T h e J o urnal of Bra n d Management V o l u me 3 Nu m ber 4
'Building Strong Brands' by David A. Aaker
(The Free P ress, N ew York; 1 995; I S B N 0 02 9001 51 X: 380 pp; hard back; $28. 00)
After the huge success of his first book on brands, 'Managing Brand Equity' , Professor David. A. Aaker presents another book with a tempting and promising title 'Build ing Strong Brands' also published by The Free Press. The former book demonstrated how brands create value to both consumers and corporations; it was also very pedagogi cal in its analysis of the many facets of brand equity : brand awareness , perceived quality, brand associations, brand loyalty and other proprietary brand assets. As such, it was aimed mostly at the MBA students or marketers having a too limited view of what a brand is . On the contrary, this sec ond book is fully written for managers. It is much more action oriented, less academic in its attitude. The qualities of the former book are still present: it is very well written, alert, with a typically American use of ex tended case studies to involve the reader in the specific problem tackled by each chap ter. Beyond the very natural wish to capi talise on the success of the first book, why this second one? As stated in the preface, David Aaker realised that 'several areas . . . were not addressed in any detail in that [former] book'. In fact , this new book is mostly about brand identity, its nature, its management. It is true that the word 'iden tity' was not even present in the index of the former book, and the concept of brand identity hardly mentioned in its chapters. For the experienced marketer, brand iden tity is the core of brand management. It
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represents the strategic intent, compared to the image which measures the effects of communication and marketing actions. A careful analysis of this new book shows that David Aaker's realisation of the crucial im portance of brand identity was also surely stimulated by his reading of 'Strategic Brand Management' published in 1 994 also by Free Press (Kogan Page, in UK, in 1 992). This latter book introduced the concept and its specific facets : it has since then in spired another American book , 'Building Brand Identity' , by L. B. Upshaw (pub lished by John Wiley in 1 995). As a conse quence, if 'Managing Brand Equity' was a pioneer book, 'Building Strong Brands' will have a flavour of deja vu to the experienced marketer. It is the third book on the Amer ican market to address these issues. A second major issue developed in this book is the 'brand system'. In fact, most modern brands are not one-product brands (as KitKat or Nuts) but families with a net work of relationships between sub-brands and the core brand. This basic reality of marketing did not receive any attention in David Aaker's former book, to the surprise of most managers used to dealing with the complexities of umbrella branding, endorse ment brands, or source brands. The book is organised in eleven chapters, each of which will be analysed. In Chapter 1 , the author proposes a re sume or synthesis of his classical model of brand equity. Looking back at it, one may question if , instead of brand equity, the ap-
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propriate word is not brand asset. It is these assets whose value is posted on the balance sheet. For conceptual clarity and accounting coherence, would it not be more appropri ate to distinguish the assets and their finan cial worth (the equity)? During these years of economic crisis many brands have seen the value of their assets diminish . Fifty per cent aided-brand awareness has less value today than five years ago in many consumer goods' markets. Chapter 2 shows how General Motors created a new car brand : Saturn. Chapter 3 introduces the 'brand-identity system' , and indicates how identity adds to image and positioning. Abandoning his academic atti tude, the author does not examine former works on the same issues but starts by his own definition of brand identity : 'a unique set of brand associations that the brand strategist aspires to create or maintain' . The author then analyses the 1 2 categories of brand-identity elements organised around four perspectives: the brand-as-product, the brand-as-organisation, the brand-as-person and the brand-as-symbol . Finally, David Aaker distinguishes the core identity (the central, timeless essence of the brand) and the extended identity. The identity platform is condensed into a value proposition divided in functional benefits , emotional benefits and self-ex pressive benefits . The author illustrates this approach by examples such as Saturn, Mc Donald's or Nike. Chapter 4 analyses the organisational roots of brands identities . This is important for corporate brands sharing the name of the corporation thus inheriting its values and culture. Chapter 5 develops the con cept of brand personality. Here again, al though the concept is far from new and has been well treated by famous advertisers or marketers , David Aaker mostly dwells on Jennifer Aaker 's work on the measurement of brand personality. Why not quote other works on the topic such as INR A 's brand
personality inventory ? Also, although the author rightly reminds us 'not to equate brand personality and user imagery ' (page 1 70), his examples fail to do so. For in stance, comparing the brand personalities of Stolichnaya versus Absolut , he writes (page 1 55) 'Stolichnaya vodka as a person is experienced , self-assured . . . He is male, drives a Lexus . . . ' . This fifth chapter also explores the relationship created by the brand and its market . For the sake of con ceptual clarity and managerial practicality, it would have been better to treat sepa rately these three facets of brand identity - brand personality, brand relationship, and customers' reflected image. Chapter 6 presents a step-by-step brand identity implementation programme. Chapter 7 examines brand strategies over time, the key challenge of modern brand ing . Chapter 8 develops the familiar con cepts of sub-branding, endorsement brand, range brand, umbrella brand . It analyses well the benefits of branding (and of sub branding). Chapter 9 , 'Leveraging the Brand' , is, in our opinion, the best chapter of the book . It is original, not currently available elsewhere, and very relevant for modern brands . Chapter 1 0 summarises the results and implications of the Young & Rubicam Brand Asset Monitor, Total Research 's Equi Trend Index and Inter brand 's Top Brands Ranking system . Fi nally, Chapter 1 1 is an interesting attempt to examine the questions of organising the corporation to maximise the efficiency of its brands . To conclude, 'Building Strong Brands' is a good synthesis of the former literature on brand-identity management and its related facets . The best part of the book starts after Chapter 6. Even if the concepts are not new for the experienced manager, the way David Aaker approaches them is interesting. Un fortunately some of the present key issues of modern brand management are still lacking in this new book such as, for instance:
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How to pr ice at a time when it is the distr ibutor himself who sets the brand pr ices in all countr ies or markets where the distr ibution has become very con centrated and powerful. How to justify pr ice differences in front of challenging high-discount products of equivalent quality. How to manage simultaneously one 's brand and products for our own distrib utors' brands. The dual management of the brand: vis a vis the consumers but also the trade.
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How to manage brand portfolios in a single market or category. How to manage trade brands. Let's bet, unless others fill the gap before, it will be the theme of Professor Aaker 's third book on brands.
Jean-Noel Ka p ferer PhD Professor of Marketing HEC, Graduate School of Management
