Aaker’s Brand Identity Planning Model

David A. Aaker, a marketing professor at the University of California at Berkeley and author of the popular Building Strong Brands (1996), has developed a comprehensive brand identity planning model. At the heart of this model is a four-fold perspective on the concept of a brand. To help ensure that a firm’s brand identity has texture and depth, Aaker advises brand strategists to consider the brand as:
1) a product; 2) an organization; 3) a person; and 4) a symbol.

Each perspective is distinct. The purpose of this system is to help brand strategists consider different brand elements and patterns that can help clarify, enrich and differentiate an identity. A more detailed identity will also help guide implementation decisions.

As suggested by Aaker’s elaborate brand taxonomy, brand identity consists of a core identity and an extended identity. The former represents the timeless essence of the brand. It’s central to both the meaning and success of the brand, and contains the associations that are most likely to remain constant as the brand encompasses new products and travels to new markets. The extended identity, on the other hand, includes elements that provide texture and completeness. It fills in the picture, adding details that help portray what the brand stands for. A reasonable hypothesis, Aaker states, is that within a product class, a larger extended identity means a stronger brand—one that is more memorable, interesting and connected to customers’ lives.

Sometimes it is more purposeful to set a more narrow approach that determines brand essence, which is an idea, entailing brand soul. J Kapferer (2003) states that brand essence originated from a wish to generalize brand identity and positioning. Brand essence includes the principal value that is offered (for example, Volvo is the safest car).