Brand Position Group Discussion: Brand Knowledge Structure
This is a group activity. For more information on groups, see About Group Work.
You have been assigned to a specific product/service category group by your instructor.
Go to the Group Discussion topic for your assigned group and create a thread that contains the following:
Identify your brand knowledge structure of the first three brands that come to mind from within your assigned category. What do you know about the brands, and how do those pieces of information connect?
For each of your selected brands ask two to four people outside of the class what they “know” about that brand, then share your research findings in your post.
In your response to peers, discuss any similarities or differences in your initial brand perceptions, and whether your research findings changed your perceptions in any way.
Assigned category is Casual Dining Restaurant Chains. Write the initial post and also reply to the 2 attached posts.
Brand Knowledge Structure to Casual dining restaurant chains
The first three brands that come to mind for casual dining restaurant chains are Buffalo Wild Wings, Applebee’s and Chilis (FSR 50: Top 10 Casual-Dining Chains, n.d.)
Brand knowledge structure is all the associations someone has when they think of a certain brand. This concept also corresponds with the associative network memory model which states that memories are connected via nodes and links (Baumeister & Vohs, 2007). In an article titled Associative Networks it states that “Associative networks are cognitive models that incorporate long-known principles of association to represent key features of human memory. When two things (e.g., “bacon” and “eggs”) are thought about simultaneously, they may become linked in memory. Subsequently, when one thinks about bacon, eggs are likely to come to mind as well” (Baumeister & Vohs, 2007). Meaning for brand knowledge structure, a node can contain information on a certain brand and when that node is activated it connects to other nodes that are also linked to that brand (Helen, 2008). These nodes could contain information related to price, quality, or atmosphere (Helen, 2008).
The three brands have a similar brand knowledge structure as I associate them all with casual dining restaurants. Casual dining restaurants are then connected with affordable prices, a laid back atmosphere, and being waited on by a server (What Is Casual Dining?, n.d.). Specifically, Buffalo Wild Wings is associated with a sports atmosphere and chicken wings. Applebee’s is connected with having a variety of food at a reasonable price and Chilis is connected with serving tex-mex food.
I interviewed three people outside of class to discover what they know about the three brands. For Buffalo Wild Wings the respondents recorded that they are known for being a sports bar, specializing in chicken wings with a variety of sauces. For Applebee’s the respondents associated it with being a neighborhood style environment as they display pictures of local schools sports teams on the wall. The respondents also associated it with happy hour and having a variety of appetizers and food options. For Chilis the respondents associated it with having tex-mex options on the menu, chips and salsa, and the big red chili pepper.
3-2 Brand Position Group Discussion: Brand Knowledge Structured to Casual dining restaurant chains
As it relates to Casual Dining restaurant chains, the first three brand that comes to mind are TGIF, Outback Steakhouse, and texas roadhouse. My brand knowledge structure of these three casual dining restaurant varies depending on the the individual restaurant. Brand Knowledge Structure is chiefly measured in terms of brand awareness, brand image, brand beliefs or perceived quality ( Buil I., et al., 2013). What this means is that base on my own personal brand awareness, brand beliefs, or perceived quality of one or two individual brands, I make comparisons between all three. My comparison can however be limited based on how I utilize my brand knowledge structure such as perceived quality,brand image or brand beliefs can outweigh brand awareness making my comparison of each restaurant Inaccurate.
Based on my brand knowledge structure of these restaurants, I can confidently say that they share similarities such as the fact that they are all casual Dining restaurants with similar menu options; these run from different steak plates, surf and turf options, seafood plates, salads burgers, and sides. These information connects mainly through the similarities that all three restaurants have; this is based on how their food is presented to customers,the ambience, and atmosphere that the restaurants create during dining. Of all three restaurants I have only eaten at one however I can see the similarities based on my brand awareness, brand imaging, and what I perceive the quality to be, this is mainly due to my experience with one brand ( TGIF). This sometimes may not be true however based on the similarities among all three restaurants I think it is a safe assumption/perception to make.
Based on my research findings from customers who dined in at least two of these restaurants, their brand knowledge structure are surprisingly similar to mine. Of the four persons that I asked about what the know of each brand of casual restaurants; all of them were able to tell me that all three restaurants were casual dining and and that they all served similar items on their menu, some believed that the ambience in all three were different but strongly agreed that their prices were very similar based on the similarities on each restaurants menu and their individual experience dining at each. What this indicates is that based on customers experience, brand awareness, brand image and perception of one or two particular brands they tend to make comparisons between similar brands and and draw their own assumptions which can turn out to be true.
