Building Strong Brands

David Aaker
Presented by George Anagnostaros
 Contents
• Which is the book and who is the author?
• What is branding?
• What should be branding?
• How to create and maintain a brand?
• Why should you differentiate and how will it help you?
• What if your brand does not have "personality"?
• How to use your company's brand for your products?
• Synopsis in two lines!
 Book details[1]
Title: Building Strong Brands
Publisher: The Free Press
Year: 1996
ISBN: 0-02-900151-X
Author: David A. Aaker
 Who is David A. Aaker?[2]
Consultant and author on marketing 
and particularly branding

He has been called 

the 'father of branding' 
and blogs on "Aaker on Brands".
What is David A. Aaker working at?[2]
• Vice Chairman of Prophet, a global brand and marketing
consultancy firm
• Professor Emeritus at the Haas School of Business of the
University of California, Berkeley
• Advisor to Denstu, a major Japanese advertising agency
 What is brand?[3]

A brand is the identity of a specific 

product, 
service, 
business
 How valuable is brand?

A company's brand is 

the primary source of 
its competitive advantage 

and a valuable strategic asset

 What should the brand be?
The brand should have 
a distinct, clear image that matters to customers 
and truly differentiates them from the rest.
 How to create a brand?
Create a broad brand vision or identity that recognizes a
brand as something greater than a set of attributes that
can be imitated or surpassed.

You should differentiate!

 How to maintain a brand?
Aaker suggests that a company consider its brand not just
as a product or service, but as 

an organization, 
a person 
and a symbol.

Brand is your company's personality!

 Why should you differentiate?

"It is much easier to copy a product, than to

duplicate an organization with unique
values, people and programs.",said Aaker
 How does differentiation helps?
Differentiation drives companies to target specific markets.

For instance, 

Harley Davidson created a brand that is targeted  to specific

part of the market that they know exactly 
who is their customer.
 What if the brand does not have
"personality"?
According to what Aaker said:

...not unlike a person, 

it lacks friends 
and may be easily overlooked
How to use your company's brand for
your products?
• A company should have a single, unique and strong
brand.
• This brand should extended for each product.
• Product's brand extension should destroy the core
brand, but it should "fill in the picture, adding details that
help portray what the brand should stand for"
 Synopsis in two lines!

1. Brand is your identity, it should be unique

– Your products should extend your brand, adding details
 References
1) http://www.prophet.com/blog/aakeronbrands
2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_A._Aaker
3) Managing Brand Equity, David A. Aaker
 Thank you!

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