The Jeopardy in Double Jeopardy

Over the past year, several authors have participated in a useful dialogue on brand equity in these pages. The essential questions are these: (1) Do most brands remain stable over time, and if so, is the debate really that important?; (2) What is the relative value of attempting to measure, and affect, brand penetration versus brand Ioyalty?; (3) Is it worthwhile to measure brand attitude?; and (4) Is it possible to arrive at methods that would combine measures of both behavior and attitude, so that a brand’s long-term potential to grow can be predicted? Data will be presented that presents a case for the incremental value of measuring loyalty and reaffirms that attitudes can be usefully measured and incorporated into a predictive model. Additionally, data will be offered which confirms the importance of arriving at such models, since many brands show evidence of dramatic increases or decreases in brand strength, when measured over an extended period.