Using free association to examine the relationship between the characteristics of brand associations and brand equity

The purposes of this study are to identify the types of brand association and examine the relationship between association characteristics and brand equity. Based on a literature review, two types of brand association are identified. One is product association including functional attribute association and non‐functional attribute association. The other is organizational association including corporate ability association and corporate social responsibility association. An empirical study measures the numbers of association, deriving from free association, and examines its differences between three pairs of high and low equity brands. We found that the corporate social responsibility association is almost absent across four high equity brands from subject’s free associations. Based on the other three contents of brand association, we use its total number of association to identify the orientation of association for each brand. The results are the same as that of using the favorable association. In addition, we also found that the number of brand association and total association have a significant relationship with brand equity. But the core of the brand association, instead of total association, is the key factor of driving brand equity building. The greater the numbers of the core brand association, the higher the brand equity. However, there is no significant difference for the other brand associations between the high and low equity brands. Marketers should develop the core association to position its brand strategy to create competitive advantages.