by The Customer-Based Brand Equity (CBBE) Model is a widely used framework developed by Kevin Lane Keller to explain how organizations can build strong and valuable brands by focusing on customers’ knowledge, perceptions, experiences, and relationships with the brand. The central idea of the model is that brand equity exists when customers respond more favorably to a product, service, or marketing activity because they recognize and understand the brand. Therefore, a brand is not considered strong only because of its sales or financial value; it becomes strong when customers develop awareness, positive associations, favorable judgments, emotional connections, and loyalty toward it.
Keller’s CBBE Model is commonly represented as a four-level pyramid. The four major stages are Brand Identity, Brand Meaning, Brand Responses, and Brand Relationships. These stages contain six important building blocks: Brand Salience, Brand Performance, Brand Imagery, Brand Judgments, Brand Feelings, and Brand Resonance. The model follows a logical sequence in which companies first make customers aware of the brand, then create meaningful associations, generate positive customer responses, and finally develop deep relationships.
1. Brand Identity – Who Are You?
The first level of the CBBE Model is Brand Identity, which answers the question, “Who are you?” The major building block at this level is Brand Salience. Brand salience refers to the degree to which customers are aware of and able to recognize or recall a brand in different situations.
Brand salience is more than simply knowing a brand name. It includes the depth and breadth of brand awareness. Depth refers to how easily customers can recall or recognize the brand, while breadth refers to the range of situations in which customers think about the brand. A strong brand should be easily recalled when customers identify a particular need or product category.
For instance, when customers think about athletic footwear, they may immediately recall brands such as Nike or Adidas. This indicates strong brand salience. Companies can develop salience through advertising, distribution, packaging, social media, sponsorships, product visibility, and consistent communication.
Brand identity forms the foundation of the entire model. Without awareness, customers may not consider the brand during purchasing decisions. Therefore, organizations should first ensure that customers know the brand, understand its category, and recognize the situations in which the brand can satisfy their needs.
2. Brand Meaning – What Are You?
The second level of the CBBE Model is Brand Meaning, which answers the question, “What are you?” This stage focuses on creating meaningful associations in customers’ minds. It contains two building blocks: Brand Performance and Brand Imagery.
Brand performance refers to how effectively the product or service satisfies customers’ functional needs. It includes factors such as product quality, features, reliability, durability, service, efficiency, price, and design. Customers evaluate whether the brand actually performs as promised. A brand that claims superior quality but provides poor performance cannot build strong equity.
Brand imagery refers to the symbolic and psychological meanings associated with a brand. It includes the type of people who use the brand, the situations in which it is used, personality, lifestyle, values, and social or emotional associations. Imagery is not limited to product features; it reflects what the brand means to customers.
For example, a technology brand may be associated with innovation and modern lifestyles. A luxury brand may be associated with prestige, exclusivity, and sophistication. A family-oriented brand may be associated with care, trust, and comfort.
Brand performance and imagery must work together. Performance creates functional value, while imagery creates symbolic and emotional meaning. Strong brands provide both practical benefits and meaningful associations.
(a) Brand Performance
Brand performance is one of the two major components of the Brand Meaning stage. It refers to the extent to which a brand meets customers’ functional requirements and fulfills its basic promises. Keller identifies several dimensions that influence customer perceptions of performance, including primary characteristics, secondary features, product reliability, durability, service effectiveness, style, and price. Customers often evaluate whether a product performs better than expected and whether it provides value for money. Consistent performance is important because brand promises must be supported by actual experiences. If the product performs poorly, positive advertising cannot sustain strong brand equity for a long time.
For example, customers may associate a laptop brand with fast performance, strong battery life, durable construction, and dependable technical support. These characteristics contribute to its performance meaning. Brand performance is especially important because customer satisfaction depends heavily on actual product and service experiences. Companies must therefore continuously improve product quality, features, reliability, convenience, and service. Successful performance creates positive customer judgments and strengthens trust.
(b) Brand Imagery
Brand imagery is the second component of the Brand Meaning stage. It represents the intangible and symbolic aspects of a brand that exist in customers’ minds. While performance concerns what a brand does, imagery concerns what a brand represents. Brand imagery can involve customer profiles, purchasing situations, personality, values, heritage, experiences, and social meanings. Customers may associate a brand with certain lifestyles, age groups, social groups, aspirations, or personalities. These associations influence emotional attachment and customer preference.
For example, a sportswear brand may be associated with active lifestyles, fitness, confidence, and achievement. A premium automobile brand may be associated with prestige, sophistication, performance, and social status.
3. Brand Responses – What Do I Think and Feel About You?
The third level of the CBBE Model is Brand Responses, which answers the question, “What do customers think and feel about the brand?” This stage contains two building blocks: Brand Judgments and Brand Feelings.
Brand judgments are customers’ personal opinions and evaluations of the brand. Customers may judge the brand according to quality, credibility, consideration, superiority, relevance, and value. These judgments are influenced by both actual product performance and brand communication.
Brand feelings refer to customers’ emotional reactions to the brand. Customers may feel security, excitement, happiness, social approval, warmth, or self-respect when interacting with a brand.
The goal of this stage is to create positive customer responses. Organizations need to ensure that customers not only know the brand and understand its meaning but also develop favorable opinions and emotions toward it.
For example, a healthcare brand may create judgments of reliability and professionalism while generating feelings of security and care. Together, these responses strengthen customer confidence and preference.
(a) Brand Judgments
Brand judgments are customers’ personal evaluations and opinions about the brand. They reflect how customers assess the brand based on their knowledge, experiences, expectations, and comparisons with competitors.
Important dimensions of brand judgments include quality, credibility, consideration, and superiority. Customers evaluate whether the brand delivers good quality, whether the organization is trustworthy and competent, whether the brand is relevant to their needs, and whether it is better than competing alternatives.
Quality judgments develop through product performance and customer experience. Credibility involves trustworthiness, expertise, and reliability. Consideration refers to whether customers seriously include the brand in their purchasing decisions. Superiority reflects whether customers perceive the brand as better or more desirable than competitors.
Strong brand judgments are important because they influence purchasing decisions and customer loyalty. Companies can strengthen judgments through consistent quality, customer service, innovation, effective communication, transparent business practices, and positive customer experiences.
(b) Brand Feelings
Brand feelings represent the emotional reactions customers associate with a brand. While judgments are mainly cognitive evaluations, feelings are emotional responses. Keller identifies several important types of brand feelings, including warmth, fun, excitement, security, social approval, and self-respect.
A brand may create feelings of warmth by appearing caring and supportive. It may create excitement through innovative products and energetic communication. Security can be associated with reliability and safety. Social approval occurs when customers believe that using the brand helps them gain acceptance or recognition from others. Self-respect develops when the brand contributes to confidence or a positive sense of achievement.
Emotional connections can make brands more meaningful and memorable. Customers often continue purchasing brands not only because of functional benefits but also because of the feelings they create.
For example, a travel brand may create excitement and adventure, while a financial services brand may create feelings of security and confidence. Strong brand feelings complement positive judgments and help move customers toward deeper brand relationships.
4. Brand Relationships – What About You and Me?
The fourth and highest level of the CBBE Model is Brand Relationships, which answers the question, “What about you and me?” This stage is represented by Brand Resonance.
Brand resonance describes the deepest level of customer-brand relationship. Customers at this stage do more than purchase the product. They develop strong psychological attachment, behavioral loyalty, active engagement, and a sense of connection with other customers or the brand community.
Keller’s concept of brand resonance includes four major dimensions: behavioral loyalty, attitudinal attachment, sense of community, and active engagement.
Behavioral loyalty refers to repeated purchasing and continued use of the brand. Attitudinal attachment means customers regard the brand as personally meaningful or special. Sense of community occurs when customers feel connected to other users of the brand. Active engagement occurs when customers voluntarily interact with the brand through social media, events, content creation, recommendations, or other activities.
