Dimensionalising on‐ and offline brands' composite equity
| Published date | 01 May 2004 |
| Date | 01 May 2004 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/10610420410538069 |
| Pages | 168-179 |
| Author | George Christodoulides,Leslie de Chernatony |
| Subject Matter | Marketing |
Dimensionalising
on- and offline brands’
composite equity
George Christodoulides and
Leslie de Chernatony
The authors
George Christodoulides is a Doctoral Researcher and Leslie
de Chernatony is a Professor of Brand Marketing, both at the
Birmingham Business School, The University of Birmingham,
Birmingham, UK.
Keywords
Brand equity, Internet, Experts
Abstract
This paper approaches the subject of brand equity measurement
on and offline. The existing body of research knowledge on
brand equity measurement has derived from classical contexts;
however, the majority of today’s brands prosper simultaneously
online and offline. Since branding on the Web needs to address
the unique characteristics of computer-mediated environments,
it was posited that classical measures of brand equity were
inadequate for this category of brands. Aaker’s guidelines for
building a brand equity measurement system were thus followed
and his brand equity ten was employed as a point of departure.
The main challenge was complementing traditional measures of
brand equity with new measures pertinent to the Web. Following
16 semi-structured interviews with experts, ten additional
measures were identified.
Electronic access
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An executive summary for managers and
executive readers can be found at the end of
this issue
Introduction
Scholarly and popular inquiry into brand equity
has led to the development of a significant body of
research, validated principally in classical contexts.
Within this framework, brand equity was
investigated from different perspectives (e.g.
customer vs firm), and resulting measures were
tested using data obtained from different product
categories. Today, the Web has become an integral
part of the contemporary “brandscape” with the
majority of brands growing both online and offline.
Being the first computer-mediated environment
(Hoffman and Novak, 1996), the Web possesses
some unique qualities on which brands can
capitalise. As yet, brand equity measurement has
not been re-examined in view of this development.
This paper shows that the ten dimensions Aaker
(1996) postulates as characterising brand equity in a
physical environment should be augmented by a
further ten factors when brands are mastered both
on and offline. The paper opens with a literature
review of prior research on brand equity. It then
describes the process of interviewing 16 experts to
identify the dimensions of on and offline brand
equity, which go beyond classical contexts and also
encompass online branding. This is followed by a
discussion of the ten factors, based on our qualitative
findings, which are interwoven with extant
e-marketing theories. The paper concludes by
explicating the implications of this research for brand
practitioners, and suggests areas of future research.
Literature review: brand equity
Brand equity has been the subject of increasing
research attention over the past two decades. The
literature review shows a recent proliferation of
academic publications on the topic (e.g. Yoo and
Donthu, 2001; Czellar and Denis, 2002; Moore
et al., 2002; Vazquez et al., 2002; Washburn and
Plank, 2002; Myers, 2003; Broniarczyk and
Gershoff, 2003). Our understanding of the
construct has been stalled by a lack of consensus
about its conceptualisation, resulting in a plethora
of diverse methodological approaches to its
measurement (Mackay, 2001; Vazquez et al.,
2002; de Chernatony et al., 2004). As Berthon et al.
(2001, p. 1) so succinctly phrased it, “perhaps the
only thing that has not been reached with regard to
brand equity is a conclusion”.
One of the most commonly cited definitions of
brand equity is Aaker’s (1991):
Journal of Product & Brand Management
Volume 13 · Number 3 · 2004 · pp.168-179
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited · ISSN 1061-0421
DOI 10.1108/10610420410538069
168
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