The Handbook of Brand Management Scales

Lia Zarantonello, Véronique Pauwels-Delassus

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781317803157
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Marketing Research
• Index: Business

The Handbook of Brand Management Scales is a concise, clear and easy-to-use collection of scales in brand management. Scales are a critical tool for researchers measuring consumer insights, emotions and responses. Existing handbooks of marketing scales do not include (or include very few) scales related to brand management constructs. This book is the first to meet this need.

Sample scales include brand personality, brand authenticity, consumer–brand relationships and brand equity. Each scale is included with a clear definition of the construct it isdesigned to benchmark, a description of the scale itself, how to use it and examples of possible applications in managerial and academic contexts.

A much-needed reference point, this is a unique, vital and convenient volume that should be within reach of every marketing scholar's and manager's desk.

1 Brand Identity and Brand Image

DOI: 10.4324/9781315813998-2

1.1 Overview

In marketing literature, great attention has been given to brand image from either company or consumer perspectives. Brand image can be defined as the perception about a brand which is reflected by the brand associations held in the consumer’s memory (Keller, 1993). The brand image consists of the consumer’s perception of the brand identity and positioning defined by the company. Brand image is not a simple understanding of the communication activity of the company but corresponds to the consumer interpretation of the total set of brand-related activities developed by a company (Park, Jaworski & MacInnis, 1986). The positive meanings consumers associate with a brand serve as drivers of future purchase behaviour (Aaker, 1991). The importance of a brand in a market is therefore influenced by a company’s ability to evaluate the consumer perception of the brand and the company’s ability to manage the strategy of brand positioning, adequately revealing brand values to a consumer (Kotler, Armstrong, Harris & Piercy, 2013). According to Park, Jaworski and MacInnis (1986), brand success in the market depends on the choice of brand identity, the usage of identity-developing image and the guarantee that image adequately transfers the brand identity chosen by a company with the aim of differentiating it from competitors and responding to a desired consumer value.

Because of the relevance of brand image for both consumers and companies, researchers have dedicated a lot of attention to developing measures to capture this concept (cf. Bruner, Hensel & James, 2005). Among these measures, some have been developed by following a rigorous and well-documented process. Five scales have been identified and reported in the current chapter. Three of them consider brand image from a business-related perspective, whereas two of them extend the concept outside the business sphere. Specifically, the brand image scale developed by Hsieh (2002) aims at measuring a brand image across nations and allows researchers to evaluate if consumers perceive brand similarly in the light of the differences in the cultural and business environments. The scale developed by Da Silva and Syed Alwi (2008) aims at measuring the corporate brand image in an online environment. This is particularly interesting: first, considering the growth of online business and, second, because the virtual environment reduces the physical contact with the company and people. As brand image and brand identity are key concepts for consumers and companies driving performance in the market, Coleman, de Chernatony and Christodoulides (2011) examine this concept in the business-to-business sector and suggest a scale enabling researchers to measure the brand identity of a company in a service sector.

The other two brand image scales included in the chapter go beyond the business sphere. Michel and Rieunier (2012) examine brand image in relation to nonprofit organizations, in the light of the importance that the non-profit world represents nowadays and the characteristics of this sector. Their non-profit brand image scale allows researchers to measure the brand image of charities and provides a better understanding of which dimensions of brand image influence donation behaviour. Guzmán and Sierra (2009) apply the concept of brand image to political candidates. Their political candidate’s brand image scale can evaluate the perception of the candidate and which dimensions are taken into consideration by voters when making an electoral decision.

1.2 Brand image (Hsieh, 2002)

Definition of construct

Brand image is conceptualized by the researcher from an associative network perspective (Farquhar & Herr, 1993): “In associative networks, what differentiate one brand from another in memory are brand image dimensions and the strength and the uniqueness of associations that constitute image dimensions” (Hsieh, 2002, p. 50). Brand image is defined as a cross-national, benefit-oriented, multidimensional construct consisting of a set of benefit-based brand associations which help consumers understand how the brand can answer their needs symbolically, economically, sensorily or as a utility. The symbolic dimension reflects emotional motives. The economic dimension is related to value for needed characteristics. The sensory dimension reflects experiential benefits. The utility dimension corresponds to functional attributes.

Scale description

The brand image scale is developed with specific reference to the car industry and contains four benefit-based brand image dimensions, namely sensory, symbolic, utilitarian and economic. The sensory dimension includes five associations/items, some of them being closely linked with the car industry such as “good acceleration” and “fun to drive”. The symbolic dimension contains two associations/items: “luxury features” and “prestige”. The utilitarian dimension is measured with three associations/items which are also specific to the sector of activity (“made to last”, “reliability” and “safe in accident”). The economic dimension contains two associations/items related to car specificities such as “good fuel economy” and “good dealer service”. The 12 items composing the scale are measured through nominal variables (yes/no), as respondents are asked to evaluate a given car brand by saying which of the provided items applies to the car brand investigated.

The brand image scale can also be used to compute a global brand image cohesiveness index based on the difference of brand image perceptions between the initial country and the foreign ones.

Table 1.1 Brand image scale

	Scale dimension	Scale item
	Sensory	• Exciting
		• Fun to drive
		• Good acceleration
		• Styling
		• Sporty
	Symbolic	• Luxury features
		• Prestige
	Utilitarian	• Made to last
		• Reliability
		• Safe in accident
	Economic	• Good fuel economy
		• Good dealer service

Scale development

The development of the scale starts with exploratory research based on focus-group discussions. Participants are asked to evaluate the desirability and the importance of various attributes, which allows identifying 14 benefit-oriented associations (items) mentioned as salient beliefs about automobiles by the majority.

The main survey is conducted in 20 countries by trained interviewers. A total of 53 car brands are selected for the survey. Brands are read to participants, and those known to them are evaluated on the 14 identified items. A correspondence analysis (CA) approach is employed to explore the dimensionality of the scale, because nominal scales are used in the data collection. Five dimensions are extracted in the analysis, and cumulatively they explain more than 95% of the variance. The analysis reveals three major dimensions, namely the economic-symbolic dimension, the sensory dimension and the utilitarian dimension. Two items are eliminated at this stage, “perceived high quality” and “latest technology”. The former item is dropped because the dimension to which it refers, quality, is in question. The latter item is eliminated because it is included in the fifth dimension along with “styling”, because the link between the tw...