Column 12 · Brand and Market-Based Assets · Era 1, Foundations (to 1969)
Brand Image
Inputs: resources and assets · Major · Cluster IV, Customer and Brand Assets
Description
Gardner and Levy argued that a brand is a public object with a social and psychological character beyond its physical attributes, so that consumers respond to the total image a brand conveys, establishing image as an asset to be managed.
Managerial Implications
A brand is a set of meanings in customers' minds, built over years and spent in moments. Decide what the brand should stand for beyond product features, and ensure that every touchpoint, including service calls and packaging, reinforces it. Image is an asset: protect it from short-term promotions and line extensions that dilute the meaning, and measure it, not just awareness, in tracking studies.