BRAND EQUITY

Brand Equity what is it?

BY SHILLA FLORA.M. BAPRM 42669(31^st May)

Brand equity is the value of the brand in the marketplace. Simply put, a high equity brand has high value in the marketplace. However, what this means exactly is often not fully or clearly understood. High brand value, a brand with high equity, means that the brand has the ability to create some sort of positive differential response in the marketplace. This can mean that your brand is easily recognizable when encountered in advertising or seen on a yard sign. It can mean that your brand is one of the first ones recalled when a relevant prompt is used “who would I call to discuss listing my house?”It could mean that individuals would be willing to pay a premium price for your brand’s offering. In the case of a real estate transaction, individuals would pay a standard commission and feel as if they received a valuable high quality service from a well known and trusted brand. It could mean that when someone asks for a referral, your brand is the first one that is recommended to others. All of these are positive responses to the brand a readily recognizable brand, a brand that is recalled quickly and easily when needed, one that individuals are willing to pay a premium price to acquire, and a brand that is recommended to others.

These are all characteristics of a high equity brand. But, how is this overall positive response created?

What creates this positive response?

So if brand equity is simply the value of the brand in the marketplace and this value is the positive differential response to the brand, what is it that creates this response? The answer to this question lies in understanding the source of the brand’s value. Essentially, where does brand equity reside? An interesting question to ask anyone with a decent understanding of business and financial statements would be “where on the financial statements is brand equity listed?” The answers you would hear would vary from “in retained earnings “to “it’s listed as goodwill” or “I’m not really sure.”

When your brand is well known, has high brand awareness, it is easily recognized in the marketplace and easily recalled when faced with a brand related need.

A high level of awareness with your target market is a necessary dimension for a strong brand. Well known brands must also carefully manage what it is they represent their image.

Given that a brand is a perceptual entity, it is not surprising that when we think of brand image we use psychology to understand this concept. The brand’s image, what is known about the brand, is information and associations with the brand stored in your memory.

When you see an ad or a yard sign, recognition of the brand leads to the retrieval of these associations from memory.

Managing Your Branding Elements to Create a High Equity Brand

You create these associations in everything you do advertising messages, logos, names used, segments served, etc. If you use a statement in your advertising that you are the “Team to Trust” you hope that “trust “will become a brand association.

If you serve a specific segment, then that segment is likely to become associated with your brand.

Everything you do in terms of marketing and actions creates brand associations.

the role of new media

by Mathias Anneth M

The rise of digital has completely remodelled the media sector. Media convergence is a reality. The boundaries between traditional media and digital media are ever more blurred.

For example, social media are hosting more and more professionally-made content and are an increasingly important route to news.

Take the Discover feature of the instant messenger Snapchat, housing content from both broadcasters and publishers.

Or the recent agreement between Facebook and some publishers, allowing them to offer their content directly on the platform and sharing or letting them manage advertising revenues.

The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism just published these days shows that in countries like Germany, France, UK, Italy, and Spain Facebook is increasingly the vehicle to deliver news.

The same report also shows that a significant proportion of young people no longer wait to watch the evening television news. They prefer to find out what is going on as it happens from a multiple source of online media sources.

Messaging services are also increasingly prominent: one-quarter of Spanish internet users said they have read, watched or discussed news on WhatsApp.

Traditional and new media are quickly converging into a larger, predominantly-digital media environment.

Physical boundaries – including among national media markets – are becoming less relevant, thanks for instance to mobile technologies.

The good news is that Europe has a very strong and high-quality media sector. In such a mutable context, we only need to make sure that media are up to speed as regards innovation and that our regulatory framework is adapted to the new environment. I will therefore focus my intervention on three main aspects:

1. Implications for media businesses

New players join the market, new hybrid services become ever more popular, and a huge quantity of audiovisual content is available. This can bring new ways of monetising content, new sources of advertising revenue and new possibilities to reach out to consumers directly and through innovative methods. New market niches and opportunities for international development become available

• There are also challenges. Established models and practices might have to be re-assessed. And some players are struggling more than others to adapt.e with you some thoughts about the implications of media convergence for media businesses;

• Secondly, I will present the work the Commission has undertaken towards a regulatory modernisation for the digital single market, including for audiovisual media services;

• Finally, I'll say a few words about the importance of preserving media freedom and pluralism.

One of the challenges is to keep up to speed as regard innovation. I refer in particular to the necessity of investing more in research and technology innovation.

2. The regulatory framework

The EU Digital Single Market Strategy

The Digital Single Market (DSM) Strategy that the Commission unveiled on 6 May will lead to a more integrated EU market, with better services at better prices and more choice.

In monetary terms, bringing down digital barriers within Europe could contribute an additional EUR 415 billion to European GDP.

The Strategy revolves around three main pillars:

o        improving access to online goods and services across Europe.

o        digital networks and innovative services.

o        maximizing the growth potential of the Digital Economy.

3. Media freedom and pluralism

I would like to conclude by mentioning a crucial value for the EU: media freedom and pluralism.

Whether a media outlet is so-called traditional or online, media practitioners will always have to be warranted the right to report facts and offer their views and opinions.

Political pressure, economic hardship, physical attacks against journalists, restrictive legislation, and a general financial crisis in the sector all influence the media's ability to operate freely.

Disadvantages of digital library

Disadvantages of digital library

Digital library is a special library with a focused collection of digital objects that can include text, visual material, audio material, video material, stored as electronic media formats. Digital library can be accessed any time of a day by any number of individuals. Also all resources can be viewed at any time by multiple users. However, in digital library resources are available upon the demand and there is no limit to the storage space.

The computer viruses, lack of standardization for digitized information, quick degrading properties of digitized material, different display standard of digital product and its associated problem, health hazard nature of the radiation from monitor that makes digital library at times handicap.

Digital library is a social impact because it democratizes the dissemination of information because digital libraries are large, organized collection of information objects.

The following are the disadvantages of digital library;

1.     Copyright; digitization violates the copy right law as the thought content of one author can be freely transfer by other without his acknowledge so one difficulty to overcome for digital libraries is the way to distribute information.

2.     Speed of access; as more and more computer are connected to the internet its speed of access reasonably decreasing. Therefore, if new technology will not evolve to solve the problem then in near future internet will be full of error messages.

3.     Initial cost is high; the infrastructure cost of digital library that is the cost of hardware, software, leasing communication circuit is generally very high.

4.     Band width; digital library will need high band for transfer of multimedia resources but the band width is decreasing day by day due to its over utilization.

5.     Efficiency; with much larger volume of digital information, finding the right material for a specific task becomes increasingly difficult.

6.     Environment; digital library cannot reproduce the environment of a traditional library. Many people also find reading printed material to be easier than reading material on a computer screen.

7.     Preservation; due to technological development a digital library can rapidly become out-of-date and its data may become inaccessible.

Generally, digital library cannot reproduce the same environment as traditional library does. Digital library takes away the personal contact between the user and the librarian as well as the feel of being in a library setting. However, individuals have hard time navigating online resources and reading them because people like the feel of a book in their hands and they find it easier on their eyes to read from a paper book rather than a computer screen.
BY MWORIA ANGELA
BAPRM 42642

Beneficial or Positive Impact of Computer in our Society By Basil Mbuna

          Beneficial or Positive Impact of Computer in our Society

• Any professional individual like doctors, engineers, businessmen etc. undergo a change in their style or working pattern after they get the knowledge of computer.
• An individual becomes more competent to take a decisions due to the computer because all the information required to take the decision is provided by the computer on time. As a result, any individuals or institutions get success very fast. 
• The person working at the managerial level becomes less dependent on low level staff like clerks and accountants. Their accessibility to the information increases tremendously. This improves their working patters and efficiency, which benefit the organization and ultimately affects the society positively. 
• In common life also, an individual gets benefited with computer technology. When airports, hospitals, banks, departmental stores have been computerized, people get quick service due to the computer system. 
• Computers have created new fields of employment. These employments are in the field of designing, manufacturing, teaching, etc. 

 Harmful or Negative Impact of Computer in Our Society

• Due to any reasons, if the data stored in the computer is lost, the person responsible for handling the computer will have to tolerate a lot. 
• People do not use their mind for common arithmetic, which gradually results in loss of their numerical ability. 
• Today, any person who does not have the knowledge of computer is considered the second class citizens. 
• People have fear that growing children may lose their common sense abilities like numerical ability due to total dependence on computers. 
• Due to the computerization workload for the employees reduces many times. As a result, many organization may require to remove some of its employees. It produces the dissatisfaction and lack of security among the employees. Due to this, employees do not corporate the organization. As a result, the output can be disastrous. 
• As a result of introduction of new technology in an organization, the organization may need to spend a tremendous amount on the training of its employees.  

 By    

           Basil    Mbuna

Challenges in e-mail communication

By Hugho Deogratius

Nonverbal cues

When e-mail first was introduced, people thought it was impossible to have other interactions than the exchange of short task-oriented messages. Remarkably, the same opinion existed when the telephone was first introduced. The lack of nonverbal cues implies automatically that not all information is fully transferred. The messages typically conveyed by these cues are absent in a text-based environment, which implies that for the interpretation of messages online we have to rely exclusively on verbal information. This may have consequences for the decoding of others’ emotions because we cannot make use of nonverbal cues in the interpretation of incoming messages. In addition, the lack of nonverbal cues also has consequences for the expression of our own emotions since every emotion has to be verbalized and part of the nonverbal expression happens unconsciously. The strictly task-oriented messages should not suffer that much from these consequences. But even in a work setting many messages contain both social and task-oriented components, and are ambiguous in a sense. One of the functions of nonverbal cues in F2F communication is that the ambiguity of a message is reduced. The same verbal messages can portray different signals depending on tone, emphasis, and emotional expression.

Egocentrism as a source of Miscommunication

The fact that the “how things are said part” is missing in regular e-mail communication, is not without consequences. In fact, this is likely to be a fertile ground for miscommunication and in particular not noticing that miscommunication. Humor and sarcasm, for example, is difficult to properly communicate by e-mail. The misunderstanding is usually that the sender thinks (s)he has sent a clear message, and the receiver does not interpret the message in the way the sender intended it. This can lead to awkward situations. Miscommunication can be a source of stress because an employee has to take action to correct the message which automatically implies that extra time and attention is needed to handle the message again. Additionally, an employee needs to engage in damage control in maintaining a good relationship with the “victim” of the miscommunication since the main part of e-mail communication is devoted to long-term relations (colleagues, customers). There are indications that egocentrism is an important source in miscommunication.

Feedback

Another type of ambiguous communication in a task-oriented setting is the exchange of feedback messages. Since e-mail is proven to be very practical in the exchange of documents it has also become more common to deliver feedback on these documents by e-mail. Feedback messages can be considered ambiguous because they have an objective, critical component, but also a motivational component in the form of constructive feedback. In organizations, feedback is considered as a first step to improvement and personal development. This makes it an important resource fuelling our motivation at work. However, if information is likely to be negative, media choice can be crucial in delivering the feedback. In our western society it is not done to send negative personal feedback by e-mail.

By Bihongoye Erica (BAPRM 42535)

Public relation is the deliberate planned and sustainable efforts to establish and maintain mutual understanding between an organization and its publics, according to British (by Moore Fraizer p.5)

THE ORIGIN OF PUBLIC RELATION

(According to Moore Fraizer,p.23)

The origins of public relation, however can actually be traced back to the to the dawn of Civilization. Its fundamental element informs people, persuading people and integrating people were basic to the earliest society just they are today.

Goals, techniques, tools and ethical standards as change with the passage of time. Primitive leaders example were concerned with maintaining control over their followers through the use of force, intimidation or persuation.if these failed magic –totem, taboo or supernaturalism was invoked. Attempts to control opinion were conditioned by the fact that the individual had not then developed a sense of individuality.

Examples, In Acient Egypt, priest were experts in public opinion and persuasion. Much of the early art and literature  was devoted to impressing upon the public the greatness and importance of Kings,priest,nobles ,scribes and other leaders. Later Alexander the great imported the idea of divinity from the East into Greece. He was the first Westerner to call himself a God.

The growth of Hellenic civilization was characterized by a story tendency toward seculazation and individualism. Which endowed individual with a sense of his  own  personality. Hence opinion became a key factor in public life. other example, Roman also had their concept  of public opinion and public relation which are reflected in such coined terms rumores  (senate and the people  of Rome).root of the word  republic and SPQR (senate and the people of Rome)

The Oratory of Cicero historical writing of Julius Caesar the temples, statues, painting pamphlets of the era all were the media of Public opinion. The church molded public opinion and its power and effective depended upon its public relations activities. Example The rise of medieval guilds introduce a new factor that develop opinion outside the church and led to the development first of small business then of larger more extensive enterprises. (By F.Moore p.24)