Understanding Brand Equity:
Importance, Measurement, and Strategies
What Is Brand Equity?
Brand equity is the intangible value of a brand and can be thought of as the values the brand is perceived to have in comparison with its competitor brands in the same category. It is an important measure of a brand’s current or potential success and can have a significant impact on its long-term growth and profitability.
Implicit and Explicit Testing
To analyse brand equity, researchers use a combination of implicit and explicit tests. Implicit tests measure consumers’ subconscious and emotional responses to a brand, while explicit tests measure their conscious and rational attitudes towards the brand.
By combining these two types of tests, researchers can gain a more comprehensive understanding of how consumers perceive a brand’s image, and reputation. This information can then be used to develop strategies to improve the brand’s equity and drive growth.
Implicit tests measure consumers’ subconscious associations with a brand, such as emotional responses and automatic thoughts. These tests provide valuable insights into how consumers truly feel about a brand, beyond what they may express in a survey or focus group.
Explicit tests, on the other hand, measure consumers’ conscious attitudes towards a brand, such as their perceptions of the brand’s quality, reliability, and value. These tests provide valuable insights into how consumers rationally weigh the pros and cons of a brand when making purchasing decisions.
By analysing the results of both implicit and explicit tests, researchers can identify areas of strength and weakness in a brand’s equity. They can then develop strategies to strengthen the brand’s positive associations and address any negative associations and concerns.
For example, if implicit testing reveals that consumers associate a brand with negative emotion, such as anxiety or frustration, the brand manager may develop strategies to create more positive emotional associations with the brand, such as by creating advertising campaigns that evoke positive emotions or by improving the customer experience.
Overall, the use of implicit and explicit tests in brand equity analysis offers valuable insights that can help brand managers understand how consumers perceive their brand and develop strategies to improve its equity and drive growth.
Analysing your
brand equity and brand positioning
Why do people buy the things they buy and why should they choose you? Is there a gap in the market?
What is Brand Equity?
Brand equity is the intangible value of a brand.
It can be thought of as the values the brand is perceived to have, in comparison with its competitor brands in the same category.
What do we test when we measure brand equity and brand positioning?
We measure brands, products, or services that sit in a particular market category. We most often begin with Market Category Analysis and then drill down to each brand in the category. We present images or descriptions of products from the category.
What are the outputs when we measure brand positioning?
- The strengths and weakness of each brand, ways in which they appeal to consumers in the category and shortcomings
- Brand associations – we learn what consumers associate with each brand
- When used with our Market Category Analysis, we can identify missed opportunities – consumer wants and needs that brands are not addressing
- Buyer personas discovered through segmentation analysis and the brands each tends to buy
Why is an implicit response testing great for understanding brand equity and positioning?
To analyse brand equity, researchers use a combination of implicit and explicit tests.
Many purchases are to be based on nonconscious, gut-reactions. In other words, consumers find it difficult to fully account for their buying behaviour, especially why they choose one brand over another. Implicit response tests, through the IAT or affective priming, is a technique that has its origins in Fazio, Sanbonmatsu, Powell, and Kardes (1986) and has been used to understand the formation and expression of preferences (e.g., Steinman & Karpinski, 2009; Friese, Wänke, & Plessner, 2006) . Although it is one of the least expensive techniques in the neuromarketing range of techniques, it can provide more information as to WHY people choose the products they buy at a detail level.
Implicit tests measure consumers’ subconscious associations with a brand. These are associations such as emotional responses and automatic thoughts. Implicit reaction tests provide valuable insights into how consumers truly feel about a brand. These insights go beyond what respondents may express in a survey or focus group.
Explicit tests, on the other hand, measure consumers’ conscious attitudes towards a brand. These are attitudes such as their perceptions of the brand’s quality, reliability, and value. Explicit tests provide valuable insights into how consumers rationally think. They may rationally weigh the pros and cons of a brand when making purchasing decisions.
References
Fazio, R. H., Sanbonmatsu, D. M., Powell, M. C. & Kardes, F. R. (1986). On the automatic activation of attitudes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50, 229-238. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/0022-3514.50.2.229
Friese, M., Wänke, M., & Plessner, H. (2006). Implicit Consumer Preferences and Their Influence on Product Choice. Psychology & Marketing, 23(9), 727–740. https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.20126
Steinman, R. B. & Karpinski, A. (2009). The breadth-based adjective rating task as an indirect measure of consumer attitudes. Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal, 37, 173-174. http://dx.doi.org/10.2224/sbp.2009.37.2.173
Examples of the brands and products whose brand equity we have researched include:
Shell V-Power, Esso Energy Supreme+ 99, Morrisons Super Fuel Premium Unleaded 97, Sainsbury’s Premium Unleaded 97, Tesco Momentum 99, ASDA Premium Unleaded 97, BP Ultimate Unleaded, Wild Nutrition, Holland & Barrett, Health & Her, BioCare, WellWoman, Pregnacare, J&J abiliti, Alcon, Bausch & Lomb, CooperVision, Glaukos, Hydrogel Vision, Ciba Vision, Novartis Opthalmics, Santander mortgages, Halifax mortgages, Nationwide mortgages, Lloyds Bank mortgages, Barclays mortgages, HSBC mortgages, NatWest mortgages, Virgin Money mortgages, Coventry Building Society mortgages, Skipton Building Society mortgages, YBS mortgages, Morrisons, Tesco, Asda, Co-op, Sainsburys, Aldi, Lidl, Iceland, M&S food, Ocado, Waitrose, McDonald’s UK, KFC UK, Subway, Burger King, Warner Holidays, Haven, P&O cruises, Center Parcs, Premier Inn, Butlins, Potters Resorts, De vere Hotels, Macdonald hotels & Resorts, Hilton, Q hotels, Champneys, Malmaison, Danone Acqui, Le Minerali, Nestlé Pure Life, Fiji Water, Evian, Volvic, Chanel, Clarins, Lancome, Estee Lauder, Charlotte Tilbury, Creme de la Mer, Mothercare, NEXT, Mamas & Papas, ZARA, Mini Klub, Max, babyshop, H&M, Little Palmerhaus, Orchestra, Leto, Prenatal, Babyshop, Mamas & Papas, Motherswork, Babyshop, CottonOn, Nando’s, Rooster’s Piri Piri, Pepe’s, Wagamama, Alchemist, Botanist, Dirty Martini, Pitcher & Piano, Las Iguanas, All Bar One, Revolucion de Cuba, Asahi, Budweiser, Carlsberg, Coors Light, Guinness, Heineken, San Miguel, ASOS, Boohoo, New Look, Next, River Island, Superdry, Ted Baker, EE, Giff Gaff, O2, Talk Talk, Tesco Mobile, Three, Virgin Mobile, Vodafone, Hiscox, Axa, Direct Line, Aviva, Admiral, Churchill, LV, Swinton, Hastings Direct, Finder, iSelect, Compare, Canstar, CHOICE, WhistleOut, Brighte, Humm, Openpay, Payright, Plenti, Zip, Amita Regular, Amita Motion, Lakonia, Life Ambient, HBH (drink), Viva (drink), Frulite on the Go, Frulite Regular, Life Chilled, Οικογένεια Χριστοδούλου, Olympus chilled, Amita Proino, Kampos Chiou, Amita fun, PEPPA PIG (drink), Lakonia Junior, Lakonia Disney, HBH Go!, Delta Smart chilled, Amita Motion, Coca-Cola, Fanta, Green Cola, Bikos Cola, Coca-Cola Zero, Loux, Sprite, Coca-Cola Light, Fanta Lemon, Pepsi Cola, Pepsi Max, Pepsi Twist, Schweppes soda, Schweppes tonic, Schweppes lemon, Schweppes ginger ale, Lyle’s Golden Syrup, Rose’s Lemon and Lime Marmalade, Skippy Smooth Peanut Butter, Tesco Luxury Soft Toilet Tissue, Tesco Basic Toilet Tissue, Andrex Toilet Tissue, and Sofcell Toilet Tissue, Danone Yoghurt, Activia, Danacol, Danet, Alpro, Provamel, Oikos, Actimel, Vitalinea, Savia, YoPro, Opill, Feminax, Durex, Monistat, Today C, ept, Trojan, Encare, Plan B One-Step, 7 Eleven, Circle K, Best Mart 360, Vango, 759, Strauman, Novel Biocar, Zimmer Biomet, Osstem Implant, Stratec, Dnetsply, BioHorizons, Hycosan, HyloForte, Optrex, Boots Allergy Eye Mist, Boots Eye Drops, Viscotears Liquid Gel, Viasat Viasport, TV2 Sport, Strive, and so many more (too many to list here!!!!)
Updated July 2024 by Dr Eamon Fulcher PhD
Combining Implicit and Explicit to Gain More Meaningful Insights
Using the results of both implicit and explicit tests, researchers can identify the strengths and weaknesses in a brand’s equity. They can also assess the brand equity of competitors and this yields a huge amount of information about the players in the category. Knowledge is power!
Brands can then develop strategies to strengthen the brand’s positive associations based on an informed position.
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