Measuring and Managing Brand Equity

How do we measure brand equity? An indirect approach assesses potential sources of brand equity by identifying and tracking consumer brand knowledge structures. A direct approach assesses the actual impact of brand knowledge on consumer response to different aspects of the marketing.

For brand equity to guide strategy and decisions, marketers need to fully understand 

1. the sources of brand equity and how they affect outcomes of interest and 
2. how these sources and outcomes change, if at all, over time.

Brand audits are important for the former; brand tracking for the latter.