Executive Summary CH8

A brand is a name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or some combination of these elements, intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors.

Brands are valuable intangible assets that offer a number of benefits to customers and firms. Brand equity should be defined in terms of marketing effects uniquely attributable to a brand. Building brand equity depends on three main factors: 

1. The initial choices for the brand elements or identities making up the brand;
2. the way the brand is integrated into the supporting marketing program; and
3. the associations indirectly transferred to the brand by links to some other entity.

Brand audits measure “where the brand has been,” and tracking studies measure “where the brand is now.”