ABSTRACT
This chapter overviews the work of Kevin Lane Keller, one of the most influential contemporary thinkers on branding, and the author of “Strategic Brand Management” the standard MBA-level textbook on the subject. Initially inspired by the work of Jim Betmann on memory factors in consumer choice, Keller came to realise that branding is both an art and a science. His influential model of brand equity postulates that “brand equity ultimately depends on what resides in the minds of the consumers”.” It is “the difference between the value of the brand to the consumer and the value of the product without that branding”. Keller identifies a specific challenge for energy companies when it comes to branding, which is that they are engineering-driven, hence not seeing their products and services in perceptual terms. Concepts of “point of parity” and “point of difference” are also discussed, in the context of energy consumers’ attitudes to sustainability.
