ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book includes topics relevant to building and leveraging brands, including brand extensions, brand alliances, brand loyalty, and corporate social responsibility. It analyzes research and theory on the cultural symbolism of brands in multicultural markets, and proposes a framework for understanding the effects of cultural symbolism on brand perceptions. The book then develops a broad model of the social brand, which enables a more expansive view of influences on brand meanings. It also presents a new measure of brand equity, termed Marksure, which considers consumers’ relationships with their brands and companies’ investments in developing these relationships. The book examines brand equity from the perspective of customer value proposition, an emerging area of interest in marketing. It then provides a significant review of quantitative utility models of brand equity.
