David Allen Aaker (born 1938) is an American

organizational theorist Organizational theory refers to the set of interrelated concepts that involve the sociological study of the structures and operations of formal social organizations. Organizational theory also attempts to explain how interrelated units of organiz ...

consultant A consultant (from la, consultare "to deliberate") is a professional (also known as ''expert'', ''specialist'', see variations of meaning below) who provides advice and other purposeful activities in an area of specialization. Consulting servic ...

and

Professor Emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

Haas School of Business The Walter A. Haas School of Business, also known as Berkeley Haas, is the business school of the University of California, Berkeley, a public research university in Berkeley, California. It was the first business school at a public university i ...

, a specialist in marketing with a focus on

brand strategy In marketing, brand management begins with an analysis on how a brand is currently perceived in the market, proceeds to planning how the brand should be perceived if it is to achieve its objectives and continues with ensuring that the brand is per ...

. He serves as Vice Chairman of the San Francisco-based growth consulting company

Prophet In religion, a prophet or prophetess is an individual who is regarded as being in contact with a divine being and is said to speak on behalf of that being, serving as an intermediary with humanity by delivering messages or teachings from the s ...

Biography

Aaker received his SB in Management from the

MIT Sloan School of Management The MIT Sloan School of Management (MIT Sloan or Sloan) is the business school of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT Sloan offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degree programs, ...

and then his MA in Statistics and

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

in Business Administration at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

. He is the E.T. Grether

of Marketing Strategy at the Haas School of Business and the currently the vice chairman of Prophet, a global brand and marketing consultancy firm, and an advisor to

Dentsu Dentsu Inc. ( ja, 株式会社電通 ''Kabushiki-gaisha Dentsū'' or 電通 ''Dentsū'' for short) is a Japanese international advertising and public relations joint stock company headquartered in Tokyo. Dentsu is currently the largest adverti ...

, a Japanese advertising agency. He has been awarded three career awards for contributions to the science of marketing: The Paul D. Converse Award; The Vijay Mahajan Award; and The Buck Weaver Award. Aaker was inducted into the New York

American Marketing Association The American Marketing Association (AMA) is a professional association for marketing professionals with 30,000 members as of 2012. It has 76 professional chapters and 250 collegiate chapters across the United States. The AMA was formed in from th ...

's Hall of Fame in 2015. Aaker has won the award for "best article" in the ''

California Management Review ''California Management Review'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal on management that is affiliated with the Walter A. Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. It was established in 1958 and covers the field o ...

'' and in the ''

Journal of Marketing The ''Journal of Marketing'' is a bimonthly scholarly journal that publishes peer-reviewed research in marketing. It is published by the American Marketing Association. Established in 1936, It is the fourth-oldest major journal covering marketing ...

'' (twice). His book, ''Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant,'' was named among the "Ten Marketing Books You Should Have Read" by ''

Advertising Age ''Ad Age'' (known as ''Advertising Age'' until 2017) is a global media brand that publishes news, analysis, and data on marketing and media. Its namesake magazine was started as a broadsheet newspaper in Chicago in 1930. ''Ad Age'' appears in mul ...

'' in 2011 and named one of the top 3 marketing books of the year by Strategy and Business. Aaker also has a regular column in ''

's Marketing News'' called "Aaker on Branding". Aaker was one of the eleven people included in the 2007 book ''Conversations with Marketing''.

Work

Aaker Model

Aaker is the creator of the Aaker Model, a marketing model that views

brand equity Brand equity, in marketing, is the worth of a brand in and of itself – i.e., the social value of a well-known brand name. The owner of a well-known brand name can generate more revenue simply from brand recognition, as consumers perceive the prod ...

as a combination of

brand awareness Brand awareness is the extent to which customers are able to recall or recognize a brand under different conditions. Brand awareness is one of two dimensions from brand knowledge, an associative network memory model. Brand awareness is a key consi ...

brand loyalty In marketing, brand loyalty describes a consumer's positive feelings towards a brand, and their dedication to purchasing the brand's products and/or services repeatedly, regardless of deficiencies, a competitor's actions, or changes in the envir ...

, and

brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create an ...

associations. The model outlines the necessity of developing a

brand identity A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create a ...

, which is a unique set of brand associations representing what the brand stands for and offers to customers an aspiring

brand image A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create a ...

. Aaker primarily sees brand identity as consisting of 8–12 elements which fall under four perspectives: * Brand as Product – consists of

product Product may refer to: Business * Product (business), an item that serves as a solution to a specific consumer problem. * Product (project management), a deliverable or set of deliverables that contribute to a business solution Mathematics * Produ ...

scope, product attributes, quality or value of the product, uses, users and country of origin. * Brand as Organisation – consists of organizational attributes and local workings versus global activities. * Brand as Person – consists of brand personality and customer-brand relationships. * Brand as Symbol – consists of audio and visual imagery, metaphorical

symbols A symbol is a mark, sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, object, or relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by creating linkages between otherwise very different conc ...

and brand heritage. Aaker first introduced the model in his book ''Building Strong Brands'' (1996).

Publications

Aaker is the author of more than 100 articles and 14 books on

marketing Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to emph ...

and

branding Branding may refer to: Physical markings * Making a mark, typically by charring: ** Wood branding, permanently marking, by way of heat, typically of wood (also applied to plastic, cork, leather, etc.) ** Livestock branding, the marking of animals ...

. * 1991. ''Managing Brand Equity'', second edition 2009 * 1996. ''Building Strong Brands'' * 2001. ''Developing Business Strategies'' * 2000. (with Erich Jachimsthaler) ''Brand Leadership: The Next Level of the Brand Revolution'' * 2004. ''Brand Portfolio Strategy: Creating Relevance, Differentiation, Energy, Leverage, and Clarity'' * 2005. ''From Fargo to the World of Brands: My Story So Far'' * 2007. ''Strategic Market Management'' * 2008. ''Spanning Silos: The New CMO Imperative'' * 2010. ''Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant'',

Jossey-Bass John Wiley & Sons, Inc., commonly known as Wiley (), is an American multinational publishing company founded in 1807 that focuses on academic publishing and instructional materials. The company produces books, journals, and encyclopedias, in p ...

* 2011. ''Brand Building and Social Media'' * 2011. ''Preference vs. Relevance'' '' * 2011. ''Winning the Brand Relevance War'' * 2011. ''Eight Characteristics of Successful Retail Concepts'' * 2011. ''Personal Branding Interviews: David Aaker'' * 2014. "Aaker on Branding", Morgan James Publishing,

References

External links

David Aaker's Blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aaker, David A. 1938 births Living people Branding consultants Business educators American business theorists Marketing theorists Marketing people American marketing people Advertising theorists American business writers MIT Sloan School of Management alumni Stanford University School of Humanities and Sciences alumni Haas School of Business faculty Stanford Graduate School of Business alumni People from Fargo, North Dakota