TL;DR: In this article, Aaker uses real brand-building cases from Saturn, General Electric, Kodak, Healthy Choice, McDonald's, and others to demonstrate how strong brands have been created and managed.
Abstract: As industries turn increasingly hostile, it is clear that strong brand-building skills are needed to survive and prosper. In David Aaker's pathbreaking book, MANAGING BRAND EQUITY, managers discovered the value of a brand as a strategic asset and a company's primary source of competitive advantage. Now, in this compelling new work, Aaker uses real brand-building cases from Saturn, General Electric, Kodak, Healthy Choice, McDonald's, and others to demonstrate how strong brands have been created and managed. A common pitfall of brand strategists is to focus on brand attributes. Aaker shows how to break out of the box by considering emotional and self-expressive benefits and by introducing the brand-as-person, brand-as-organisation, and brand-as-symbol perspectives. A second pitfall is to ignore the fact that individual brands are part of a larger system consisting of many intertwined and overlapping brands and subbrands. Aaker shows how to manage the "brand system" to achieve clarity and synergy, to adapt to a changing environment, and to leverage brand assets into new markets and products. As executives in a wide range of industries seek to prevent their products and services from becoming commodities, they are recommitting themselves to brands as a foundation of business strategy. This new work will be essential reading for the battle-ready.
TL;DR: Brand Equity Measurement and Management System (BEMMSMS) as discussed by the authors is a system for measuring and measuring the Brand Equity of a product and its brand attributes to build Brand Equity.
Abstract: Part I: Opening Perspectives Chapter 1 Brands and Brand Management Part II: Identifying and Establishing Brand Positioning and Values Chapter 2 Customer-Based Brand Equity Chapter 3 Brand Positioning Part III: Planning and Implementing Brand Marketing Programs Chapter 4 Choosing Brand Elements to Build Brand Equity Chapter 5 Designing Marketing Programs to Build Brand Equity Chapter 6 Integrating Marketing Communications to Build Brand Equity Chapter 7 Leveraging Secondary Brand Associations to Build Brand Equity Part IV: Measuring and Interpreting Brand Performance Chapter 8 Developing a Brand Equity Measurement and Management System Chapter 9 Measuring Sources of Brand Equity: Capturing Customer Mind-Set Chapter 10 Measuring Outcomes of Brand Equity: Capturing Market Performance Part V: Growing and Sustaining Brand Equity Chapter 11 Designing and Implementing Branding Strategies Chapter 12 Introducing and Naming New Products and Brand Extensions Chapter 13 Managing Brands over Time Chapter 14 Managing Brands over Geographic Boundaries and Market Segments Part VI: Closing Perspectives Chapter 15 Closing Observations
TL;DR: The most important assets of any business are intangible: its company name, brands, symbols, and slogans, and their underlying associations, perceived quality, name awareness, customer base, and proprietary resources such as patents, trademarks, and channel relationships as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The most important assets of any business are intangible: its company name, brands, symbols, and slogans, and their underlying associations, perceived quality, name awareness, customer base, and proprietary resources such as patents, trademarks, and channel relationships. These assets, which comprise brand equity, are a primary source of competitive advantage and future earnings, contends David Aaker, a national authority on branding. Yet, research shows that managers cannot identify with confidence their brand associations, levels of consumer awareness, or degree of customer loyalty. Moreover in the last decade, managers desperate for short-term financial results have often unwittingly damaged their brands through price promotions and unwise brand extensions, causing irreversible deterioration of the value of the brand name. Although several companies, such as Canada Dry and Colgate-Palmolive, have recently created an equity management position to be guardian of the value of brand names, far too few managers, Aaker concludes, really understand the concept of brand equity and how it must be implemented. In a fascinating and insightful examination of the phenomenon of brand equity, Aaker provides a clear and well-defined structure of the relationship between a brand and its symbol and slogan, as well as each of the five underlying assets, which will clarify for managers exactly how brand equity does contribute value. The author opens each chapter with a historical analysis of either the success or failure of a particular company's attempt at building brand equity: the fascinating Ivory soap storythe transformation of Datsun to Nissanthe decline of Schlitz beerthe making of the Ford Taurus
TL;DR: The authors identified some of the influential work in the branding area, highlighting what has been learned from an academic perspective on important topics such as brand positioning, brand integration, brand-equity measurement, brand growth, and brand management.
Abstract: Branding has emerged as a top management priority in the last decade due to the growing realization that brands are one of the most valuable intangible assets that firms have. Driven in part by this intense industry interest, academic researchers have explored a number of different brand-related topics in recent years, generating scores of papers, articles, research reports, and books. This paper identifies some of the influential work in the branding area, highlighting what has been learned from an academic perspective on important topics such as brand positioning, brand integration, brand-equity measurement, brand growth, and brand management. The paper also outlines some gaps that exist in the research of branding and brand equity and formulates a series of related research questions. Choice modeling implications of the branding concept and the challenges of incorporating main and interaction effects of branding as well as the impact of competition are discussed.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors define the three layers of a brand: kernel, codes and promises, and propose three levels of brand coherence: identity, identity and change, respectively.
Abstract: Introduction: You can't build the brand without building the business Part One: Why is branding so strategic? 1 Brand equity in question What is a brand? Differentiating between brand assets, strength and value Tracking brand equity Goodwill: the convergence of finance and marketing How brands create value for the customer How brands create value for the company Corporate reputation and the corporate brand 2 Strategic implications of branding What does branding really mean? Permanently nurturing the difference What you do first is most important The brand is really a contract The product and the brand Each brand needs a flagship product Advertising products through the brand prism Brands and other signs of quality Obstacles to the implications of branding Service brands 3 Brand and business building Are brands for all companies? Building a market leader without advertising Brand building: from product to values, and vice versa Are leading brands the best products? Understanding the value curve of the target Breaking the rule and acting fast Comparing brand and business models: cola drinks Two different approaches to luxury brand building Part Two: The challenges of modern markets 4 The new rules of brand management The new challenges of modern markets Key principles of competitive branding The enlarged scope of brand management Licensing: a strategic lever The logic of co-branding 5 Brand identity and positioning Brand identity: a necessary concept Identity and positioning Why brands need identity and positioning The six facets of brand identity Sources of identity Brand essence 6 The logic of retail brands The changing nature of retail brands Why have a retail brand? The business logic of retail brands How retail brands grow Success factors of retail brands Optimising the retail brand marketing mix Changing the brand and business model: Decathlon How manufacturers compete against retail brands Defending against imitation by retail brands Facing the low cost revolution Part Three: Creating and sustaining brand equity 7 Launching the brand Launching a brand and launching a product are not the same Defining the brand's platform The process of brand positioning Determining the flagship product Brand campaign or product campaign? Brand language and territory of communication Choosing a name for a strong brand Overcoming thresholds in brand awareness Making creative advertising work for the brand Building brand foundations through opinion leaders Taking distributors into account 8 The challenge of growth in mature markets Growth through existing customers Line extensions: necessity and limits Growth through innovation Disrupting markets through value innovation Managing fragmented markets Growth through cross-selling between brands Growth through internationalisation 9 Sustaining a brand long term Is there a brand life cycle? The fragile equilibrium of added value Recreating a perceived difference Investing in communication No one is free from price comparisons Image is an art at retail Creating entry barriers Defending against brand counterfeiting From brand equity to customer equity Sustaining proximity with influencers The necessity of dual management 10 Adapting to the market: identity and change The necessity of change Brand identity versus brand diversity Consistency is not mere repetition The three layers of a brand: kernel, codes and promises Respecting the brand contract Managing two levels of branding Checking the value of one's identity Reinventing the brand: Salomon 11 Growth through brand extensions What is new about brand extensions? Brand or line extensions? The limits of the classical conception of a brand Why are brand extensions necessary? Building the brand through systematic extensions Extending the brand to internationalise it Identifying potential extensions The economics of brand extension What research tells us about brand extensions How extensions impact the brand: a typology Avoiding the risk of dilution What does brand coherence really mean? Balancing identity and change Assessing what should not change: the brand kernel Preparing the brand for remote extensions Keys to successful brand extensions Is the market is really attractive? A few classic implementation errors An extension-based business model: Virgin 12 Brand architecture: managing brand and product relationships Branding strategies Choosing the appropriate branding strategy Retailers' branding strategies New trends in branding strategies Internationalising the architecture of the brand Group and corporate brands Corporate brands and product brands 13 Multi-brand portfolios Inherited complex portfolios From single to multiple brands: Michelin The benefits of multiple entries Linking the portfolio to segmentation Global portfolio strategy The case of industrial brand portfolios Linking the brand portfolio to the corporate strategy Key rules to manage a multi-brand portfolio Design and portfolio management Does the brand portfolio match the organisation? Auditing the portfolio strategically A local and global portfolio - Nestle 14 Handling name changes and brand transfers Brand transfers are more than a name change Reasons for brand transfers The challenge of brand transfers When one should not switch When brand transfer fails Analysing best practices Transferring a service brand Which brand to retain after a merger Managing resistance to change Factors of successful brand transfers Changing the corporate brand 15 Ageing, decline and revitalisation The decay of brand equity The factors of decline When the brand becomes generic The ageing of brands Rejuvenating a brand Growing older but not ageing 16 Managing global brands The latest on globalisation A classification of global brands Patterns of brand globalisation Why globalise? The benefits of a global image Conditions favouring global brands The excess of globalisation Barriers to globalisation Coping with local diversity Building the brand in emerging countries Naming problems Achieving the delicate local-global balance Being perceived as local: the new ideal of global brands? Local brands make a comeback? The process of brand globalization Globalising communications: processes and problems Making local brands converge Part Four: Brand valuation 17 Financial brand valuation Accounting for brands: the debate What is financial brand equity? Evaluating brand valuation methods The nine steps to brand valuation The evaluation of complex cases What about the brand values published annually in the press?