How to explain CBBE and sell more beer at the same time

10 Oct 2003

Reading the definition for CBBE (Customer Based Brand Equity) is enough to drive anyone to drink: The differential effect that brand knowledge has on consumer response to the marketing of that brand.¹

So, let's rather turn to drink.

People buy beer for one or more of the three L's; they want to feel LEKKER, they want to get LAID or they want to be LOVED.

If your beer can't deliver on these basics, then don't even enter the race.
But it's the next level where it gets interesting.

People choose a certain brand of beer for only three reasons
1. What the beer says about them
2. What they say about the beer
3. It's on special

Let's forget about point three for now. What the beer says about the drinker (called 'badge value' - point 1 above) is a lot more important than beer drinkers will admit. What they will admit to, are the reasons why they prefer 'their' beer (point 2 above), waxing lyrical about the intrinsic qualities of the beer, such as purity, taste and heritage. Not until Larry Percy conducted a taste test amongst discriminating beeroids, did we realise that it's the blind leading the blind.

Taste perceptions of 6 beer brands when the drinker knows what he is drinking.¹	Taste perceptions of 6 beer brands when the drinker does NOT know what he is drinking.¹

Consumers' skewed perception of the attributes of a brand can be found in virtually all product categories. When we're aware of the label, drinks taste better, clothes fit and cars don't break down. Now, that's CBBE.

Ref 1: Keller K L. Strategic Brand Management, 2nd Edition, Prentice Hall, 2003, p 59-61.