© The Wharton School, The University of Pennsylvania | Wharton Global Youth Program | Resources for Educators: Lesson Plans 1/4
Brand Equity
SUBMITTED BY: Leya Matthew
SUBJECT(S): Marketing
GRADE LEVEL(S): 9, 10, 11, 12
☰ OVERVIEW:
This lesson continues the lesson on brands, branding and brand strategies to now highlight the
concept of brand equity. Building on earlier concepts, students analyze the various elements that
constitute brand equity. According to the Wharton Global Youth Program glossary: Brand equity
refers to the marketing of facts that are uniquely attributable to the brand. In particular, brand
equity captures the outcomes, including how aware consumers are of the product, how much
they like it, how committed they are to it, and how much they’re willing to pay for it, that result
from a product’s name. From the general concept of branding (ideas, emotions attached to a
distinct identity, name, logo), we now move to specific expectations from branding — name
recognition, market share, sales, etc. In today’s competitive world the leverage a brand offers a
product is tangible and extremely valuable for marketing departments.
☰ NBEA STANDARD(S):
Marketing, I. Foundations of Marketing
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© The Wharton School, The University of Pennsylvania | Wharton Global Youth Program | Resources for Educators: Lesson Plans 2/4
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Common Core Standard(s):
1. CCR Standard for Reading: Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and
make logical inferences from it.
2. CCR Standards for Listening: Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of
conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on each other’s ideas
and expressing their own clearly and persuasively. Evaluate a speaker’s point of view,
reasoning and use of evidence and rhetoric.
3. CCR Standards for Speaking: Present information, findings and supporting evidence in
such a way that listeners can follow the line of reasoning, and the organization,
development and style are appropriate to the task, purpose and audience.
Objectives/Purposes: Students will analyze the brand equity of a brand of their choice.
Knowledge@Wharton Article: “The iPhone in China: Will Apple Connect with the World’s
Biggest Mobile Market?”
Other Resources/Materials:
Handout of sample survey
Internet access
© The Wharton School, The University of Pennsylvania | Wharton Global Youth Program | Resources for Educators: Lesson Plans 3/4
Activity:
1. Introduction to concepts (10-15 mins)
The teacher begins the lesson by explaining the concept of brand equity. According to the
Knowledge@WhartonHighSchool glossary: In particular, brand equity captures the outcomes,
including how aware consumers are of the product, how much they like it, how committed they
are to it, and how much they’re willing to pay for it, that result from a product’s name – for
example, Coca-Cola – that would not occur if the same product did not bear that name –
example, a generic cola.
To unpack this rather seemingly complicated definition I used an example — in the form of a
survey created around the underlined points from the definition. The example is included as an
attachment to the lesson. In the example of the Apple iphone, the four points from the definition
are broken down into numerical points. A person ticking the “strongly aware” category of the
survey fetches 4 points for iphone while the person ticking the “not aware” category gains a
single point for apple. Similarly, a person ticking “I loooove Apple” gains 4 points for Apple while
“I’m not crazy about Apple fetches 2 points for Apple. In this way, the definition is broken down
into a numerical 4-point scale for each part of the definition. This can then be compared to the
brand equity of a competing Smartphone like that of Blackberry, to really unpack what brand
equity means to a branded product.
2. Work with Knowledge@Wharton article (10 mins)
Students are now given copies of the article: “The iPhone in China: Will Apple Connect with the
World’s Biggest Mobile Market?” to further analyze the brand equity of a product along different
market segments or regions. The article talks about the differing perception of Apple in the US,
China and India, and how marketing decisions in different countries can impact the global brand
equity of Apple.
3. Student Surveys (15 mins)
Students are now asked to design their own surveys to analyze the brand equity of a brand of
their choice. Once the students design the surveys, they can ask their classmates to respond to
the survey. Once they have the sufficient number of respondents, they are guided through the
© The Wharton School, The University of Pennsylvania | Wharton Global Youth Program | Resources for Educators: Lesson Plans 4/4
math to arrive at a final percentage figure for the brand equity of the product they chose. Using
the sample survey as a take off point, the numerical analysis is explained. The scores are to be
multiplied with the respondent tally and a final percentage value is arrived at for a comparable
analysis.
Students can then be asked to present their analysis from the survey in the next lesson. It will be
interesting if some students choose competing products or services for surveys. For example, if
Apple’s brand equity turns out to be 73% and Blackberry’s is 68%, it can be analyzed whether —
customers are more aware, or they like the product more, or it is a commitment, or it is the
willingness to pay that gives Apple higher brand equity. Apple’s branding strategy can be
analyzed along with Blackberry’s to understand how brand equity is created in tangible terms.
Tying It All Together: Brand Equity sounds like a difficult concept since the name does not
immediately conjure up a coherent meaning. Furthermore, equity may also refer to equality, which
can be confusing. Students therefore build up the various blocks that together constitute brand
equity, through the survey exercise.
Practice Outside of the Classroom: The survey can also be conducted outside the class in a
more rigorous fashion, making sure that a representative sample is surveyed.
What Worked and What I Would Do Differently: The concept of brand equity can be explored
at multiple levels. This lesson can therefore be extended into a multi-tier lesson looking at the
same concept from a local, regional/national and global perspective. For example, a teacher in
Maharashtra (India) could do a lesson exploring the brand equity of Maharashtra and the
political/economic dimensions of this phenomenon. This lesson can, among others, be linked to
lessons in Social Studies/History, and Civics/Citizenship/Human rights (when a brand/nation
becomes aggressive and delegitimizes other notions of identity).
