Brand Equity

Aaker’s Model and Measuring BE.

Devising brand strategies

Lecture 11
Beenish Nawaz
Aaker’s Brand Equity model
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.

Brand awareness: how known is the
brand to the public? Like the Keller model,
this is the starting point of building brand
equity.
Brand loyalty: how loyal are people to the
brand? Loyalty is hard for competitors to
copy, so it gives a brand time to respond
to competition.
Brand associations: what do people feel
when they see the brand? The cognitive,
split-second reaction to seeing the brand on
adverts, during the buying process, the
‘feel-good factor’, the number of available
brand extensions and differentiations.
Patents, IP and trading partners: brands
with higher accumulated proprietary rights
have a competitive edge against other
brands.

Perceived quality: is the brand known or

expected to deliver good quality
products? Quality above features will give
a product the edge with consumers – for a
while, until they begin to demand the
features.
1. BUILD GREATER AWARENESS
Using the same logo or image to ensure your How to build
branding is consistent your brand
Great customer service
equity?
A heart-warming story behind the brand

Keeping the brand in front of your market

Providing ongoing value

Keeping in touch via email or newsletters

Tap into social media and share – blogs,

tweets, Facebook groups, Instagram photos

Word of mouth, positive customer

experience and targeted marketing all help you

develop greater brand awareness.

2. COMMUNICATE BRAND MEANING AND WHAT IT
STANDS FOR How to build
IKEA, for example, has invested in sustainability your brand
throughout its entire business operation: 50%
equity?
of its wood is from sustainable sources, 100%
of its cotton is Better Cotton standard and
700,000 solar panels power its stores. With
feel-good eco-credentials like these, spending
a Sunday afternoon assembling an IKEA flat
pack seems more a pleasure than a chore
when the product comes from such a
reputable brand.  
3. FOSTER POSITIVE CUSTOMER FEELINGS
AND JUDGMENTS
How to build
A brand that can maintain positive judgments
and feelings is onto a winner. For example, the
your brand
Apple iPad: did you think you needed one
before you saw one and appreciated its
equity?
capabilities? Now, for many of us, it’s our
computer, games console, TV, radio, alarm
clock, mobile bank, messaging service… we
love our iPads.

4. BUILD A STRONG BOND OF LOYALTY WITH

YOUR CUSTOMERS

By engaging in social media chats on Twitter,

Facebook and Instagram, online forums and
even events. Brand equity connection that
borders on customer evangelism is valuable.
 How to measure brand
equity
There are three core brand equity drivers that
you need to track:

 Financial metrics
 Strength metrics:
Consumer metrics
 Financial metrics

You should be able to extrapolate from the

data market share, profitability,
revenue, price, growth rate, cost
to retain customers, cost to
acquire new customers and
branding investment.
You can use solid financial metrics data to
demonstrate how important your brand is to
the business and secure higher marketing
budgets to continue growing.
 Strength metrics:
Strong brands are more likely to survive
despite change and deliver more brand equity,
so it’s essential you measure its strength.
You’ll need to track awareness and

knowledge of the brand, accessibility,

customer loyalty and retention, licensing
potential and brand ‘buzz’.
As well as surveys that use open text

questions, social media monitoring will be

able to give you a picture of how your brand is
known and loved (or not).
Consumer metrics

Companies don’t build brands, customers

do, so it’s essential that you track consumer
purchasing behavior and sentiment
towards your brand.

Track and measure brand relevance,

emotional connection, value and brand
perception through surveys and social
media monitoring.

The right text analytics software that can

interpret open text comments is particularly
useful here to gather sentiment and
suggestions.
With seven seconds being the average
amount of time a consumer takes to decide
between brands, it’s more important than
ever that your brand and brand values are
instantly.