Measuring Place Brand Equity with the Advanced Brand Concept Map (aBCM) Method

Places invest an extensive amount of taxpayers’ money into their branding activities. Consequently, there is an urgent need for a proper success measurement that can capture whether or not taxpayer money is being efficiently and effectively used to create place brand equity. Unfortunately, place brand equity (in general) and place brand image changes (in particular) are not easy to evaluate and even harder to quantify. This article demonstrates the utility of the advanced Brand Concept Map (aBCM) method for the aforementioned purpose. With the help of this particular method, practitioners can capture changes in image perception; and with the aid of the brand association network value (BANV) metric, they can also quantify the favorability of the brand image. Using an illustrative case involving the city of Hamburg, this article explores the relevance of the BANV metric and the aBCM method and then discusses practical implications.