In recent years, the "Strong Brand" has established itself as one of the most popular corporate objectives in management literature and practice.
Like other corporate objectives that cannot be reduced to financial figures (e.g., customer satisfaction, innovation, loyalty), evaluating success is sensible and necessary—but not easy. This is due, on the one hand, to the existing understanding of the brand phenomenon and, on the other hand, to often very complex measurement instruments. We show some ways companies can assess whether they have a strong brand. In doing so, we refrain from presenting financial brand valuation analyses (à la Interbrand or Millward Brown).
One of the best-known definitions of consumer-oriented brand strength is that of Kevin Lane Keller, who defines brand equity as the influence of brand knowledge on consumer response (in terms of attitude and behavior). The existing brand knowledge of strong brands triggers positive reactions (e.g., higher acceptance of new products, stronger recommendations, high tolerance for errors, etc.). Weak brands are less able or unable to benefit from these positive reactions. For example, Apple’s brand strength led potential customers, media, and distributors to talk extensively about the iPhone and signal its desirability months before its introduction. Many other companies in this industry can only dream of such a response.
Based on this definition, two – from our perspective, complementary – strategies for determining brand strength can be derived, ideally combined into a single perspective.
The Connection Between Knowledge and Reaction
Knowledge, attitude, and behavior influence each other. It is interesting to see which brand content (i.e., which knowledge) typically leads to particularly positive attitudes or behavior towards the brand. One possible approach to illuminate this connection is to analyze brand knowledge across different customer segments that vary significantly in their attitude or behavior towards the brand: For example, what do very loyal customers think about the brand, and what do brand critics, potential customers, or sporadic customers know? What significance does the brand hold for particularly committed customers, and what for former customers?
We believe that this perspective is just as relevant for identifying levers to strengthen the brand as comparing it with competitor brands. Competitive comparisons reveal differentiating components of the brand, which are often obvious due to different positioning. By comparing segments for which the brand has different relevance or which react differently strongly (both positively and negatively) to the brand, a brand manager can identify those components of the brand content that typically trigger positive reactions and optimize their brand presence accordingly.
