Consumer Equity Pyramid

Adapted from Keller (2001)

Consumer Recognition
▪ Awareness of a brand is the necessary first step.
▪ Communications campaigns create exposure, interest, and attention to the brand.
▪ The intended brand identity drives the promotional messages.
▪ The aim is to make the consumer feel that the brand is “familiar.”
▪ A new brand can involve considerable expenditure.

Consumer Response
▪ A positive response depends not only on consumers’ rational evaluation of the brand
but also on attitudes.
▪ Segmentation now plays a major role.
▪ Decisions have to be made about whether the brand should be niche brand or a
mainstream brand.
▪ It is crucial to choose the right message, the right spokesperson, the right media for
the specific target segment.
▪ Here the promotional efforts often shift into competitive comparisons and “hard
sell” efforts to encourage trial.
Consumer Perceptions
▪ Perceptions involve more knowledge of the product and service behind the brand.
▪ Here the image that the brand wants to convey is at stake.
▪ The aim is the value proposition presentation of the brand, and its positioning.
▪ The messages attempt to highlight the superiority of certain attributes and point of
parity with competing brands.

Consumer Bonding
▪ The consumer’s allegiance rises to loyalty and a “bonded” relationship.

▪ The brand has a deeper meaning to consumers beyond simple awareness,

knowledge, and preference.

▪ At this stage the product connection often is transcended and the brand becomes a
self-expressive symbol of the consumer aspirational personality.

Beaverland (2018)