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These days, Brand
Health Management is seen as strategically central to the
long-term success of any company. This arises because manufacturers
and retailers are consistently revising and rationalising
brand portfolios, to concentrate resources on those with maximum
leverage. Acquisitions and investments tend to be brand ‘fit’
based rather than asset based. Furthermore, it is often more
cost-effective to leverage the strengths of an existing brand
than create a new one.
At ACNielsen, we believe there are three key elements of Brand
Health, all of which we monitor and measure with our various
services. They comprise: Category Context (the setting in
which consumers interact with the brand, and how this impacts
the brand), Brand Equity (the value of the brand in consumers’
minds) and Consumer Dynamics (the extent and manner in which
brand equity translates into real-life behaviour).
These three elements are best reported on in concert; on their
own, they often cannot explain the full picture. For example,
Category Trends put the brand picture into context, but cannot
explain the complexity of consumer interaction. Consumer Behaviour
describes the way people are using the brand today but may
say little about vulnerability and potential tomorrow. Brand
Equity defines a brand’s potential, but ‘equity’
does not always translate into action.
ACNielsen aims to provide clients with Brand Health Barometers
exploiting and integrating the ACNielsen range of measurement
and applications to which our clients subscribe. These Barometers
will of course Monitor Current Performance, ie track your
marketplace performance to identify changes in sales, usage
and distribution measures. In addition, they will cover Issues
that Impact Future Performance such as brand equity and consumer
dynamics related issues that have been shown to be fundamental
in building and maintaining brand leadership.
Through the Brand Health Barometers and attendant brand workshops,
it is easier for manufacturers to leverage and amalgamate
the findings and implications from the services to which they
subscribe. The following schematic summarises the inputs and
the outcomes that can be expected.
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