Framework library · Marketing strategy
Brand pyramid
Keller's pyramid describes brand strength as four levels customers climb in order. They recognise the brand, understand what it does and what it stands for, form judgements and feelings about it, and only then become loyal and engaged. Each level rests on the one below, so a brand whose meaning is weak cannot buy loyalty with campaigns aimed at the top.
Use it when
- Customers know the brand but do not choose it or do not stay, and you need to find which level is failing.
- You are repositioning a brand and want the changes ordered from the foundation up.
- Marketing spend is spread across awareness, product claims and loyalty schemes, and needs one structure to judge it against.
Avoid it when
- You have no customer research. The pyramid describes what customers think. Filled in from inside the business, it records what the business hopes.
- The problem is the product or the price rather than the brand. Fix the offer first, with the 4Ps or a value proposition canvas.
- You need to value the brand in money. The pyramid is a diagnostic; brand valuation needs financial methods.
How to run it
Start with salience
Establish how readily customers think of the brand, and in which buying situations. Use prompted and unprompted awareness and the occasions when it comes to mind, not recognition alone.
Describe performance and imagery
Performance is what the product does: reliability, speed, service, price. Imagery is what the brand stands for: the users it suggests, its personality, its values.
Record judgements and feelings
Judgements are what customers conclude about quality, credibility and superiority. Feelings are the emotional response, such as security, warmth or social approval.
Measure resonance
Loyalty, attachment, a sense of community and active engagement such as referrals. Use churn, repeat purchase and referral data rather than stated intentions alone.
Find the lowest weak level
Work up from the base. The first level that is weak is where to act, because everything above it rests on it.
Plan actions and measures for that level
Write what will change, in the offer as well as the communication, and the measure that will show it. Fill in the pyramid again after the next round of research.
Work through it
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Mistakes to avoid
- Spending on loyalty schemes or community at the top while customers are still unsure what the brand does.
- Filling in the pyramid from the marketing team's view instead of customer research. The two rarely agree.
- Treating awareness as success. A brand everyone knows and nobody prefers has salience and little else.
- Mixing up judgements and feelings. Judgements are reasoned conclusions and feelings are emotional responses. Each needs different action.
Where it comes from
Kevin Lane Keller, "Building Customer-Based Brand Equity: A Blueprint for Creating Strong Brands", Marketing Science Institute Report 01-107, 2001, which set out the six building blocks and four levels used here. It builds on his "Conceptualizing, Measuring, and Managing Customer-Based Brand Equity", Journal of Marketing 57(1), 1993. Source.
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Further reading
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