Measuring brand perceptions: Testing quantity and quality

Abstract

The image of a brand is considered to be important as is evident from the vast sums of money spent by companies on the development and measurement of their corporate/brand image. Yet very little is known about the relationship between brand perceptions and buyer behaviour. The authors empirically tested three hypotheses about the relationship between brand perceptions and loyalty. They found that (a) there was little evidence that any particular attributes are more related to customer loyalty than any others nor (b) that there were specific brand positions that were uniquely associated with higher loyalty. They did, however, find the more attributes associated with a brand the more loyal the customer. This is a relatively unexplored effect of brand perceptions, which should be included in brand tracking, and has some profound implications for marketing practice. It suggests that while distinctiveness is useful in making sure that the brand's marketing activities are noticed and correctly branded, the source of that distinctiveness is a less important marketing decision. Finally, they recommend that there should be different long and short-term goals for brand building. In the short term a choice may be made to focus on specific attributes. In the long term, however, marketers should work towards building the number of links between the brand and attributes in the market place, ie building the brand's share of mind. ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR Copyright of Journal of Targeting, Measurement & Analysis for Marketing is the property of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)