Brand Management: Research, theory and practice

economic approach (chapter 4) focuses on the way a marketer can influence brand
value creation through adjusting the components of the traditional marketing mix.
The primary focus of the identity approach (chapter 5) is the brand in an organiza-
tional perspective. In the consumer-based approach, the brand is analysed as
residing in the mind of the individual consumeras a cognitive construal.
The consumer has thus become the main point of interest in this approach. He or
she is suddenly considered the ‘owner’ of the brand. Where the two prior
approaches stressed an inside–out perspective on brand value creation, the
consumer-based approach introduces an outside–in approach to brand
management. The approach thereby embraces an external strategy formation
opposed to the internal formation of the two prior approaches.
Brand value creation takes place by moulding the brand associations held in the
consumers’ minds. Understanding the consumer is hence central in this take on
brand value creation; but it is important to notice that the approach implies a
specific view on the consumer. The consumer is analysed by means of theories
adopted from cognitive psychology and the information-processing theory of
consumer choice.

The ‘brand–consumer exchange’ and the cognitive perspective

In the other approach chapters we have outlined the assumed characteristics of the
brand–consumer exchange first and then introduced the scientific tradition from
which the approach stems. In this section we will, however, introduce the two
themes jointly as it does not make sense to talk about the brand–consumer
exchange without also talking about the specific consumer perspective.
In the consumer-based approach, brand strength equals strong, unique and
favourable associations in the minds of its consumers. The fact that the brand is a
cognitive construal in the mind of the consumer makes one jump to the conclusion
that the consumer ‘owns’ the brand and thereby controls brand value creation.
The marketer is, however, assumed to be very much in control with brand
communication as the approach rests upon an assumption of the consumer as a
cognitive man. The consumer is seen and analysed through a lens grounded in
cognitive psychology and information economics. As we describe in further detail
in the next section, the cognitive perspective implies a view of man that still grants
managers control over brand image creation. Even though the brand is analysed as
a mental construal in the mind of the consumer, it still makes sense to talk about
the communication of intended meaning. This notion of linear communication

The consumer-based approach 85

Brand Consumer

Figure 6.1The brand resides in the mind of the consumer