How to Build Brand Attachment with

Commodity: The case of a Brazilian

Cement Company

ANTÔNIO AUGUSTO SANTOS JÚNIOR

Scenario

Cement Market in Brazil: about 8 billion dollars in sales

(SNIC, 2012).

Even when dealing with a product with standards imposed

by ABNT (organ that standardizes the characteristics

specified by the government), consumers are willing to pay a

premium price on a particular brand, which varies from

region to region (SNIC, 2012).

The factors that lead to this behavior are object of this

article, which presents a proposal and a test of a model of

brand value and brand image in this market.

ROI

2005

46

78

76

190

Quality

Professional

Quick

& Easy

I Need

Help

Finance

Focused

Share of

PopulationMarket

Economic Value

Mauá

Economic Value

ROI

2008

77

83

83

175

Buyer Segmentation

Brand Platform

Branding

InvestmentsPrice war

CP III

The Case

The POTY Cement Case

Poty in Tupi Language is the same as Shrimp ..

Poty tribe: Indians that used to eat Shrimp

The Case

●1942, Votorantin Group, a Brazilian Holding that

operates in 20 countries, built a cement plant in the

Northeastern of Brazil, to supply the demand

●Poty is the name of a Tribe of Native Indians that

used to live in that region

●Poty becomes market leader in the region and

charged a premium price

The Case

2008, World Financial Crisis, Votorantin sold the Plant to

Lafarge, World leader in building materials, that operates in

64 countries

Votorantin sold the plant, not the brand, and Lafarge has 45

days to change the brand and communicate it to the market

Antonio demanded a research to understand the market and

to choose the new brand

The case

In the exploratory phase of the research, we discovered that

Votorantin tried to abandon, in the past, Poty´s Brand in order

to use their national cement brand : Votoran, and the sales

dropped to near zero in Volume. After that, Votorantin

decided to keep Poty brand in the Northeastern of Brazil in

order to maintain sales levels

What would you do as Marketing and Brand Manager? You

have 45 days to change the brand - You know that without

Poty´s brand it would be very risky as you could even face a

collapse in sales …

Questions

Why consumers buy Poty?

Which brand (of the portdolio)

must we adopt?

How to communicate the new

brand?

What are the relationships

between these consumers and

Poty´s brand?

How differentiate cement in this

market?

Hypothetical model

Emotional

Image

BrandEquity

WOM

MassCommunica

tion

Previous

Experiences

with Brand

Functional

Image

Symbolic

Image

Cognitive

Image

H2 H3

H4

H5

H6 H7

H8

H9

H10 H11

H12

H13

Brand

Awareness

Behavioral

Intention to

Buy

Methodology

Qualitative Phase: 4 focus groups with end-users and company

personnel

Quantitative Phase 1: survey with 200 end-users in the city of

Belo Horizonte. Main goal was to validate the scale for brand

attributes

Qualitative Phase 2: survey with 385 end users in 3 cities: Rio de

Janeiro, Belo Horizonte and Recife

Scales

Constructs Base

Brand awareness, Punj e Hillyer (2011), Wang, Wei e Yu

(2008),

Previous experiences Parasuraman, Zeithaml e Berry (1996)

External Media/Advertising Shankar e Fuller (2008) e Yoo,

Boonghee e Mandhachitara (2003)

Influence Groups Adapted from Parasuraman, Zeithaml e

Berry (1985)

Purchase intent Parasuraman, Zeithaml e Berry (1996)

Brand Equity Yoo e Donthu (2001)

Image Adapted from De Toni, Milan e Schuler

(2004)

Nomological Phase _ results SEM

FIGURA 2 - Teste do Modelo Hipotético de Pesquisa

Fonte: Dados da pesquisa. OBS: ***Indica carga significante ao nível de 0,1%; **Indica carga significante ao nível de 1,0%; *Indica carga significante ao nível de 5,0%.

Na Tabela 1 se pode observar as estimativas do modelo:

R2= 53,0%

R2

= 56%

Brand Equity

R2= 63,5%

WOM

R2=8,5% R

2= 67,0%

Previous

R2= 47,9%

R2= 44,2%R

2= 81,0% R

2= 1,0%

0,292***

0,736***0,101*

0,176***

0,692***

0,900*** 0,728***

0,100

0,665***

0,208**

0,0330,485***

0,209***

-0,002

0,743***

Brand

Awareness

MassCommunica

tion

Experiences

with Brand

Functional

ImageCognitive

ImageSymbolic

Image

Emotional

Image

Positive

Emotional

Image

Negative

Behavioral

Intention to Buy

Brand Platform

2010 2011 2012

Brand value after stimulus

High

Preference

Low

Preference

Low

Awareness

High

Awareness

What did we do with the results?

3 Steps campaign:

Awareness

● http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cfr5S0fTco

Brand recognition

● http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JR7aoeAfaPE

Brand attachment

● http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erlO61OkW3s

And SAMPLING! Lots

of SAMPLING!

Main conclusions

In Cement market, we could improve brand perception is by

creating previous experiences with the product, thus increase the

moments within which the end user is exposed to it and deals

with it:

Not just at work, but during leisure hours

Not just when he decides to buy, but being able to try the product

before

Capturing the end user when he is still learning: sponsor classes

and training

Once the end user understands the brand value he becomes an

advocate to it: the influence group is majorly formed by other

professionals teaching the new ones.

The impact of the survey changed radically the way advertising

campaigns are treated in the company: now it makes sense!

Main conclusions

It might be expected that, in the commodities market, the

decision was rational and based on price.

However, according to the survey results, the emotional image,

image, was the factor that had the most significant impact on

brand equity - this impact was greater than the cognitive image,

that is more rational.

Antonio was promoted and now he is the Worldwide Director of

Marketing at Lafarge

He was supposed to be here, but they sent him to Manila,

Philippines, and he couldn't find a flight to arrive in time ..

Thanks !