How Brand Image Drives Brand Equity

Abstract

he article offers some insight about the nature of brand images and explores the relationship of image to the concept of brand equity. The author notes that consumers like brands because they package meaning. They form a kind of shorthand that makes choice easier. They let one escape from a feature-by-feature analysis of category alternatives, and so, in a world where time is an ever-diminishing commodity, brands make it easier to store evaluations. The concept of brands is somewhat easier to understand and accept in categories where the product is complex and multifaceted. However, successful brands have frequently been developed in commodity-like categories. While brand equity has come to stand for a financial concept associated with the valuation placed on a brand, it is useful to recognize that the equity of a brand is driven by brand image, a consumer concept. Any expectation of the cash flow premium enjoyed by a successful brand ultimately depends upon consumer behavior. And consumer behavior is, at root, driven by perceptions of a brand.