Tuesday, March 17, 2009

What is brand equity and why are CEO’s in charge of it?

The value of a brand is established in the C-Suite of an enterprise. Every day, the decisions leadership makes either build or detract from a brand’s value. The only way to achieve brand dominance in the marketplace is to constantly drive the value of your brand by building Brand Equity.

There is some confusion in the market over the terminology:

· Brand Equity is “a set of brand assets and liabilities linked to a brand; its name and symbol that add or subtract from the value proved by a product/service to a firm and their customers.” (1) This is the true value of your brand (business).

· Marketing is business activity involved in moving goods from the producer to the customer through advertising, sales, packaging and promotion.

· Branding is a name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods or services of one seller to differentiate them from those of the competition. Think about it. A logo or symbol is like an empty vessel. The only way to make it meaningful is to fill it with value in a compelling way.

Until you clearly define the meaning behind your mark, you have not differentiated your organization. And once you do, spend time increasing the value of that brand name over time with every action you take. We call it brand value.

The secret to building Brand Equity is to admit the long term is made up of a series of short term moments and activities. Every decision you make builds towards improving the Brand Equity of your firm. The components of Brand Equity include; pricing strategy, naming, assets, awareness, loyalty drivers and associations in a relevant, sustaining way.

Building Brand Equity successfully is linked to a clear strategy for your enterprise:

1) Define the drivers of brand equity--attributes that matter most to the satisfaction of your customers


2) Agree upon the role marketing leadership plays to build Brand Equity


3) Understand and communicate your core competency and Brand Equity with a unified voice


4) Deploy metrics for evaluating growth and improvements in Brand Equity through market share

So who is doing a good job in today’s economy of building and maintaining Brand Equity and why?

Airlift can help you build a clear roadmap to long term Brand Equity. Define your long term competitive advantage in a highly charged economic time with the right brand story.


Call Airlift today at 312.492.7772 or write us at srosen@airliftideas.com

Source: (1) Managing Brand Equity by David Akers. Webster’s Dictionary

2 comments:

Airlift Brand Story Telling said...

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Unknown said...

Hi,
This is excellent post. Thanks for sharing such a nice post about brand equity. You have define excellently.