The consumer-based approach

Understand the assumptions of the consumer-based approach • The brand is a cognitive construal in the mind of the consumer • The brand resides in the mind of the consumer, but the marketer is still

able to control brand value creation

Understand the theoretical building blocks and how they are connected • The cognitive consumer perspective • The information-processing theory of consumer choice • Customer-based brand equity

Provide insights into the variety of methods used to inquire into the

cognitive aspects of the consumer • Input-output methods to understand how consumer decisions change if

stimuli are changed • Process-tracing methods to understand the process of brand choice • Measuring customer-based brand equity

Understand the managerial implications • The ‘dualist’ nature of the approach • Superior outside-in capabilities • The marketer should stress brand congruency and consistency

In the early years of brand management the focus was on the ‘sender end’ of brand

communication. In the year of 1993 brand management was profoundly changed

by one research article in particular. Kevin Lane Keller published the article

‘Conceptualizing, measuring, and managing customer-based brand equity’ in the

Journal of Marketing and thereby instigated a major change in the field of brand management. Customer-based brand equity is based on the premise that the brand

resides in the minds of consumers as a cognitive construal, which is why we have

chosen to name it the consumer-based approach. Consumer research was, at this

point in time, very much influenced by cognitive psychology and the related infor-

mation-processing theory of consumer choice. Insights from these veins of liter-

ature were adapted to brand management theory by the birth of the

consumer-based approach.