Elements Of Brand Equity Research Articles

Brand equity: extending brand awareness and liking with Signal Detection Theory

Brand equity, which is a central topic in modern marketing, may be assessed from three perspectives: customer mind set, product market outcomes and financial market outcomes. Brand awareness (memory) and brand liking are elements of customer mind set brand equity. The factors determining brand awareness and likeability are also determinants of the change in financial brand equity. In order to understand these factors, Signal Detection Theory is employed for finding the components of brand awareness and likeability. Signal Detection Theory has a strong tradition in psychology, but is under‐represented in marketing and consumer behaviour. This study extended the concept of brand awareness to ‘awareness sensitivity and bias’ and the concept of ‘brand likeability’ to ‘liking sensitivity and bias’ using Signal Detection Theory. The effect of divided attention on the extended components was investigated in three laboratory experiments. It was found that, in the attended mode compared with the unattended mode, consumers perform better in preserving a favourable brand awareness and have a conservative reaction tendency. This effect of attention occurs in building brand awareness for short presentations, but not for long presentations. These findings may serve as guidelines for a strategy formulation for enhancing customer mind set brand equity.

Measuring Customer-Based Restaurant Brand Equity

Strong brand equity is significantly correlated with revenues for quick-service restaurants. In a study 394 respondents gauged the strength of seven quick service restaurant brands doing business in Seoul, Korea. The study tested four elements of brand equity, namely, brand awareness, brand image, brand loyalty, and perceived quality. Of those attributes, brand awareness had the strongest direct effect on revenues, while loyalty had the least effect. Dividing the restaurants into high-performing and low-performing groups, the researchers found that customers differentiated the high-performing restaurants on several product-quality measures, including knowledgeable employees and food served on time and as ordered. Oddly, high-and low-performing restaurants were not differentiated on such other quality factors as making quick corrections to errors, experienced personnel, and cleanliness. One other contrary finding was that although brand equity comprises all four factors being tested, awareness showed the smallest effect on brand equity, far eclipsed by image, loyalty, and product quality.