David Allen Aaker (born February 11, 1938) is an American

organizational theorist An organization or organisation ( Commonwealth English; see spelling differences) is an entity—such as a company, or corporation or an institution (formal organization), or an association—comprising one or more people and having a par ...

, consultant and

Professor Emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retirement, retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". ...

at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

Haas School of Business The Walter A. Haas School of Business (branded as Berkeley Haas) is the business school of the University of California, Berkeley, a Public university, public research university in Berkeley, California. It was the first business school at a pub ...

, a specialist in marketing with a focus on

brand strategy In marketing, brand management refers to the process of controlling how a brand is perceived in the market. Tangible elements of brand management include the look, price, and packaging of the product itself; intangible elements are the experience ...

. 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 divinity, divine being and is said to speak on behalf of that being, serving as an intermediary with humanity by delivering messages or teachings ...

Education

Aaker received his SB in Management from the

MIT Sloan School of Management The MIT Sloan School of Management (branded as MIT 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 progra ...

and then his MA in Statistics and

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in Business Administration at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

Career

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 , simply known as , stylized as dentsu, is a Japanese international advertising and public relations joint stock company headquartered in Tokyo. Dentsu is the largest advertising agency in Japan and the fifth largest advertising agency network in ...

, 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 t ...

'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 ...

'' 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 Masters''.

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 pro ...

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 the two key components of brand knowledge, as defined by the associative network memory model. It plays ...

brand loyalty In marketing and consumer behaviour, brand loyalty describes a consumer's persistent positive feelings towards a familiar brand and their dedication to purchasing the brand's products and/or services repeatedly regardless of deficiencies, a ...

, and

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

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 goods or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create and ...

, 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 goods or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create and ...

. 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 can be offered to a market to satisfy the desire or need of a customer. * Product (project management), a deliverable or set of deliverables that contribute to a business solution ...

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 different concep ...

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 act of acquiring, satisfying and retaining customers. It is one of the primary components of Business administration, business management and commerce. Marketing is usually conducted by the seller, typically a retailer or ma ...

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 that focuses on academic publishing and instructional materials. The company was founded in 1807 and produces books, journals, and encyclope ...

* 2014. "Aaker on Branding",

Morgan James Publishing Morgan James Publishing is an American independent book publisher and distributor, specializing in non-fiction, fiction, faith and kids categories. History The company was founded in 2003 in Virginia by David L. Hancock. In their early years, Mo ...

References

External links

David Aaker's Blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aaker, David A. 1938 births Living people Branding consultants Business educators American business theorists Marketing theorists 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