Currently, brand equity has various definitions and forms. In this study, brand equity is defined, from the cognitive aspects of consumers, as "a set of brand values perceived by consumers based on past brand-marketing conducted by a corporation." The purpose of this study is to examine the structural analysis of brand equity. The author conducted a survey of three brand categories (tea, shampoo, and PCs) on 274 undergraduates. The main findings were as follows: (a) Brand equity consists of primary values (qualitative values) and secondary values (incremental values beyond product quality), (b) The value that consumers attribute to a corporation (corporate value) affects brand equity directly or indirectly, (c) Brand equity causes "consumer-brand relation-ships." (d) These "relationships" influence secondary value. Based on these findings, the validity of a circulated brand equity model is discussed.
Japanese Journal of Social Psychology 24 (1), 58-67, 2008
The Japanese Society of Social Psychology