Leveraging brand equity to attract human capital

Brand equity is sometimes conceptualized as consisting of awareness, perceived quality, and favorable brand associations (e.g., Aaker 1996; Keller 1993). Numerous associations are likely to exist for any brand. For instance, Pepsi may be associated with NASCAR, youth, Britney Spears, the phrase “you got the right one,” etc. The extent to which each association enhances or dilutes brand strength is a function of the congruity between the association and the personality and/or taste of the customer (Aaker, 1999; Sirgy, 1982). Thus, the effects of brand associations are highly idiosyncratic. Given (a) the complexity stemming from the wide array of associations held for any brand and the potential for each of these to either positively or negatively effect brand evaluations and (b) our goal of establishing a general relationship between brand equity and job selection, our focus in measuring brand equity is on the less idiosyncratic aspects of brand equity. Therefore, consistent with well-established measures of brand equity (e.g., Aaker and Keller 1990; Smith and Park 1992), we measure brand equity based on awareness and perceived quality, where perceived quality reflects a global brand evaluation.

A multigroup (high brand equity/low brand equity) structural equation model analysis leads to the same conclusions as those found with the regression analyses.