Executive Summary
Perhaps because of its importance, brand performance has been approached in several different ways by several different researchers employing several different measures. Lehmann, Keller, and Farley examine a broad range of these measures to explore their overlap and to uncover core underlying dimensions and the structure of brand performance metrics that balance parsimony and completeness. They also examine how different dimensions of brand performance and profiles of leading brands vary by country (i.e., the United States and China). The results suggest that brand performance can be usefully characterized according to six factors: comprehension, comparative advantage, interpersonal relations, history, preference, and attachment.
These six factors inform several key issues about brands, branding, and brand performance. First, they tap into a broad range of aspects of the brand and vary in terms of tangibility, relationship to the product, level of abstraction, and selforientation. Thus, the authors’ analysis reinforces the observation that no single measure fully captures the richness of brand performance; multiple sets of measures and factors must be employed.
Second, there is a logical sequence to the brand performance factors: (1) comprehension; (2) comparative advantage, interpersonal relations, and history; (3) preference; and (4) attachment. The relationships among the six factors are consistent with classic models of consumer decision making and brand building that involve a hierarchy of effects—from simple, basic aspects of brand awareness and knowledge to more involved consumer loyalty relationships.
Third, the study results point out the importance of brand intangibles. In an increasingly less differentiated world, marketers may need to transcend the physical product to create more abstract associations. Lehmann, Keller, and Farley identify two factors of brand image that are not directly related to product performance (history and interpersonal relations) and deserve greater attention.
Finally, the results show that the structure of brand performance in the current setting was fairly similar across countries. However, although the ratings of the brands within categories varied significantly, country and category factors explained more variance than the specific major brands. In other words, there is a clear distinction between categories and between leading and secondary brands, but not necessarily as much distinction between the strongest top brands within a category, at least within the brands studied.
Biography
Donald R. Lehmann is George E. Warren Professor of Business at the Graduate School of Business at Columbia University. He has a BS in mathematics from Union College and an MSIA and PhD from the Krannert School of Purdue University. His research interests include modeling choice and decision making, meta-analysis, the introduction and adoption of innovations, and the measurement and management of marketing assets (customers and brands). He has taught courses in marketing, management, and statistics at Columbia University and has also taught at Cornell University, Dartmouth College, and New York University. He has published in and served on the editorial boards of Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Management Science, and Marketing Science and was the founding editor of Marketing Letters. In addition, he has published several books, including Market Research and Analysis, Analysis for Marketing Planning, Product Management, Meta Analysis in Marketing, and Managing Customers as Investments. Prof. Lehmann has served as Executive Director of the Marketing Science Institute and President of the Association for Consumer Research.
Kevin Lane Keller is E.B. Osborn Professor of Marketing at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. Keller’s academic resume includes degrees from Cornell, Duke, and Carnegie-Mellon universities, award-winning research, and faculty positions at University of California, Berkeley, Stanford University, and University of North Carolina. Through the years, he has served as brand confidant to marketers for some of the world’s most successful brands, including Accenture, American Express, Disney, Ford, Intel, Levi-Strauss, Procter & Gamble, and Starbucks. His textbook, Strategic Brand Management, in its 3rd edition, has been adopted by top business schools and leading firms around the world and has been heralded as the “bible of branding.” With Philip Kotler, he also coauthored the all-time best selling introductory MBA marketing textbook, Marketing Management, now in its 13th edition.
John U. Farley is C.V. Starr Distinguished Research Fellow in International Business at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. He has an AB and MBA from Dartmouth College and and a PhD from the University of Chicago. His academic experience includes faculty positions at Carnegie Mellon University and Columbia University. He also held visiting faculty positions at the International University of Japan, National University of Singapore, INSEAD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, London Graduate School of Business Studies, and Handelshogskolan. He was the Henkel Professor of Industrial Marketing at the Chinese European International Business School, Shanghai. He has also served as Executive Director of the Marketing Science Institute. His research has been published across a broad range of journals, has been widely cited, and received numerous rewards. His current research interests include cross-cultural organizational culture and performance and why some firms earn more than others.
J International Marketing, Volume 16, Number 4, December 2008
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