A Unified Model for Measuring Customer-Based Brand Equity

• Activity Number: 599
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Wednesday, August 12, 2015 : 2:00 PM to 3:50 PM
• Sponsor: Business and Economic Statistics Section
• Author(s): Tung Phan*
• Companies: The Wharton School
• Keywords: Brand Equity ; Dynamic Model ; Multivariate Probit ; MCMC Methods ; Bayesian Computation

Abstract

This paper presents a unified probability model designed to measure, analyze, and explain consumer-based brand equity. Our model extends traditional models of brand equity which posit that strong brands are simply more preferred after controlling for their marketing mix (i.e. an intercept effect) to a more general model that allows for (1) brand equity evolution (to be modeled as a Bayesian dynamic multivariate probit model); (2) brand attribute perceptions to vary with brand strength -"An X-perception effect" (e.g. strong brands may be perceived to have lower price); (3) a marketing mix effect where strong brands have higher marketing effectiveness; and (4) the standard intercept effect. This extended and unified model provides firms and researchers with a more comprehensive view of brand equity and how brand equity manifests itself in consumers' product choices. We apply the proposed model in an empirical application using the IRI panel data set on households' purchases in several product categories, demonstrating the existence of the effect of brand equity and the variation across brands. We discuss the important implications of this model for researchers and marketers.