The concept of brand equity should be considered only from the perspective of the customer
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Abstract The author presents a conceptual model of brand equity from the perspective of the individual consumer. Customer-based brand equity is defined as the differential effect of brand knowledge on consumer response to the marketing of the brand. A brand is said to have positive (negative) customer-based brand equity when consumers react more (less) favorably to an element of the marketing mix for the brand than they do to the same marketing mix element when it is attributed to a fictitiously named or unnamed version of the product or service. Brand knowledge is conceptualized according to an associative network memory model in terms of two components, brand awareness and brand image (i. e., a set of brand associations). Customer-based brand equity occurs when the consumer is familiar with the brand and holds some favorable, strong, and unique brand associations in memory. Issues in building, measuring, and managing customer-based brand equity are discussed, as well as areas for future research. Show
Journal Information The Journal of Marketing (JM) develops and disseminates knowledge about real-world marketing questions relevant to scholars, educators, managers, consumers, policy makers and other societal stakeholders. It is the premier outlet for substantive research in marketing. Since its founding in 1936, JM has played a significant role in shaping the content and boundaries of the marketing discipline? Publisher Information Sara Miller McCune founded SAGE Publishing in 1965 to support the dissemination of usable knowledge and educate a global community. SAGE is a leading international provider of innovative, high-quality content publishing more than 900 journals and over 800 new books each year, spanning a wide range of subject areas. A growing selection of library products includes archives, data, case studies and video. SAGE remains majority owned by our founder and after her lifetime will become owned by a charitable trust that secures the company’s continued independence. Principal offices are located in Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore, Washington DC and Melbourne. www.sagepublishing.com Rights & Usage This item is part of a JSTOR Collection. What is customer-based brand equity (CBBE)?Apple. Coca-Cola. Tylenol. Porsche. What do you feel when you see the names of these brands? They all provoke feelings (positive, their marketing teams hope) and are examples of strong brands that enjoy outstanding brand equity. CBBE is the value of a brand, based on what customers feel about and think of it. Brand equity was traditionally built through word of mouth recommendation. Now, social media, online advertising and customer experience have enhanced the potential for reaching customers on a more personal, emotional level and creating a relationship with them. It’s essential that your customers’ perceptions, feelings, thoughts, and experiences regarding your brand are always positive. Access our free brand awareness survey template Keller’s brand equity modelBecause brand equity as a single concept is subtle, nuanced and difficult to quantify, it’s best approached in measurable stages, using a model. The best-known CBBE model is the Keller Model, devised by Professor of Marketing Kevin Lane Keller and originally published in his mighty Strategic Brand Management. The Keller model is a pyramid shape and shows businesses how to build from a strong foundation of brand identity upwards towards the holy grail of brand equity ‘resonance’. This is where customers are in a sufficiently positive relationship with a brand to be advocates for it. What exactly is the customer-based brand equity pyramid?Each stage of the pyramid builds upon the one before, so it’s important to cement each step before moving on to the higher stages. Every experience along a customer’s journey with your brand should leave them with positive thoughts, emotions, and beliefs. Working up to the resonance level affords a brand opportunities to recognize and capitalize on its customers’ loyalties and attitudes – whether they are positive or negative. Hearing about negative experiences help a brand understand how their customers feel about their product, so they can flip them into positive experiences. By dividing CBBE into Keller’s four levels, marketers can understand what their customers want and need before they’ve even bought the product, or maybe even before they know they want it. The iPad is a stunning example of this CBBE: from the robust foundation of Apple’s brand identity, the iPad was developed to look great, be easy to use, do everything its customers wanted, and more. Customers loved it and any glitches that attracted negative responses were quickly patched. Before long, iPad users were extolling its virtues and their customer loyalty, and the iPad is now ubiquitous in stores, health centers, schools, offices and homes. It’s a classic example of something we didn’t know we needed or wanted until we saw one. Now we can’t do without it. How the four levels of Keller’s CBBE pyramid work:Level 1: Brand Identity (who are you?)We can add to this question: ‘and what makes you unique?’ This is how customers look at your brand and distinguish it from others. It’s the most important level and must be strong to support the rest of the pyramid above it. Its role is twofold:
It explores the words and images buyers associate with when they hear a particular brand name. Brand identity quantifies the breadth and depth of customer awareness of a brand. What brand managers can do in Level 1:
Level 2: Brand Meaning (what are you?)Once customers become aware of your brand, they’ll want to know more about your product. They’ll question its features, looks and style, reliability, durability, customer experience and value for money, to find its brand meaning. It’s important to deliver quality and reliability every time, to create positive brand associations in the customers’ minds. For the purposes of brand reputation, Level 2 is split into two categories:
What brand managers can do in Level 2:
Level 3: Brand Response (What are the feelings for the brand?)On this level of Keller’s model, judgment and feelings can be hard to separate and are intensely personal for each individual customer.
And add to the mix actual interaction and perceived reputation and you can see how hard it can be to quantify how customers feel about a brand and how much they trust it. What brand managers can do in Level 3:
Level 4: Brand Resonance (a strong relationship)The apex of Keller’s CBBE model is resonance, when a customer is:
Many things resonate with customers: lifetime experience, customer service, products and value. A good measure for resonance is the Net Promoter Score that asks one simple question: “How likely is it that you would recommend [Product X] to a friend or colleague?”. What brand managers can do in Level 4:
Keller’s model is deceptively beautiful in its simplicity; building customer-based brand equity is, in reality, a long and hard road. When you start at the bottom with a great brand identity, then get customers to know your brand and your business gradually, you’ll create a brand that people will like, trust and which will ultimately be successful. Aaker’s brand equity model: A second theoryWhereas the Keller brand equity model focuses largely on emotions, Professor David Aaker says it’s much simpler than that: it’s all about recognition. The most successful brands are those that drive recognition (think Mickey Mouse for Disney) in the emotional part of the brain that makes split-second decisions about what to buy. Aaker sees brand equity as a mixture of brand awareness, brand associations and brand loyalty. All these add up to the value provided by a brand’s goods or services. The Aaker Model helps to create a brand strategy made up of various components that separate a brand from its competition and advance it. Aaker says that there are five components of controlling brand equity. The higher the data scores for these, the closer the product is to achieving brand equity:
All these components are measurable when ran through the right platforms that highlight where more could be done to attain brand equity. Branding needs to be delivered at every touchpoint along the customer journey to ensure this recognition. Data can then be gathered at various stages of marketing to inform and increase customer brand loyalty and show up the distinctiveness of the brand from its competitors. Find out more about brand equity:
What is brand equity concept?Brand equity is a marketing term that describes a brand's value. That value is determined by consumer perception of and experiences with the brand. If people think highly of a brand, it has positive brand equity.
Why is brand equity important to consumers?For example, positive brand equity enables brands to charge price premiums. When consumers believe in the values put forth by a brand and the quality of their products, they will pay higher prices to purchase from that brand.
What is the customer based brand equity?Customer brand equity (also referred to as Customer-Based Brand Equity, or CBBE) relates to how your customers' attitudes towards your brand influence the success of your business overall. If customers recognise, understand and connect with your brand, performance goes up (provided experiences are positive).
What is brand equity used for?Brand Equity is the measure of the perceived worth of a brand-name product, and nurturing your brand's equity could help increase your profit margins. Learn how you can build your brand's equity level in the eyes of your customers.
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