The Brand’s Equity of CareSuper: The CBBE Model
The superannuation industry actively develops in Australia, and the question of the established funds’ brand equity can be discussed as urgent. The Australian superannuation industry consists of “352 institutional funds and … the institutional sector, consisting of the not-for-profit funds … and retail funds, make-up 65 per cent of the $1.4 trillion superannuation industry assets under management each superannuation fund type provides specific benefits” (Reddy, Higgins & Wist 2013, p. 463).
Kevin Lane Keller’s Customer-Based Brand Equity (CBBE) model is based on such concepts as brand identity, brand meaning, brand response, and brand relationships. To analyse CareSuper’s brand equity, it is necessary to use the CBBE model which provides the framework for discussing the strengths and weaknesses in the organisation’s approach to creating brand awareness which can affect the success of the organisation’s activities.
Brand Identity
According to the CBBE model, the brand identity is associated with the customers’ recognition and awareness of the definite brand. The organisation can be discussed as succeeding in the industry if customers easily recognise the brand’s name and logo (Berry 2000, p. 130). The name and logo of CareSuper are easily recognised by the experts in the industry of superannuation because the company was named as the best organisation in the industry several times during the recent five years.
Furthermore, CareSuper is characterised by the developed promotion campaign as a result of which advertisements informing about the company’s services are presented as banners, posters, and online ads. These approaches contribute to increasing brand recognition among customers. Using social media, CareSuper managers effectively inform customers and persons interested in superannuation about the latest news and propositions. The obvious results of the active promotion campaign are the increases in the percentage of the members (about 260,000 persons) and the increased rates of persons interested in the company’s services (Chirani, Taleghani & Moghadam 2012, p. 1034; Reddy, Higgins & Wist 2013, p. 464).
CareSuper can be discussed as a strong brand because the customers associate the name of the company with superannuation and MySuper options. Referring to the brand identity stage of the CBBE model, it is possible to state that CareSuper succeeded in the market concerning the factor of brand recognition because the organisation is one of the leading and largest funds operating in the industry in Australia.
Brand Meaning
The second important stage of the CBBE model is the brand meaning which is based on the concepts of ‘performance’ and ‘imagery’. The brand can be discussed as successful when its products and services meet the customers’ needs. Thus, ‘performance’ is associated with the brand’s features, aspects of reliability, service effectiveness, efficiency, durability, design, and price (Nam, Ekinci & Whyatt 2011, p. 1020). CareSuper’s proposed services are easily recognised by customers because of the specifics of the industry. Furthermore, customers can find additional information using the company’s official website (http://www.caresuper.com.au/).
CareSuper’s services are discussed by customers as meeting the requirements of reliability and durability principles. Focusing on the factor of service effectiveness, it is important to note that customers discuss provided services as complete and meeting the expectations. CareSuper aims to address the needs of professionals in different spheres and employers while proposing high-quality services related to superannuation and financial planning.
Focusing on the idea of ‘imagery’ associated with the brand meaning stage, it is necessary to discuss the role of associations in forming CareSuper’s image among customers. CareSuper’s services are associated with quality cars that are affordable for different social categories. The abstract notions used to describe CareSuper’s services are ‘easiness’, ‘stability’, ‘safety’, and ‘reliability’ (Dunn, Francis & Hall 2009, p. 511). CareSuper is discussed as a leading brand in the industry that is characterised by stability because of providing quality services for more than 25 years. From this perspective, ‘performance’ and ‘imagery’ are the key elements to explain how customers perceive the brand. Even though the brand cannot be discussed as unique, it is strong and favourable because of the long history of providing services.
Brand Responses
The formation of the rand meaning directly affects the customers’ responses to the brand, their ‘judgments’ and ‘feelings’. CareSuper is discussed as a market leader in the industry because of being ranked fifth among the other funds in the region. Furthermore, the quality of the provided services makes customers think about CareSuper as sensitive to the members’ interests because of the constant development of different effective programs to increase the customers’ funds. Still, there is a category of the Australian population that does not discuss superannuation funds as important to use (Dunn, Francis & Hall 2009, p. 510).
The representatives of this social category do not discuss CareSuper as effective to provide the necessary services concerning insurance, financial planning, and banking. It is also impossible to speak about the brand superiority of CareSuper because many other funds are operating in the industry. Still, CareSuper can be considered as the organisation which succeeded in affecting brand responses because of the high levels of the customers’ focus on the brand’s trustworthiness and expertise. Referring to the customers’ feedback related to CareSuper’s services, it is possible to state that brand feelings associated with the company are social approval, security, and self-respect because superannuation is discussed as a socially effective tendency that contributes to the well-being of the retired persons.
Brand Relationships
Discussing the brand relationships, it is important to focus on the role of customers’ behavioural loyalty, customers’ attitude, and engagement. The factors that allow speaking about behavioural loyalty to CareSuper are the desire to inform friends and relatives about the benefits of using CareSuper’s services and the desire to use more services provided by the brand (Chirani, Taleghani & Moghadam 2012, p. 1035).
CareSuper is characterised by the increasing rates of popularity among the users of superannuation services. However, the company’s rates among the general public are rather low. That is why it is possible to speak about the high resonance among the brand aided persons caused by the high quality of the company’s services and loyalty programs. Nevertheless, there are still low rates associated with the interest of the unaided public in the company’s services.
CareSuper takes the leading positions in the superannuation industry of Australia, and the company’s success depends on the high level of the customers’ recognition of the brand. Despite the customers’ positive attitudes to the brand because of the quality of the provided services, it is important to pay more attention to attracting new clients. Such conclusions can be discussed as a result of analysing the CBBE model applied to the company.
Reference List
Berry, L 2000, ‘Cultivating service brand equity’, Academy of Marketing Science Journal, vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 128-137.
Chirani, E, Taleghani, M, & Moghadam, N 2012, ‘Brand performance and brand equity’, Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research in Business, vol. 3, no. 9, pp. 1033-1036.
Dunn, P, Francis, S, & Hall, J 2009, ‘Leveraged superannuation’, Accounting and Finance, vol. 49, no. 1, pp. 505–529.
Nam, J, Ekinci, Y, & Whyatt, G 2011, ‘Brand equity, brand loyalty and consumer satisfaction’, Annals of Tourism Research, vol. 38, no. 3, pp. 1009–1030.
Reddy, W, Higgins, D & Wist, M 2013, ‘Australian industry superannuation funds’, Journal of Property Investment & Finance, vol. 31, no. 5, pp. 462-480.