Abstract
Different meanings of the expression ‘Brand Equity’ are reviewed, concluding that the phrase has at least three quite distinct senses. These are identified as Brand Valuation, (consumer) Brand Strength, and Brand Description. It is argued that Brand Valuation is a form of forecasting and therefore quite different from measures of current Brand Strength. Many different measures of consumer Brand Strength are reviewed; as these measure different things, there can be no single measure which is universally meaningful. The author concludes that while much of the current emphasis on branding is helpful, and many different types of performance measures are relevant to it, ‘Brand Equity’ itself is not a scientific concept.
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1Paul Feldwick obtained a First Class Honours degree in English from Trinity College, Oxford, in 1974. He then joined Boase Massimi Pollitt, (now BMP DDB) as an Account Planner. Having been Head of the Account Planning Department from 1988–92, he is now Executive Planning Director. Paul is a former Chairman of the Qualitative Research Practitioners and of the Account Planning Group. He was the editor of ‘Advertising Works 5 and 6’. He has given numerous talks and written many articles on advertising and branding, and has twice won the Best Paper Award at the Market Research Society Conference, most recently this year for an earlier version of this paper. He is currently working on a book for advertisers and agencies on the subject of Evaluating Advertising.
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Feldwick, P. Do we really need ‘Brand Equity’?. J Brand Manag 4, 9–28 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1057/bm.1996.23
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/bm.1996.23