Brand asset valuator (BAV)

The Brand Asset Valuator (BAV) is a database of consumer perception of brands created and managed by BrandAsset Consulting, a division of Young & Rubicam Brands to provide information to enable firms to improve the marketing decision-making process and to manage brands better. Brand Asset Valuator and BAV also describe the Y&R group managing the database.

BAV measures the value of a brand along four dimensions: "Differentiation," "Relevance," "Esteem," and "Knowledge." Differentiation and Relevance build up to "Brand Strength." Esteem and Knowledge are used to calculate "Brand Stature." BAV defines these terms as follows.

• "Differentiation" quantifies the brand's point of difference.
• "Relevance" how appropriate the brand is to you.
• "Esteem" how well the regarded the brand is.
• "Knowledge" an intimate understanding of the brand.
• "Brand Strength" describes the brand's growth potential.
• "Brand Stature" describes the brand's current power.

BAV's database is the result of the world's most extensive research project on branding, based on data on 30,000 brands across 400,000 consumers in 48 countries through 240 studies.

Young & Rubicam’s BAV IN INDIA

Young & Rubicam's proprietary Brand Asset Valuator (BAV) has studied brands worldwide since 1993, and was introduced in India in 2003.

The BAV demonstrates how brands gain and lose strength, based on the strength of the perceptions that consumers have about brands. So it can be used to evaluate how a brand is doing in relation to the entire universe of brands, and not just in relation to similar products. Its database comprises 13,000 brands as perceived by 90,000 consumers across 32 countries; it is conducted every two to three years.

In India, the fieldwork was done in the first quarter of the year across 3,000 respondents in eight centres for about 1,400 brands. It will help marketers understand the brand in totality, at a "diagnostic, analytical and predictive level," and evaluate brands against actual competition, for a better understanding of the maturity of the market and the product life cycle, said Mr K. Subramanian, Planning Director, Rediffusion DYR.

The BAV measures all brands on a set of 48 image and personality parameters on a seven-point semantic scale (`agree,' `strongly agree'... ). These attributes are then correlated to four key parameters: differentiation, or, how distinct the brand is; relevance, or how appropriate the brand is to the target consumer; esteem, or how highly the consumer regards the brand; and knowledge, or how well the consumer knows the brand.

The BAV then constructs a power grid that plots Emerging Brands (strong differentiation), Unrealised Potential (strong differentiation, with increasing relevance and esteem), Declining Leaders (with decreasing differentiation and esteem), and Eroding Potential (low on differentiation and relevance).