Managing Brand Equity

In a fascinating and insightful examination of the phenomenon of brand equity, Aaker provides a clear and well-defined structure of the relationship between a brand and its symbol and slogan, as well as each of the five underlying assets, which will clarify for managers exactly how brand equity does contribute value.

The most important assets of any business are intangible: its company name, brands, symbols, and slogans, and their underlying associations, perceived quality, name awareness, customer base, and proprietary resources such as patents, trademarks, and channel relationships. These assets, which comprise brand equity, are a primary source of competitive advantage and future earnings, contends David Aaker, a national authority on branding. Yet, research shows that managers cannot identify with confidence their brand associations, levels of consumer awareness, or degree of customer loyalty. Moreover in the last decade, managers desperate for short-term financial results have often unwittingly damaged their brands through price promotions and unwise brand extensions, causing irreversible deterioration of the value of the brand name. Although several companies, such as Canada Dry and Colgate-Palmolive, have recently created an equity management position to be guardian of the value of brand names, far too few managers, Aaker concludes, really understand the concept of brand equity and how it must be implemented.

The author opens each chapter with a historical analysis of either the success or failure of a particular company's attempt at building brand equity: the fascinating Ivory soap story; the transformation of Datsun to Nissan; the decline of Schlitz beer; the making of the Ford Taurus; and others. Finally, citing examples from many other companies, Aaker shows how to avoid the temptation to place short-term performance before the health of the brand and, instead, to manage brands strategically by creating, developing, and exploiting each of the five assets in turn

Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments

1. What Is Brand Equity?

The Ivory Story

The Role of Brands

Brand-Building Neglect

The Role of Assets and Skills

What Is Brand Equity?

What Is the Value of a Brand?

Brand Value Based upon Future Earnings

Issues in Managing Brand Equity

The Plan of the Book

2. Brand Loyalty

The MicroPro Story

Brand Loyalty

Measuring Brand Loyalty

The Strategic Value of Brand Loyalty

Maintaining and Enhancing Loyalty

Selling Old Customers Instead of New Ones

3. Brand Awareness

The Datsun-Becomes-Nissan Story

The GE-Becomes-Black & Decker Story

What Is Brand Awareness?

How Awareness Works to Help the Brand

The Power of Old Brand Names

How to Achieve Awareness

4. Perceived Quality

The Schlitz Story

What Is Perceived Quality?

How Perceived Quality Generates Value

What Influences Perceived Quality?

5. Brand Associations: The Positioning Decision

The Weight Watchers Story

Associations, Image, and Positioning

How Brand Associations Create Value

Types of Associations

6. The Measurement of Brand Associations

The Ford Taurus Story

What Does This Brand Mean to You?

Scaling Brand Perceptions

7. Selecting, Creating, and Maintaining Associations

The Dove Story

The Honeywell Story

Which Associations

Creating Associations

Maintaining Associations

Managing Disasters

8. The Name, Symbol, and Slogan

The Volkswagen Story

Names

Symbols

Slogans

9. Brand Extensions: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The Levi Tailored Classics Story

The Good: What the Brand Name Brings to the Extension

More Good: Extensions Can Enhance the Core Brand

The Bad: The Name Fails to Help the Extension

The Ugly: The Brand Name Is Damaged

More Ugly: A New Brand Name Is Foregone

How to Go About It

Strategy Considerations

10. Revitalizing the Brand

The Yamaha Story

Increasing Usage

Finding New Uses

Entering New Markets

Repositioning the Brand

Augmenting the Product/Service

Obsoleting Existing Products with New-Generation Technologies

Alternatives to Revitalization: The End Game

11. Global Branding and a Recap

The Kal Kan Story

The Parker Pen Story

A Global Brand?

Targeting a Country

Analyzing the Context

A Recap

Notes

Index