principal elements that comprise thecore identity make the brand, sustainable, valuable, and unique (Aaker, 1996, Ghodeswar, 2008). Extended Identity The extended identity is very much thevalue adding perspective of the brand, each element organized into a meaningfuland cohesive group that provides texture and brand completeness, adding to thedetails illuminating what the brand stands for (Blanco, 2010). Unlikethe core identity, the extended identity is susceptible to change when necessary; its malleable nature however, does not make it less valuable than the core – thecore might at times be ambiguous, requiring the assisting detail from theextended identity for a more holistic brand (Aaker, 1996; Blanco, 2010). A larger extended identity would inthat degree mean, a stronger brand that is unforgettable and connected to stakeholders. BRAND KNOWLEDGE Brands arenot physical products of a particular nature; but rather, live in the minds of the consumers and stakeholders alike, as abstract notions (Grassl, 1999; Buil, 2016).
Understanding the structure and content of the brand from a psychological lens, gives birth to the second theoretical perspective: brands as knowledge. Keller, (1993) emphasizes the importance knowledge hasin consumer minds when making decisions towards a brand. The phenomenonaccording to Keller, (1993) and Mirazi et al, (2016) is conceptualized accordingto ‘ an associative network memory model’, consisting of two elements: Brandawareness and Brand image. BrandAwareness Brand awareness according to Keller, (1993) refers to the level of brand recognition andrecall that consumers have towards a specific brand. It is very much correlatedto the strength of the brand trace in the consumer memory; relating to thefirst theoretical perspective, by asking, how well the brand identity elementsserve their function. Within the dimension of brand awareness, Keller, (1993) presents twooffshoot concepts: brand recognition, and brand recall. He states that brandrecognition as a notion, refers to the prior exposure consumers have with thebrand- i. e.
, when given the brand as a cue, the consumer must recognize it as abrand encountered before. Brand recall on the other hand, relates to consumers’ability to retrieve the brand from memory, when presented with the productcategory, the needs according to keller,(1993) fulfilled by the category, or other types of hints.