Brand Image
How to measure brand image: a reasoned review
Luca Cian, Ross Business School, University of Michigan, USA*
The aim of this paper is to review the most important tools and methods used to analyse and measure the brand image. Both traditional and innovative measurements have been considered, including attitude scales, Q-Sort, Natural Grouping, Kelly Repertory Grid, Laddering, Benefit Chain, Projective Techniques, Brand Personality, and Brand Narration. Considering the number of tools presented, the focus is not on their comparison (impossible with so many tools), but on their presentation in a unique paper. This review represents a useful vademecum for both practitioners and researchers in the fields of marketing and economic psychology creating a basis for future research on which comparative tests can be built. This is the first work that presents all the most important inquiry tools aimed to measure the brand image together. Keywords Brand image, Brand personality, Qualitative technique, Quantitative techniques, Projective Techniques.
Introduction A review is usually needed when an intricate jungle of thoughts and papers are agglomerated on a specific subject. Differently, this review concerns a topic on which papers are rare and usually not linked to each other. There are many papers that try to theorise the concept of “image”, but only a few take into account how to measure this construct. Just to provide some examples, most of the studies which introduce the concept of image in the customer satisfaction/service quality models (e.g., Martinez & Pina, 2005), measure it with attitude scales (usually a Likert one), and do so without consideration of any possible alternatives. The aim of this paper is to review the most important published methods of brand image measurement, presenting them, for the first time, in a single article.1
1 The databases consulted were the following: PsycARTICLES, PsycCRITIQUES, PsycINFO, Communication Abstracts, Communication &
Luca Cian, Ross Business School, University of Michigan, USA*
The aim of this paper is to review the most important tools and methods used to analyse and measure the brand image. Both traditional and innovative measurements have been considered, including attitude scales, Q-Sort, Natural Grouping, Kelly Repertory Grid, Laddering, Benefit Chain, Projective Techniques, Brand Personality, and Brand Narration. Considering the number of tools presented, the focus is not on their comparison (impossible with so many tools), but on their presentation in a unique paper. This review represents a useful vademecum for both practitioners and researchers in the fields of marketing and economic psychology creating a basis for future research on which comparative tests can be built. This is the first work that presents all the most important inquiry tools aimed to measure the brand image together. Keywords Brand image, Brand personality, Qualitative technique, Quantitative techniques, Projective Techniques.
Introduction A review is usually needed when an intricate jungle of thoughts and papers are agglomerated on a specific subject. Differently, this review concerns a topic on which papers are rare and usually not linked to each other. There are many papers that try to theorise the concept of “image”, but only a few take into account how to measure this construct. Just to provide some examples, most of the studies which introduce the concept of image in the customer satisfaction/service quality models (e.g., Martinez & Pina, 2005), measure it with attitude scales (usually a Likert one), and do so without consideration of any possible alternatives. The aim of this paper is to review the most important published methods of brand image measurement, presenting them, for the first time, in a single article.1
1 The databases consulted were the following: PsycARTICLES, PsycCRITIQUES, PsycINFO, Communication Abstracts, Communication &
References: The Marketing Review, 2011, Vol. 11, No. 2 Cian, L., & Cervai, S The Marketing Review, 2011, Vol. 11, No. 2 Malhotra, N.K