A target market is a subset of the total market for a product or service.


Customer experience is the totality of cognitive, affective, sensory, and behavioral customer responses during all stages of the consumption process including pre-purchase, consumption, and post-purchase stages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brand</span> Identification for a good or service

A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create and store value as brand equity for the object identified, to the benefit of the brand's customers, its owners and shareholders. Brand names are sometimes distinguished from generic or store brands.

Multicultural marketing is the practice of marketing to one or more audiences of specific ethnicities—typically an ethnicity outside of a country's majority culture, which is sometimes called the "general market." Typically, multicultural marketing takes advantage of the ethnic group's different cultural referents—such as language, traditions, celebrations, religion and any other concepts—to communicate to and persuade that audience. Cultural as well as ethnic variations in multicultural societies such as the United States provide marketers with the opportunity to connect with consumers by developing consumer segments for targeted marketing initiatives. For example, insight into the culture and ethnicity of consumers is applied directly to consumer targeting through a variety of marketing initiatives in the U.S.

Massification is a strategy that some luxury companies use to expose their brands to a broader market and increase sales. As a method of implementing massification, companies have created diffusion lines. Diffusion lines are an offshoot of a company or a designer's original line that is less expensive in order to reach a broader market and gain a wider consumer base. Another strategy used in massification is brand extensions, which is when an already established company releases a new product under their name.

Guilt-free consumption (GFC) is a pattern of consumption based on the minimization of the sense of guilt which consumers incur when purchasing products or commercial services.

References

  1. Murray Hunter (2012-07-14). "What's with All the Hype – a Look at Aspirational Marketing". Norsensus Mediaforum. Retrieved 2020-09-03.
  2. 1 2 Michael Hemsworth (2013-03-07). "Three Tips for Creating an Aspirational Brand Strategy". TREND HUNTER Inc. Archived from the original on 2021-09-26. Retrieved 2020-09-03.
  3. Ward, Morgan K.; Dahl, Darren W. (1 October 2014). "Should the Devil Sell Prada? Retail Rejection Increases Aspiring Consumers' Desire for the Brand". Journal of Consumer Research. 41 (3): 590–609. doi:10.1086/676980.
  4. Alba, Joseph W.; Lutz, Richard J. (April 2013). "Broadening (and narrowing) the scope of brand relationships". Journal of Consumer Psychology. 23 (2): 265–268. doi:10.1016/j.jcps.2013.01.005.
  5. 1 2 3 Niraj Dawar; Charan K. Bagga (2015-06-01). "A Better Way to Map Brand Strategy". Harvard Business Review. Retrieved 2020-09-03.
  6. "BP: Disingenuously Branding « Merriam Associates, Inc. Brand Strategies". Archived from the original on 2010-09-16. Retrieved 2010-10-12.
  7. Dodoo, Naa Amponsah (2 January 2018). "Why Consumers Like Facebook Brands: The Role of Aspirational Brand Personality in Consumer Behavior". Journal of Promotion Management. 24 (1): 103–127. doi:10.1080/10496491.2017.1346536. S2CID   168758147.