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In Part 1 of my review of Brand Simple, I focused on brand-related definitions and an explanation of Allen Adamson’s 5 steps to helping your brand succeed.

Another key takeaway from the book is Adamson’s explanation of the Brand Asset Valuator (BAV) – an incredibly powerful proprietary diagnostic tool for understanding how a given brand is performing relative to all other brands in the market.

To begin the analysis you must score the brands for:

• Differentiation: How different is the brand from others in its category?
• Relevance: How relevant is the brand to its target audience?
• Esteem: Does the target audience like the brand?
• Knowledge: How much does the target audience know about the brand?

According to Adamson, there is no “correct” method for how you should develop a score for each – that is really up to you and the industry that you are in.  If you are able to do primary research, these four questions could easily become objectives for a consumer survey.  In an academic setting, you could secondary research to compare brands using the BAV.  The key is to be scientific, keeping your analysis methods consistent across the different brands you are studying.

Based on those scores (i.e. the bar charts), your brand falls into one of four quadrants relative to Brand Stature and Brand Strength.  As in most 2×2 tools, the top right quadrant is often considered the most interesting.  Note that the difference between Leadership and Mass Market is differentiation.  To reference some well known examples, Coke and Pepsi would likely be considered mass market, while Apple would likely be considered to be in a leadership position because it is more differentiated from its competition.

Adamson doesn’t spend a ton of time on this tool in his book, but it really could be an entire book on its own.  He points out that the BAV is more than just a brand’s report card, it can be a diagnostic tool for identifying what areas the marketing team should focus on to improve the brand’s stature and strength.  This type of methodical analysis can focus a fragmented strategy by identifying next steps for improvement.

I find that I go back to Brand Simple at least once a year for reference.  To keep up with Adamson’s latest work and/or just to review the concepts covered in this book, check out the Brand Simple blog at http://www.brandsimple.com/blog/.

Rachel Colello
Zer0 to 5ive Senior Strategist
Twitter: @Rachel990306