Family as a source of consumer‐based brand equity

The main purpose of the current work is to analyse the role played by the family on consumer‐based brand equity. In the proposed model, information of a brand provided by both the family and the firm (via price, promotion and advertising spending) is analysed as a source of consumer‐based brand equity and its dimensions.

An empirical study was conducted in young adults (18‐35) via structural equations model. Brand equity is analysed in six different brands of milk, toothpaste and olive oil.

Results prove that positive brand information provided by the family has effects on the formation of brand awareness‐associations and perceived quality, and this may lead in turn, to brand loyalty and overall brand equity. The effects of the information provided by the family are higher than those of the marketing variables studied. Results also show that brand loyalty is much closer to the concept of overall brand equity than brand awareness‐associations and perceived quality.

The sample size does not allow to analyse differences in the effects between types of products and consumers.

Due to the importance of the family on the formation of the consumer‐based brand equity, firms should analyse how to take advantage of this factor to approach new generations of consumers. Actions to foster family associations and brand recall may ease the transfer of brand equity from one generation to another.

Family has been usually considered as an external influence factor of consumer behaviour, however, its importance as information provider had not been analysed in the process of brand equity formation.