The Causal Nature of Brand Equity

In essence, the relative attributes of brand will affect its strength and this in turn will be reflected in the financial value of the brand. Measuring brand equity should therefore involve an investigation of these three components. Drawing on the published literature about the different types of measures, managers are able to choose from the following ways of evaluating each of the linkages.

Brand attributes – The response by a consumer to a brand will, as Keller (1993) so cogently argued (1993), depend on their favorable or unfavorable knowledge about it. Their brand knowledge results from their level of awareness and the images they have about the’ brand. Thus, these two core components are at the heart of any brand attributes.

Brand awareness reflects the salience of a brand and facilitates consumers’ abilities to identify the brand with a specific product category. Aspects of brand awareness can be measured through the following ways –

• Brand recognition – This refers to the consumer’s ability to recall previous exposure or experience with the brand, for example, ‘Have you seen this brand before, or not?
• Brand recall– This refers to the consumer’s ability to retrieve the brand from memory when given the product category as a cue. For example, ‘What brands of lager are you aware of?’. Brand dominance – This identifies the most important brand in a specific product category. For example ‘Which brand of lager do you drink most often?
• Brand knowledge – This evaluates the consumer’s interpretation of the values linked to a brand. For example ‘To what extent do you agree or disagree that the following cars have high accelerations?’.
• Brand image reflects consumers’ perceptions of a brand’s characteristics and can be gauged by the associations they hold in their memory. The different types of brand associations can be grouped according to – their level of abstraction; the amount of information held; whether they are product-related or non- product-related; and whether they refer to attributes considered essential by consumers. There are different tools to measure the brand image.

• Projective techniques are helpful when consumers are unable or unwilling to express their feelings. These techniques include – sentence completion – ‘When I buy a personal computer, I look for…’; brand personality descriptors – ‘The typical driver of a Ford Fiesta is …’; and picture interpretation – there may be a picture of a man driving his new BMW into a golf club’s car park and two golf players are looking on – what would they say to each other about the driver?
• Qualitative techniques, such as free association, are used to explore possible associations along with further investigation during group discussions or depth interviews.

Ratings of evaluations and beliefs are suitable to capture consumers’ views on key attributes and the strength of their associations with particular brands. Comparison of brand associations with those of competitors identifies the relative strengths and weaknesses of the brand. For example, ‘Of the fruit juice brands that you identified earlier, which one do you believe to be the best? Why is it better than the other brands? What don’t you like about it compared with the other brands?’.

• Above average, average and below average
• Consistent quality and inconsistent quality

Perceived value indicates the extent to which the brand meets performance expectations, given its price. It can be measured by considering value for money and the reasons for purchase, for example –

‘Do you think that the Toyota Corolla represents good value for money?’

‘Why did you buy the Toyota Corolla rather than another car brand?’

The brand’s personality is a useful metaphor to appreciate the brand’s values and this shows the brands emotional and self- expressive capabilities. This is particularly useful for brands, which have only minor physical variations and are conspicuously consumed, for example brandy. In these instances, very few consumers can distinguish between the taste of different brands and the brand is used to make a statement about the user. The brand’s personality can be identified through questions such as –

‘If brand X came to life, what sort of person would it be?’

‘If brand X were to die, what would be written on its tomb stone?’

‘What type of person do you think would use this brand?’ ‘If brand X were a famous person, who do you think it would be?’

Organizational associations refer to the perceptions of a brand that consumers derive from its parent organization. This dimension is appropriate when the organization is particularly visible (as in a service business), or a corporate branding strategy is being used, such as Ford. Positive associations provide a valuable basis for differentiation. Measurements focus on how consumers consider the organization, for example –

‘Do you trust this brand, knowing it comes from…?’

‘How do you feel about this organization?’

‘How would you describe the people that work for this organization?’