How to measure brand image: a reasoned review
Luca Cian, Ross Business School, University of Michigan, USA*
The aim of this paper is to review the most important tools and methods used to analyse and measure the brand image. Both traditional and innovative measurements have been considered, including attitude scales, Q-Sort, Natural Grouping, Kelly Repertory Grid, Laddering, Benefit Chain, Projective Techniques, Brand Personality, and Brand Narration. Considering the number of tools presented, the focus is not on their comparison (impossible with so many tools), but on their presentation in a unique paper. This review represents a useful vademecum for both practitioners and researchers in the fields of marketing and economic psychology
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Image, in this way, can be seen as a socially influenced subjective representation of an external object (Coulter & Zaltman, 1994; Zaltman & Coulter, 1995). Image construct is composed of emotional and functional elements (Kennedy, 1977; Palacio et al., 2002); and the emotional side seems to be the prevalent one (Palacio et al., 2002). In the consumer, advertising and semiotic literature, the importance of the symbolic dimension of the brand image has recently been underlined (e.g., Ballantyne et al., 2006; Cian & Cervai, 2011; Heath & Scott, 1997; Hogg & Banister, 2001; Meenaghan, 1995; Semprini, 2006). PART II: TECHNIQUES TO MEASURE BRAND IMAGE The scales and tools reported and described are listed as follows: Attitude Scales, Q-Sort, Natural Grouping, Kelly Repertory Grid, Laddering, Benefit Chain, Projective Techniques, Brand Personality, and Brand Narration. 1 Attitude Scale The Attitude scale consists of a set of statements concerning the subject’s attitude related to a brand. The assumption is that the brand image is an
Cian How to measure the brand image attitude that can be measured with the Likert scale or a semantic differential scale (the most used scale in the Marketing literature). The former is
The brand image is the brand's total personality impression in the consumer’s mind (real and imaginary qualities and shortcomings). It is developed through advertising campaigns over time with a consistent theme. Talbot and his team conducted social media research and there objective was to: -
A brand is a portfolio of qualities associated with a name, which in turn invokes certain images to individuals and hold values beyond the benefits of a product (Iacobucci, 2018). Brand association occurs when customers make a cognitive or emotional association with a particular brand. For instance, when a customer sees a certain color, symbol, logo, or name they automatically can make a connection to a particular brand. Brands start with a name that conveys information, suggest their benefits, or can even be named after their founders (Iacobucci, 2018). In the marketing perspective marketers can control the brand which they are marketing by using catching logos, colors, slogans, or even the products shape and appearance. In marketing a marketer can control the message they are trying to convey but cannot really have control over an individual’s association with that particular brand. Once a customer has an association with a particular brand they may favor the brand based on a past experience or even that individual’s sense of style or they may dislike a brand because of an association they
It has been acknowledge (Romaniuk & Sharp 2004) that Brand salience can be defined as the propensity of the brand to be thought of by buyers when they are in a buying situations. A brand awareness strategy depends on how well known the brand is, Brand Salience is forming image to refresh their memory about the brands that can linked to consumer mind as well as the quantity and quality of the cue to brand links (Olson & Peter 2005), it is very important that consumer can connect to their mind as many cues as possible . The level of consumers’ brand awareness necessary to induce purchase varies depending on how and where they make their purchase decision for that product category or form. The brand attitude is focus on evaluating the brand, according to Schiffman and Kanuk (2007) “attitudes are relevant to purchase behavior are formed as a result of direct experience with the product, word-of-mouth information acquired from others, or exposure to mass-media advertising, the internet, and various forms of direct marketing”
15. There are five key components—or pillars—of brand equity. Which of those components or pillars measures the breadth of a brand’s appeal?
As Keller (1993, p. 3) argues, “[…] perceptions about a brand as reflected by the brand associations held in consumer memory”. Keller (1998) also suggests that there are three categories that constitute the overall brand perception: attributes; benefits and attitudes. A study conducted by Simms and Trott (2006) explores the brand perception of the MINI stakeholders. Based on their findings researchers established a model that gives a “perspective on a product brand by linking specific brand associations to the image that is developed in the mind of the consumer or stakeholder, and finally linking this to how the image appeals to key stakeholders” (Simms and Trott, 2006) . The application of their model to the MINI brand is presented in Appendix 2. .
Brand image is the impression in the consumers' mind of a brand's total personality (real and imaginary qualities and shortcomings). It is set of feelings, emotions and experiences that are linked to the brand. While brand personality is the image the company wants to convey through the different brand architecture (logo, name, Marketing mix, and communicated messages) and they have control over, the brand image is the subjective mental picture of the brand. It is developed over time through advertising
1. Financial – One way to measure brand equity is to determine the price premium that a brand commands over a generic product. For example, if consumers are willing to pay $100 more for a branded television over an unbranded television, the premium
1. A brief history of the brand: origins, key stages in its growth , etc.
Brand Equity is the added value endowed by the brand to the Product. Although the idea of using a name or a symbol to enhance a product’s value has been known to marketers for a long time, brand equity has gained renewed interest in recent years. Brand managers realize that after years of look-alike advertising and over copying with me-too brands, they now live in a world of product parity. The ensuing price competition through short term price promotions reduces the profitability of brands leading manufactures to examine ways to enhance loyalty toward their brands. In addition, facing with the increasing power of retailers, manufacturers of consumer products realize that having the
The ultimate goal of any company regardless of what industry or size is to maximize profit and expansion. In order for this to be achieved a good company must project a favorable image, personality and atmosphere.
Customers can make different judgements as regards a brand. Customers put together imagery and the different brand performance to make the judgement (Lane Keller, 2011).
Then, the construct of brand image can be understood as the associations, external target groups have in their minds about brands. These associations can be further divided into those concerning the functional attributes of a brand and those concerning the symbolic attributes of a brand (Burmann 2008). Referable to the importance of brand images for the behavior of various target groups, considerable attention has been paid to factors that possibly influence brand images.
In recent times, branding has played a pivotal role in some brands’ success. This has been made possible through the ability of some marketers to capture the essence and minds of people (consumers), and put the trends and characteristics into the personality of a brand. Customers have always found ways to identify themselves with certain products, and on several occasions, branding campaigns
This results in the consumers differentiating the brand from its competitors as a result of likelihood of consumers purchasing the brand. Hsieh & Huang, 2013 also suggested “the connection between brand and brand image is complementary. A positive image not only shows the characteristic of a brand, catching people’s attention, but also promotes the positive merits and values of a brand, as well as the loyalty of consumers.” Hence, the author believes that as brand image is described as a perceptual phenomenon also acts as an important factor that contributes to the perception differences among
The Empirical data was collected by web based questionnaire filled by 236 respondent. A structural equational model was used to test e-loyalty model. The study revealed that brand awareness effects brand image which directly or indirectly influence the brand emotional attachment and brand evaluation the total effects of brand awareness and brand image suggest that higher awareness level and positive image encourage OSN users to be more loyal. The study further found that there is no as such difference between the conceptualization and loyalty and how brand create loyalty either by offline or online