If I have one frustration, it's that even with his flowcharts and figures, I suspect there is a comprehensive diagram to be had which would tie all the branding issues and dimensions into a single profile. After reading the book I found myself trying to flowchart it all to better see the relationships involved. It would have been helpful if the author had done it for us.

Even so, I value the book highly and it will become a central reference for my entire staff.

38 of 46 found the following review helpful:


Academic Drivel  Jul 13, 2000
I found this book to be poorly organized, over-articulated mush. As someone who has worked on several extremely successful brands including Sony and the "Virginia is for Lovers" campaign, I would be shocked to see that this book had received high marks from anyone who actually worked in advertising, marketing or brand management. Yes, Aaker has some decent insights into brand management in his case studies -- hindsight is 20/20. Unfortunately, they're difficult to find, since his writing is extremely repetitive and verbose. One gets the impression he is more interested in communicating how intelligent he is, than actual information on brand equity. There are a few bits of good information buried in the middle of the book, but it is not worth the long, painful journey to get to them. Read it only if you are having trouble falling asleep.

22 of 27 found the following review helpful:


Rehashed, Recycled. Nothing new here.  Nov 12, 2004 By jojo "jojo"
This book is more of the same rehashed, recycled, repurposed content from the authors. Much of this material is available in any basic marketing text. In fact, this book reads strikingly similar to just about any training manual on the basics of branding. If you've worked at any of the big agencies: McCann, JWT, Y&R, you learn the contents of this book on your first day in about a hour. All the cases cited in this book are stale and extremely weak. The "editorial reviews" listed above are shill quotes from clients who are cited as "cases" in the book.

Remember this before you buy: the author, and the firm for whom he works, use this book as nothing more than a lead-generation tool--it's called "thought leadership", a nebulous term used by company to propagate its own way of thinking. Save your money. Don't become a victim of Prophet's propoganda. Buy something with substance like Jean Noel Kapferer.

4 of 4 found the following review helpful:


A Modern Branding Touchstone  Jan 19, 2009 By Dan Wallace
Professor David Aaker is a contemporary pioneer in brand management, and this book is a touchstone. The text can be professorial and theoretical, but it provides useful food for thought.

In general, I find his analysis the most interesting. He divides brand assets into: 1) Name Awareness; 2) Loyalty; 3) Perceived Quality; 4) Brand Associations. He further divides brands into corporate brands, endorser brands, ingredient brands, brand extensions, and sub-brands. His Brand Identity Planning model is another useful division of brand concepts.

As a marketing practitioner, the most useful model in the book is this Brand Personality Scale which categorizes five brand personalities: 1) Sincerity; 2) Excitement; 3) Competence; 4) Sophistication; 5) Ruggedness. I heard that this model is the result of a well structured and comprehensive study, and that 95% of all brand personalities fit into this taxonomy. It makes intuitive sense, and I use this model frequently.

The book does not focus on customer experience, innovation, social media, or bottom-up marketing. (Although Aakers' firm, Prophet, does.) Building Strong Brands assumes a traditional top-down, message driven, big corporate approach to branding. This question is: Are brands the result of something corporations does to customers, or are brands the result of something customers do to corporations?

For more recent ideas on brand building, I suggest Clued In, Primal Branding, and Blue Ocean Strategy.

Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant
Primalbranding: Create Zealots for Your Brand, Your Company, and Your Future
Clued In: How to Keep Customers Coming Back Again and Again

2 of 2 found the following review helpful:


Worth Every Penny  Dec 10, 1997
You don't have to be a brand manager or advertising person to appreciate the value of David Aaker's Brand Equity. As both a sales person and one who routinely works with branded grocery product companies, I truly appreciate Aaker's depth of knowledge, insights and practical examples contained in Managing Brand Equity. Whether you believe it or not, we're all in the business of building a brand-ourselves. Use Aaker's insights to help you better position yourself in the minds of your customers, potential customers, co-workers and supervisors.
You'll be richer for it, both financially and personally.
Managing Brand Equity is easy to read, understand and use. Its a must for anyone concerned about better developing what they sell and how they sell it in this very competitive global economy.

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