Brand Equity Building - Measuring Brand Value

Measuring brand equity allows a company to establish a baseline and track changes in its brand equity over time. If a company consistently works to improve the strength of its brands, it must trace progress, or risk "flying blind." Changes in a quantitative measurement of brand equity can show the company the effects of its work, and greatly aid in setting marketing and management priorities in the next business planning cycle.

Once a brand equity measurement system is established, a company can better understand and therefore determine if equity in a given brand can be leveraged or transferred to an entirely new product or service category. Thus, a firm can increase the return from the investment in building a particular brand over time by extending that brand's equity into new categories.

A company may want to measure its brand equity to aid in assigning a monetary value to a brand. Wall Street measures the strength of a brand by looking primarily at current and historical financial measures, with minimal use of information directly from the "voice of the marketplace" (i.e., current and prospective customers). While historical financial performance is important in understanding brand strength, it does not tell the whole story, especially in terms of what the future might hold for the brand. This potential deficiency derives from the choices made in defining brand equity.

To measure how strong your brand is copy and paste: (http://brandidentityguru.com/bightml/brandmasterpiece.html). Then click "Take the brand strength test". This is a short survey that measures the strength of any company's brand. It's a great tool to see where you are today.

Scott White is President of Brand Identity Guru (http://www.brandidentityguru.com), a leading brand consulting and market research firm located in Easton, Massachusetts, USA, near Boston.

Brand Identity Guru specializes in creating corporate and product brands that increase sales, market share, customer loyalty, and brand valuation. Over the course of his 15-year branding career, Scott White has worked in a wide variety of industries: high-tech, manufacturing, computer hardware and software, telecommunications, banking, restaurants, fashion, healthcare, Internet, retail, and service businesses, as well as numerous non-profit organizations.

Brand Identity Guru clients include: Sun Life Financial, Coca Cola, HP, Sun, Nordstrom, American Federal Mortgage, Simon (America's largest shopping mall manager) and many others, including numerous emerging growth companies.

Scott White is a very enthusiastic speaker and has the gift of being able to explain the principles of branding in a compelling and entertaining manner so that people at all levels can understand.

In The News:

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In this Nov. 13, 2008 file photo, Robert Barber, second from left, a Vietnam Veteran from Bronx, N.Y., talks with a recruiter at the New York State Labor Department job fair for veterans in New York. The government said Thursday, Nov. 20, 2008, new claims for unemployment benefits jumped last week to a 16-year high, providing more evidence of a rapidly weakening labor market. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File)AP - New claims for unemployment benefits jumped last week to a 16-year high, the Labor Department said Thursday, providing more evidence of a rapidly weakening job market expected to get even worse next year.



Professional recruiter John Kasyanenko, right, of Express Employment Professionals gives his business card to a woman seeking a work at a job fair sponsored by Monster.com in New York, Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2008. The number of newly laid-off individuals seeking unemployment benefits has jumped to a seven-year high, the government said Thursday, Nov. 13, 2008. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)AP - With weekly jobless claims benefits at a 16-year high, the White House said Thursday that President George W. Bush would quickly sign legislation pending in Congress to provide further unemployment benefits.



Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Nov. 13, 2008, before the House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on health care coverage issues. (AP Photo/Lauren Victoria Burke)AP - Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, an early Barack Obama supporter from the southwestern part of the country, is the likely choice for the job of secretary of homeland security, a top Obama adviser said Thursday.



Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Thursday, Nov. 20, 2008.  (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow)AP - Fresh worries about widening unemployment added to investors' list of concerns about the economy Thursday and extended Wall Street's sell-off to a second day. The major indexes each fell more than 1.5 percent, including the Dow Jones industrial average, which lost 110 points.



Auto industry executives, from left, General Motors  Chief Executive Officer Richard Wagoner; Chrysler Chief Executive Officer Robert Nardelli; and Ford Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally, testify on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2008, before a House Financial Services Committee hearing on the state of the auto industry.  (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)AP - A plan to give troubled U.S. automakers billions of dollars in government-backed loans is stalled on Capitol Hill, leaving the fate of hundreds of thousands of workers and Detroit's once-venerable car companies hanging in the balance.



This video image provided by the Senate shows Sen. Ted Stevens. R-Alaska speaking of the floor of the Senate in Washington, Thursday,Nov. 20, 2008. (AP Photo/Senate)AP - In a painfully poignant moment reminiscent of the fall of yesteryear's Senate giants, Republican Ted Stevens has spoken and yielded the floor for the last time.



In this image from NASA TV, a tool  kit bag, center, as seen through the helmet camera of astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper, floats away from the International Space Station after she lost hold of it during a procedure during a 6 1/2-hour scheduled space walk outside the space station, Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2008. (AP Photo/NASA TV)AP - Astronauts vowed to double-check, even triple-check all their tethers to make sure a bag of tools is properly tied down during a spacewalk Thursday so it doesn't float away like one did earlier this week.



AP - D'Zhana Simmons says she felt like a "fake person" for 118 days when she had no heart beating in her chest. "But I know that I really was here," the 14-year-old said, "and I did live without a heart."

In this Nov. 5, 2008 file photo, rapper 50 Cent also known as Curtis Jackson poses backstage at MTV's 'Total Request Live' show in New York.  (AP Photo/Peter Kramer, file)AP - Rapper 50 Cent is facing a challenge to his street cred — from Taco Bell.



In this Oct. 9, 2008 photo, Dallas Cowboys' Adam 'Pacman' Jones prepares to participate in practice at the Cowboys training facility in Irving, Texas.  Jones' suspension was lifted by the NFL on Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2008,  just over five weeks after the Dallas Cowboys cornerback was banned for another violation of its personal conduct policy.  (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)AP - The NFL is giving Adam "Pacman" Jones another chance. Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said Wednesday the suspended cornerback has been reinstated by league commissioner Roger Goodell, but he must miss two more games — this Sunday and the following game on Thanksgiving. He'll be back Dec. 7 at Pittsburgh.



A man registers to begin his search for a job at the Verdugo Jobs Center in Glendale, California, November 7, 2008. (Fred Prouser/Reuters)Reuters - The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits surged last week to their highest level in 16 years, Labor Department data showed on Thursday, as a harsh economic environment forces employers to cut back on hiring.



A woman walks past an electronic board showing an exchange rate between Japanese yen and U.S. dollar outside of a brokerage in Tokyo November 20, 2008. (Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)Reuters - Fears of a deep, long global recession intensified on Thursday as markets hit new lows in alarm at reports of record U.S. job losses, oil prices plunging below $50 a barrel and worry that U.S. automakers would not get a bailout from Washington.



President-elect Barack Obama on stage with Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano during a rally in Phoenix, January 30, 2008. (Jason Reed/Reuters)Reuters - President-elect Barack Obama is considering Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano to be U.S. Homeland Security secretary, heading a sprawling agency formed to bolster civil defense in the wake of the September 11 attacks, a senior Democrat said.



Leaders of the U.S. automotive industry testify at a hearing held by the House Financial Services Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, November 19, 2008. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)Reuters - Chances dimmed that a last-minute plan being crafted by Republican senators, with White House support, to provide $25 billion to bail out U.S. automakers would receive enough backing from Democrats to pass before the end of this week.



Reuters - U.S. forces killed a senior al Qaeda leader wanted for planning suicide bombings, kidnappings and assassinations, including the abduction and killing of a U.S. army sergeant in 2004, the U.S. military said on Thursday.

Reuters - A pact allowing U.S. troops to stay in Iraq for three more years has a chance of being approved by parliament despite some heated opposition, Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said on Thursday.

Reuters - (Corrects first paragraph to clarify that United Nations sanctions do not ban Iranian banks from operating in Dubai, corrects Levey quote, adds additional quote and background)

Supporters hold signs during a 'No on Prop 8' rally in West Hollywood, November 5, 2008. (Mario Anzuoni/Reuters)Reuters - California's Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear a legal challenge against the state's voter-approved ban on gay marriage and let the ban stand in the meantime.



US auto giant executives wait to testify before the House Finincial Services Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Fears of an implosion of the US car industry have continued to weigh heavily on investors' minds as the AFP - Governments scrambled to cushion the impact of the finance crisis Thursday with France launching a sovereign wealth fund and China unveiling a jobs protection plan as the car industry made huge new cuts.



A picture taken in 2007 shows the Delight cargo ship anchored in the port of Hamburg, Germany. Somali pirate attacks have spun AFP - Russia announced Thursday it would send more warships to combat piracy in the waters around Somalia, as the Saudi owners of the Sirius Star negotiated with the pirates holding their oil tanker.




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