Marketing Management Final

Brand equity is the inherent value in a brand name that provides the owner of the brand name a direct advantage over competition through that brand name. Brand equity enables companies to generate more profits than their competitors. Brand equity provides brands the price difference between the benefit provided and what consumers are willing to pay for a known brand.

A news report titled “Kids are growing up Apple” accounts the benefit that young consumers are providing to Apple’s bottom line. Ben Arnold is quoted in the article with the line "Kids are growing up Apple. That brand equity goes very far". On average one in three American households owns an Apple product. Another point highlighted in the article is that although younger consumers are driving much of Apple’s profits, as consumers they are less brand loyal compared to previous generations. However the article also points out that through brand equity all of these consumers are likely to purchase future Apple products. Much of the dominance is coming from the launch of the Ipad. The name Ipad is becoming synonymous for tablet computers because the majority of tablets being sold are Ipads (Oswald, 2012).

The article really focuses on brand equity. It seems that with each new product launch Apple further increases its brand equity. The title of the article says it all; kids are growing up with Apple as the only brand they know for consumer electronics.

Customer satisfaction is an important indicator to many businesses to measure how well their product or service meets or exceeds the expectations of customers. Every business is concerned with customer satisfaction levels. Customer satisfaction is a key component to building and maintain relationships with consumers and also creating brand loyal consumers who will repurchase and recommend the product or service. Although some companies may underplay the role of customer satisfaction in their overall strategy customer service is important to all businesses.

Market Watch, an internet division of The Wall Street Journal, reports on customer experience management solutions. Specifically Smashburger and their implementation of customer experience management solutions provided by Emplathica Inc., a leading provider of customer experience management solutions. Smashburger already sets itself apart from competitors by providing exceptional customer service as well as high quality food in a casual setting. Realizing that customer satisfaction is a key component to their success Smashburger brought on Empathica Inc. to increase those levels. Within two months of implementation satisfaction levels improved by 5.5% overall and on the focus areas satisfaction was boosted by 8%. Smashburger, named Americas Most Promising Company by Forbes magazine, will have around 450 locations in the coming years. With that kind of growth the company wanted to ensure that customer