Consumer Perception of Brand Equity Measurement: a New Scale

Brand equity is perhaps the most important marketing concept in both academia and practice. The term came into use during the late 1980s; and the importance of conceptualizing, measuring, and managing brand equity has grown rapidly in the eyes of practitioners and academics alike. This has resulted in several often-divergent view-points on the dimensions of brand equity, the factors that influence it, the perspectives from which it should be studied, and the ways to measure it. Many different definitions and ways to measure brand equity have been proposed, and most of them are based upon the definition: the added value with which a given brand endows a product. The two most influential conceptualizations of brand equity are Aaker and Keller. Aaker defines brand equity as a set of brand assets and liabilities linked to a brand, its name and symbol, that add to or subtract from the value provided by a product or service to a firm and/or to that firm’s customers. Keller defines consumer-based brand equity (CBBE) as the differential effect of brand knowledge on consumer response to the marketing of the brand. Currently, all research on brand equity has used the same conceptualization of the construct based on previously determined dimensions with no attempt to argue their validity. Given the importance of the concept of brand equity in marketing, as well as the need for the measurement of brand equity, the literature lacks an empirically based consumer-perceived brand equity scale. Since the brand is the consumer’s idea, the consumer is an active participant in the creation of equity for the brand. So if we want to understand and manage the intangible equity directly, we have to have the consumer’s help. This dissertation enriches and strengthens the current knowledge on brand equity by developing a new conceptualization and scale determined by dimensions that consumers perceive. The new Consumer-Perceived Consumer-Based Brand Equity Scale is made up of five dimensions: quality, preference, social influence, sustainability, and leadership. Previous conceptualizations of brand equity have discussed dimensions that are consumer descriptors. Since perceived brand equity is the value that consumers perceive in the brand, this conceptualization presents dimensions that are brand characteristics. The new robust scale contributes both to the theoretical understanding of consumer-based brand equity measurement, as well as assisting managers, or brand ambassadors, in measuring brand equity and developing successful brand strategies. The value of a consumer-perceived, consumer-based brand equity scale suggests a number of new directions for study and elaboration in what is certain to be a compelling stream of research with vast implications for both theory and practice.