Brand Orientation Scale

What it measures

This scale measures how strategically an organization approaches its branding, treated as a second-order reflective construct built from four underlying behaviours: how important the brand is treated internally, how consistently it is presented across activities, how deliberately the organization works to differentiate it from competitors, and how systematically the organization gathers and uses market intelligence about the brand. The scale was developed and validated across five complementary studies with marketing and brand managers, and outperformed two existing brand orientation scales on predictive validity for competitive advantage.

Response format

7-point Likert scale, respondent is a marketing/brand manager reporting on their organization

Scale items

Brand Importance

• Our brand is among our most valuable assets.
• We believe that branding is one of the most important ways to acquire and maintain a good market position.
• Our brand provides, in large, the reason for the existence of our company.
• Branding is a top priority in our company.
• For us a brand is much more than just a name and a logo.

Brand Consistency

• Our marketing activities are constantly coordinated so that a unified image regarding our brand is given to our customers.
• One can identify our brand's values in every marketing activity we do.
• Even when we are really stressed about sales and numbers, we do not proceed to activities that may endanger our brand's image.
• Anything that may affect our brand's image is aligned with their positioning.
• No matter what changes are taking place in our firm, our brand values remain constant.
• We make sure our brand's image does not get muddled with conflicting marketing messages.
• Before making any change in our organizational strategy, we take into serious account the effect it may have on our brand.

Brand Differentiation

• We make sure our brand has distinct competitive advantages.
• We differentiate our brand from competition in an easily identifiable way.
• Our brand's positioning establishes competitive superiority.
• We create brands with unique identity.
• We have clearly defined our brand's core values.

Brand Intelligence

• We periodically monitor customers' perceptions regarding competitive brands.
• We develop detailed knowledge of customers' perceptions for our brand.
• We run market studies on a frequent basis to define where we have to refine or redirect our brand building efforts.
• We have a continuous system in place to monitor our employees' perceptions regarding our brand.

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

The scale is modelled as a second-order reflective construct (not formative): all four dimensions load significantly and positively onto a superordinate brand orientation factor, and this structure was independently confirmed across multiple studies. Reliability varies modestly by study: intermediate 21-item purification study (n=134): BIM alpha=.94, BCON alpha=.93, BDIF alpha=.91, BINT alpha=.91. Scale-comparison study (n=118): BIM alpha=.83, BCON alpha=.84, BDIF alpha=.86, BINT alpha=.83. Final validation study (n=242 firms): BIM alpha=.90/CR=.90/AVE=.51; BCON alpha=.90/CR=.91/AVE=.45; BDIF alpha=.89/CR=.88/AVE=.55; BINT alpha=.91/CR=.89/AVE=.59. All values exceed .80 in the final validation study. Note BCON's AVE (.45) falls slightly below the conventional .50 convergent validity guideline even though its reliability is high; the authors treat this as acceptable given strong composite reliability. The scale outperformed the Wong and Merrilees (2007) and Huang and Tsai (2013) brand orientation scales on predictive validity for competitive advantage.

Citation

Piha, L., Papadas, K. and Davvetas, V. (2021). Brand orientation: Conceptual extension, scale development and validation. Journal of Business Research, 134, 203-222.

Keywords

More Branding & Brand Psychology scales

• Activist Brand Perception Scale2024 · 8 items
• Empowerment (Customer with the Company)2023 · 3 items
• Engagement with the Brand2023 · 3 items
• Engagement with the Brand (Affective)2023 · 4 items
• Engagement with the Brand (Behavioral)2023 · 3 items
• Engagement with the Brand (Cognitive)2023 · 3 items