brand relationship theory (chapter 8), and Muñiz and O’Guinn’s conceptualization
of brand communities (chapter 9) are mentioned as important contributions to the
academic discipline. Still, they are added to the term ‘brand knowledge’.
These studies and others similar in spirit are noteworthy for their ability to use
novel research methods to uncover overlooked or relatively neglected facets
of consumer brand knowledge that have significant theoretical and mana-
gerial implications.
(Keller 2003, p. 596)Looking at brand management from the cognitive perspective implies that every-
thing can be added to brand knowledge. Keller, however, recognizes that he looks
at the brand from a specific angle:
it should be recognized that this essay presented a representation of brand
knowledge based largely on cognitive psychology. Important perspectives on
branding and brand knowledge obviously can, and have been, gained from
other disciplinary viewpoints, for example, anthropological or ethnographic
approaches. Part of the challenge in developing mental maps for consumers
that accurately reflect their brand knowledge is how best to incorporate
multiple theoretical or methodological paradigms.
(Keller 2003, p. 600)The consumer-based approach can thus be hard to negotiate with as brand
knowledge can be said to be all-encompassing. As Keller states in the two above-
mentioned examples, the new approaches can be added to brand knowledge, and
in that sense you can say that the consumer-based approach suffices.
One of the goals of this book is to deconstruct the field of brand management
seen from a perspective rooted in the philosophy of science. And in this context, it
is necessary to regard the latter approaches as something more than merely newer
additions to brand knowledge. As we have mentioned in the section about the
cognitive consumer perspective, the cognitive tradition deliberately neglects
emotional and cultural factors in its search for explanations of human behaviour.
Later approaches embrace the emotional and cultural factors that the cognitive
tradition neglects in their search for explanations of human behaviour. Therefore,
the purpose of fitting all kinds of brand knowledge into the same mould instead of
understanding them separately can be questioned.
However, it would make a great student assignment (go to student questions
below) to add the components of the personality, the relational, the community,
and the cultural approach to the original map of consumer knowledge (figure 6.7).
The significant influence of the consumer-based approach is difficult to
evaluate. The seven approaches of this book represent profoundly different brand
and consumer perspectives, some more compatible than others. Still, it is unusual
that one approach defines itself in opposition to another approach. But the
consumer-based approach seems to be more deliberately challenged than the other
The consumer-based approach 111