Customer-Based Brand Competitiveness Scale

What it measures

A seven-item unidimensional scale measuring customers' perceptions of how well a specific brand outperforms its competitors. The scale captures the relative perspective of brand performance by having respondents evaluate the focal brand directly against competing brands across dimensions including product quality, reputation, promise delivery, customer need satisfaction, and market leadership. Developed and validated across five Australian industries (FMCG, financial services, telecommunications, retail, and automotive) using a three-stage scale development process encompassing qualitative consumer interviews, academic expert refinement, and three quantitative validation studies.

Response format

7-point Likert (1=strongly disagree, 7=strongly agree)

Scale items

• Brand X offers better quality than competing brands.
• Brand X offers better products than competing brands.
• Brand X has a better reputation than competing brands.
• Brand X delivers on its promises better than competing brands.
• Brand X is the best brand in the product category.
• Brand X addresses customer needs better than competing brands.
• Brand X is the leader in the product category.

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

Usage notes & scoring

Validated across three consumer surveys totalling 1,157 respondents and 2,078 brand evaluations. Pre-test (n=270) and EFA (n=900) each returned α = .95 with all item loadings ≥ .80. CFA (n=908) confirmed composite reliability of .95 and AVE of .71, satisfying both convergent and discriminant validity thresholds. The one-factor solution was consistent across all five industries and varied product/service characteristics, supporting broad generalisability. Structural equation modelling demonstrated the CBBC scale outperforms the existing Gupta et al. (2020) four-item BC scale in explaining customer-based brand equity (R² = .64 vs .44) and purchase intentions (R² = .32 vs .27). Note: 'Brand X' in each item should be replaced with the name of the specific brand being evaluated; the competitive frame of reference is intentionally left to the respondent's own subjective perception.

Citation

Wangmo, G., Piehler, R., & Baumann, C. (2025). Customer-based brand competitiveness (CBBC) scale: advancing the relative perspective. Journal of Product & Brand Management, 34(4), 450–467.

Keywords