Brand Strategy, Positioning and Communication Objectives

Introduction

Integrated marketing communication (IMC) is most effective when communication activity is derived from a clear brand strategy. Advertising, public relations, sales promotion, social media, content, personal selling and customer experience should not operate as disconnected activities. They should express a coherent brand meaning and contribute to business and customer outcomes.

This chapter examines how managers translate brand identity, positioning, value propositions and business goals into measurable communication objectives. It focuses on three especially useful frameworks: SMART objectives, DAGMAR, and customer-based brand equity (CBBE). These frameworks answer different questions. SMART improves the precision and measurability of objectives; DAGMAR explains the communication stages through which audiences move; and CBBE links communication to the development of brand knowledge and customer response.

A central principle is that communication objectives are not identical to business objectives. “Increase market share” is a business objective. “Increase unaided awareness among category buyers from 35% to 50% within six months” is a communication objective that may support it. Good IMC planning connects the two without confusing them.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this chapter, students should be able to:

1. Explain the relationship among brand identity, positioning, value proposition and IMC.
2. Distinguish business, marketing, communication and media objectives.
3. Apply SMART criteria to communication objectives.
4. Use the DAGMAR model to specify communication stages and measures.
5. Apply the CBBE pyramid to diagnose brand-building priorities.
6. Develop coherent objectives for different audience segments and stages of the customer journey.
7. Evaluate the limitations, ethical implications and practical usefulness of objective-setting frameworks.

1. From Business Strategy to Communication Strategy

Brand strategy provides a bridge between what an organization seeks to achieve and what it communicates to stakeholders. A simplified hierarchy is:

Business goals → Marketing strategy → Brand strategy → Communication strategy → Campaign execution → Measurement

A business goal may involve profitable growth, market entry, customer retention or improved reputation. Marketing strategy determines which markets, segments and offerings will be prioritized. Brand strategy defines the desired meaning and relationship associated with the brand. Communication strategy determines what audiences should think, feel or do, and how communication will contribute to those outcomes.

1.1 Brand identity

Brand identity is the intended set of associations and meanings that an organization seeks to create and maintain. It may include:

• Purpose: why the brand exists beyond immediate transactions.
• Values: principles that guide behavior and decisions.
• Personality: human characteristics attributed to the brand, such as energetic, expert or caring.
• Visual and verbal codes: names, colors, symbols, typography, tone and distinctive expressions.
• Offer associations: functional, emotional and social benefits.
• Relationship meaning: the role the brand seeks to play in customers’ lives.

Identity is internally intended; image is the meaning held by external audiences. IMC cannot simply announce an identity and assume that audiences will accept it. Credibility depends on consistency between communication, product performance, employee behavior and customer experience.

1.2 Brand positioning

Positioning is the deliberate design of a brand’s meaning in relation to competing alternatives. It identifies the frame of reference, target audience, point of difference and reasons to believe. A useful positioning statement can follow this structure:

For [target audience], [brand] is the [frame of reference] that [point of difference] because [reason to believe].

For example:

For time-pressed urban professionals, GreenRoute is the meal-delivery service that provides nutritious dinners with minimal planning because its menus are designed by registered dietitians and delivered in recyclable packaging.

A positioning statement is an internal strategic tool, not necessarily advertising copy. It should be specific enough to guide decisions and distinctive enough to separate the brand from competitors.

1.3 Value propositions

A value proposition explains why a target customer should prefer one offering over alternatives. It may contain several forms of value:

A strong value proposition is relevant, differentiated and credible. Communication should not promise benefits that the product, service or organization cannot deliver.

2. Communication Objectives and Their Levels

Objectives specify intended results. They provide direction, support resource allocation and create a basis for evaluation. However, different objectives operate at different levels.

These levels are related but not interchangeable. A media metric such as impressions indicates delivery, not necessarily persuasion. Likewise, increased awareness does not automatically produce sales. External factors such as price, availability, competitor activity, economic conditions and product quality influence outcomes.

A useful objective therefore identifies the audience, desired change, baseline, target, timeframe and measurement method.

3. SMART Communication Objectives

The SMART framework is widely used because it converts broad intentions into operational statements. Although versions vary, SMART usually means:

• Specific: identifies a defined audience and outcome.
• Measurable: states how achievement will be assessed.
• Achievable: is feasible given resources and constraints.
• Relevant: contributes to the wider strategy.
• Time-bound: includes a deadline or evaluation period.

A weak objective is: “Improve the brand’s social media presence.”

A stronger objective is: “Among first-year university students in the metropolitan area, increase aided awareness of the brand’s low-cost mobile plan from 42% to 60% by 30 June, measured through pre- and post-campaign surveys.”

The second statement defines the audience, variable, baseline, target, deadline and method. It also makes the objective open to evaluation.

3.1 Baselines and targets

A target should be interpreted in relation to a baseline. If awareness rises from 40% to 50%, the absolute increase is 10 percentage points, while the relative increase is:

For the example:

The distinction matters. “A 10% increase” could mean a ten-percentage-point increase, from 40% to 50%, or a relative increase of 10%, from 40% to 44%. Objectives should state the intended interpretation explicitly.

SMART does not mean that every objective must be expressed as a sales number. Communication often influences intermediate outcomes such as knowledge, salience, trust or perceived differentiation. These are legitimate objectives when their relationship to the brand strategy is theoretically and empirically defensible.

4. DAGMAR: Defining Advertising Goals for Measured Advertising Results

Russell Colley introduced DAGMAR in 1961. The model argues that advertising objectives should be stated in terms of a defined audience, a specified communication task and a measurable result within a given period. It is commonly represented as a sequence:

Unawareness → Awareness → Comprehension → Conviction → Action

The sequence should not be interpreted as a rigid psychological law. Customers may move backward, skip stages or act before developing strong conviction. Nevertheless, it is valuable for identifying the immediate communication task.

4.1 The stages

Awareness means that members of the audience recognize or recall the brand or offer. Recognition occurs when a cue is provided; recall requires retrieval without the brand being shown.

Comprehension means that the audience understands what the brand offers, for whom it is intended and why it may be relevant. Mere exposure is not comprehension.

Conviction refers to the development of belief, preference, intention or confidence. It involves a judgment that the brand is a suitable choice.

Action is the desired response, such as requesting information, visiting a store, registering, purchasing, subscribing or recommending.

4.2 Writing DAGMAR-style objectives

A DAGMAR objective should identify:

1. The target audience.
2. The current communication state.
3. The intended movement.
4. The magnitude of change.
5. The time period.
6. The measurement approach.

Example:

Within four months, increase the proportion of current category non-users aged 18–24 who can correctly explain the brand’s flexible cancellation benefit from 15% to 35%, and increase stated consideration from 8% to 18%, measured through matched pre- and post-campaign surveys.

This example contains a comprehension objective and a conviction objective. It does not claim that communication alone will cause purchase. A separate behavioral measure could assess applications or trial, while controlling for distribution and promotional effects.

4.3 Strengths and limitations of DAGMAR

DAGMAR encourages precision and helps managers select suitable measures for the communication task. It is particularly useful when a campaign must educate an audience about a complex or unfamiliar offer.

Its limitations are equally important. Communication effects are not always linear. Awareness may result from action rather than precede it, and repeated exposure may produce effects that are difficult to assign to one stage. The model can also encourage excessive attention to short-term measurable changes while undervaluing long-term memory structures, distinctive brand assets and emotional meaning.

5. Customer-Based Brand Equity

Kevin Lane Keller’s customer-based brand equity framework defines brand equity as the differential effect of brand knowledge on consumer response to marketing. In practical terms, a brand has customer-based equity when customers respond more favorably to an offering because they know and value the brand.

The CBBE pyramid consists of four broad levels:

1. Brand identity: Who are you?
2. Brand meaning: What are you?
3. Consumer responses: What do I think or feel about you?
4. Relationships: What kind of connection do we have?

These levels are often elaborated into six building blocks:

5.1 Implications for communication objectives

CBBE helps managers avoid treating awareness as the final goal. A new brand may initially require salience objectives. A mature brand may need to strengthen associations, improve perceived quality or deepen loyalty.

Examples include:

• Salience: increase unaided recall in the category from 20% to 35%.
• Performance: increase the proportion associating the brand with reliable delivery from 45% to 60%.
• Imagery: increase association with responsible consumption among the priority segment.
• Judgment: improve perceived value relative to the leading competitor.
• Feeling: strengthen confidence and reassurance during purchase.
• Resonance: increase repeat purchase, advocacy or participation in brand communities.

CBBE therefore provides a diagnostic framework, while SMART provides a specification discipline. DAGMAR provides a communication-process lens. They can be used together rather than treated as competing systems.

6. Translating Positioning into an Objective System

The translation process can be organized into seven steps.

Step 1: Clarify the business problem

Determine whether the issue is growth, retention, reputation, launch, differentiation, recruitment or another strategic concern. Avoid beginning with a preferred media channel.

Step 2: Define the priority audience

Specify demographic, geographic, behavioral, psychographic or need-based characteristics. A broad audience may be appropriate for a mass brand, but objectives should still identify the audience whose response is most important.

Step 3: State the desired brand meaning

Identify the association or perception that should be strengthened. This should come from the positioning and value proposition, not from an isolated creative idea.

Step 4: Diagnose the current state

Use research to establish awareness, associations, attitudes, consideration, behavior and barriers. Possible methods include surveys, interviews, social listening, search data, customer databases, experiments and brand-lift studies.

Step 5: Select the communication task

Determine whether the task is to inform, remind, differentiate, reassure, motivate, reinforce loyalty or correct a misconception. Map the task to relevant CBBE and DAGMAR stages.

Step 6: Set measurable objectives

State a baseline, target, audience, timeframe and measurement method. Use multiple objectives where a single measure would oversimplify the customer response.

Step 7: Align execution and evaluation

Select channels and creative approaches that can plausibly produce the intended change. Establish when data will be collected and how alternative explanations will be considered.

Objective map

7. Integrated Objectives Across the Customer Journey

An IMC plan commonly requires objectives at several journey stages:

• Pre-purchase: salience, awareness, comprehension and consideration.
• Purchase: preference, response to an offer, store or website action.
• Use: onboarding, satisfaction and successful product adoption.
• Post-purchase: retention, advocacy, referrals and community participation.

Objectives should be connected. For example, a campaign may aim to increase awareness, explain a benefit, generate qualified trials and improve retention. Each objective requires an appropriate measure. Impressions cannot measure retention, and purchase data alone cannot reveal whether customers understood the positioning.

A useful distinction is between leading and lagging indicators. Awareness, engagement and consideration may be leading indicators; revenue, retention and profitability are often lagging outcomes. Leading indicators are not automatically causal predictors, so their relationship to later outcomes should be tested where possible.

8. Worked Application: An Illustrative Case of “LumaHome”

Background

LumaHome is a fictional direct-to-consumer brand selling energy-efficient smart lighting to apartment renters. Its business goal is profitable growth in three large cities. The category is crowded, and consumers often view smart lighting as technically complicated and expensive.

Problem

Research shows that aided awareness is 38%, but unaided recall is only 9%. Among aware consumers, 62% believe installation is difficult. The brand’s current communication emphasizes technical specifications, while the desired positioning is “the effortless way to make rented homes more comfortable and energy conscious.”

The strategic problem is therefore not simply low awareness. It includes a comprehension barrier and a credibility problem concerning ease of installation.

Analysis

The positioning contains three useful associations:

1. Effortlessness.
2. Comfort and control.
3. Responsible energy use.

The CBBE diagnosis indicates weak salience and an unfavorable performance belief. DAGMAR suggests that the campaign must first create awareness, then demonstrate comprehension and conviction. A purely promotional message may generate trial without correcting the underlying belief.

Approach and solution

The communication plan uses short demonstration videos, retailer content, creator reviews and onboarding email. The central message shows a renter installing the product without tools, changing lighting through a mobile application and reducing unnecessary usage.

Illustrative objectives are:

1. Increase unaided brand recall among urban renters aged 25–40 from 9% to 20% within six months.
2. Increase the proportion of the target audience correctly identifying tool-free installation as a brand benefit from 18% to 45% within six months.
3. Increase consideration among aware target consumers from 14% to 25% within six months.
4. Generate 12,000 qualified trials during the campaign while maintaining a minimum 60-day activation rate of 70%.
5. Increase the association “easy to install” among trial users from 41% to 70% after onboarding.

The first three are primarily communication and brand objectives. The fourth is a behavioral or marketing objective. The fifth connects customer experience with brand meaning.

Measurement design

Pre-campaign and post-campaign surveys measure recall, comprehension and consideration. A randomized geo-test compares exposed cities with a similar control area where the campaign is delayed. Digital analytics measure qualified trials, but a trial is defined carefully as a completed purchase by a new customer, not merely an advertisement click. Activation is defined as connecting and using the product within 60 days.

Outcome and learning points

Suppose the post-campaign survey records recall of 19%, benefit comprehension of 43% and consideration of 24%. These results indicate substantial progress but do not fully meet the stated targets. If the geo-test also shows higher trial and activation in exposed cities, the campaign has stronger evidence of contribution than if it relied only on platform engagement metrics.

The case illustrates five principles:

• Positioning should guide the communication task.
• A barrier diagnosis is more useful than a generic growth ambition.
• Different stages require different measures.
• Product experience must support the promised meaning.
• Partial achievement should prompt learning and refinement, not automatic abandonment.

9. Measurement, Attribution and Evaluation

Communication evaluation should distinguish outputs, intermediate effects and outcomes.

Attribution is difficult because customers encounter multiple messages and external influences. Last-click attribution, for example, may assign all credit to the final digital interaction even when earlier advertising created demand. Managers should triangulate evidence using surveys, experiments, time-series analysis, market tests and customer data.

For a simple conversion rate:

The denominator must be defined. If 500 people click an advertisement and 25 complete an application, the click-to-application conversion rate is 5%. This does not equal the campaign’s sales conversion rate if some applicants are rejected or fail to activate.

Measures should also be reliable and valid. Reliability concerns consistency of measurement; validity concerns whether the measure captures the intended construct. A “likes” count may be reliable as a platform statistic but have weak validity as a measure of brand equity.

10. Challenges, Ethics and Governance

10.1 Linear assumptions

SMART and DAGMAR can encourage the belief that audiences progress predictably from awareness to action. Real customer journeys are iterative, social and context-dependent. Objectives should allow for multiple paths and feedback effects.

10.2 Short-termism

Pressure for immediate clicks or sales can weaken long-term brand building. A balanced scorecard should include both immediate response and durable brand measures such as salience, distinctive associations, trust and loyalty.

10.3 Vulnerable audiences

Communication objectives must not exploit children, people in financial distress or individuals with limited capacity to evaluate claims. Targeting should respect privacy, fairness and applicable advertising standards.

10.4 Truthfulness and substantiation

Claims in a value proposition require evidence. Environmental, health, performance and comparative claims should be specific, current and substantiated. Vague sustainability claims can mislead audiences and damage trust.

10.5 Data protection and profiling

Measurement may involve personal data, cookies, customer records or inferred interests. Organizations should collect only necessary data, provide transparent notices, protect data and comply with relevant privacy law. Ethical governance also requires examining whether automated targeting systematically excludes or disadvantages groups.

10.6 Artificial intelligence

AI can assist with audience analysis, message variation, social listening, forecasting and experiment design. It should not replace strategic judgment. Generated claims require human verification, training data may encode bias, and personalization can become intrusive. Brand managers remain accountable for accuracy, consent, explainability and the consequences of automated decisions.

11. Best Practices for Brand Communication Objectives

1. Start with the strategic problem, not a channel.
2. Define the audience narrowly enough to measure meaningfully.
3. Express the intended brand change in language consistent with the positioning.
4. Establish a credible baseline before setting a target.
5. Distinguish percentage points from percentage change.
6. Use CBBE to identify the brand-building priority.
7. Use DAGMAR to clarify the communication task and stage.
8. Use SMART criteria to make objectives operational.
9. Include both leading communication indicators and lagging business outcomes.
10. Specify measurement methods, timing and decision rules in advance.
11. Ensure the customer experience can deliver the promised value.
12. Review objectives for legal, ethical and privacy implications.

Chapter Summary

Brand strategy translates organizational ambition into a desired relationship between a brand and its audiences. Brand identity expresses intended meaning; positioning defines distinctive meaning relative to alternatives; and the value proposition explains the benefits that make preference reasonable. Communication objectives connect these strategic elements with measurable audience changes.

Business, marketing, brand, communication, media and behavioral objectives should be distinguished. SMART criteria make objectives specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. DAGMAR emphasizes a defined audience, a communication task and movement through awareness, comprehension, conviction and action. Keller’s CBBE framework helps managers build brand salience, meaningful associations, favorable responses and strong relationships.

Effective objective systems use baselines, explicit targets, suitable measures and realistic assumptions about causality. They combine intermediate indicators such as awareness and comprehension with behavioral and business outcomes. Evaluation must account for attribution difficulties, customer experience, ethical standards, privacy and the limitations of linear models. The professional task is not merely to measure communication, but to ensure that communication creates credible and strategically valuable brand meaning.

Key Terms

Brand identity: The intended associations and meanings an organization seeks to establish for a brand.

Brand image: The associations and meanings held by external audiences.

Brand positioning: The deliberate place and meaning a brand occupies relative to competitors in a target customer’s mind.

Value proposition: A statement of the functional, emotional, social or economic value offered to a target audience.

Communication objective: A measurable intended change in an audience’s knowledge, perception, feeling or behavior resulting from communication.

SMART: An objective-setting framework emphasizing specificity, measurability, achievability, relevance and time limits.

DAGMAR: A framework for defining advertising goals in terms of measurable communication effects.

Awareness: Recognition or recall of a brand or offering.

Comprehension: Understanding of what a brand offers and why it may be relevant.

Conviction: Belief, preference or confidence that supports intended response.

Customer-based brand equity: The differential customer response created by brand knowledge.

Brand salience: The likelihood that a brand comes to mind in relevant situations.

Brand association: A linked idea, attribute, image or feeling connected with a brand.

Brand resonance: The depth of psychological and behavioral relationship between customers and a brand.

Baseline: The measured condition against which future change is assessed.

Leading indicator: An earlier measure that may signal progress toward a later outcome.

Lagging indicator: A result measure observed after activity or change has occurred.

Attribution: The process of estimating how much an outcome can be associated with particular communication activity.

Integrated marketing communication: Coordinated use of communication tools to create consistent and strategically connected brand meaning.

Distinctive brand asset: A recognizable element, such as a color, symbol or sound, that identifies a brand.

Review Questions

Short Answer Questions

1. How does brand positioning differ from brand identity?
2. What five characteristics are commonly associated with SMART objectives?
3. What is the difference between aided awareness and unaided recall?
4. Why should communication objectives include a baseline?
5. Name the four broad levels of the CBBE pyramid.

Long Answer Questions

1. Explain how business goals can be translated into communication objectives. Use an example.
2. Describe the DAGMAR framework and discuss two of its limitations.
3. Explain how the CBBE framework can guide communication planning for a mature brand.
4. Discuss why a value proposition must be supported by product performance and customer experience.
5. Explain how a brand manager should combine leading indicators and lagging outcomes when evaluating IMC.

Analytical / Application Questions

1. A beverage brand is well known but is perceived as unhealthy and undifferentiated. Develop three SMART communication objectives using CBBE and DAGMAR.
2. A campaign generates many clicks but no improvement in consideration or sales. Diagnose at least four possible explanations and propose a revised measurement plan.
3. Construct a positioning statement and an integrated set of awareness, comprehension, conviction and action objectives for a fictional sustainable fashion brand targeting university students.

Multiple Choice Questions with Answers

Question 1

Which statement is primarily a communication objective?

A. Increase operating profit by 12% in the next financial year.

B. Increase unaided brand awareness among category buyers from 30% to 45% within six months.

C. Expand distribution into 500 additional stores.

D. Reduce manufacturing costs by 8%.

Correct Answer: B. Increase unaided brand awareness among category buyers from 30% to 45% within six months.

Question 2

In the positioning statement structure presented in the chapter, the “reason to believe” provides what?

A. Evidence supporting the claimed point of difference

B. A list of media channels

C. The organization’s annual sales target

D. A description of the campaign budget

Correct Answer: A. Evidence supporting the claimed point of difference

Question 3

A brand’s awareness rises from 40% to 50%. What is the relative increase?

A. 10%

B. 20%

C. 25%

D. 50%

Correct Answer: C. 25%

Question 4

Which DAGMAR stage concerns understanding what the brand offers and why it is relevant?

A. Awareness

B. Comprehension

C. Conviction

D. Action

Correct Answer: B. Comprehension

Question 5

Which CBBE building block asks whether the brand is noticed and remembered in buying situations?

A. Salience

B. Imagery

C. Judgment

D. Resonance

Correct Answer: A. Salience

Question 6

Which measure is most directly a behavioral outcome?

A. Advertisement impressions

B. Brand recognition

C. Perceived differentiation

D. Completed product trial

Correct Answer: D. Completed product trial

Question 7

What is the main purpose of a baseline in objective setting?

A. To identify the campaign’s creative style

B. To provide a reference point for assessing change

C. To guarantee that the target will be achieved

D. To replace the need for audience research

Correct Answer: B. To provide a reference point for assessing change

Question 8

A campaign records 25 applications from 500 advertisement clicks. What is the click-to-application conversion rate?

A. 2%

B. 5%

C. 20%

D. 25%

Correct Answer: B. 5%

Question 9

Which statement best reflects an ethical requirement for environmental claims?

A. Claims may be vague if they increase engagement.

B. Claims should be specific and supported by appropriate evidence.

C. Claims are exempt from scrutiny when made on social media.

D. Claims need evidence only when a competitor complains.

Correct Answer: B. Claims should be specific and supported by appropriate evidence.

Question 10

Why should impressions not be treated as proof of persuasion?

A. Impressions measure delivery, not necessarily understanding or attitude change.

B. Impressions can only be measured for print media.

C. Impressions always measure purchase behavior instead.

D. Impressions are invalid because they are quantitative.

Correct Answer: A. Impressions measure delivery, not necessarily understanding or attitude change.