David Allen Aaker (born February 11, 1938) is an American organizational theorist, consultant and Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley's Haas School of Business, a specialist in marketing with a focus on brand strategy. He serves as Vice Chairman of the San Francisco-based growth consulting company Prophet.
David Aaker | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | David Allen Aaker February 11, 1938 Fargo, North Dakota, U.S. |
| Occupations | Vice Chairman at Prophet, consultant, author |
| Known for | Brand strategy |
| Children | Jennifer Aaker[1] |
Education
editAaker received his SB in Management from the MIT Sloan School of Management, then his MA in Statistics and PhD in Business Administration at Stanford University.[2]
Career
editThis section needs additional citations for verification. (December 2025) |
He is the E.T. Grether Professor Emeritus of Marketing Strategy at the Haas School of Business and the vice chairman of Prophet, a global brand and marketing consultancy firm,[3] and an advisor to Dentsu, a Japanese advertising agency.
He has been awarded three career awards for contributions to the science of marketing: The Paul D. Converse Award, The Vijay Mahajan Award, and The Buck Weaver Award.[4] Aaker was inducted into the New York American Marketing Association's Hall of Fame in 2015.[5]
Aaker has won the award for "best article" in the California Management Review and in the Journal of Marketing (twice). His book, Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant, was named among the "Ten Marketing Books You Should Have Read" by Advertising Age in 2011 and named one of the top 3 marketing books of the year by Strategy and Business. Aaker also has a regular column in American Marketing Association's Marketing News called "Aaker on Branding".[citation needed]
Aaker was one of the eleven people included in the 2007 book Conversations with Marketing Masters.
Work
editAaker Model
editAaker is the creator of the Aaker Model, a marketing model that views brand equity as a combination of brand awareness, brand loyalty, and brand associations.[6] The model outlines the necessity of developing a brand identity, which is a unique set of brand associations representing what the brand stands for and offers to customers an aspiring brand image.[7]
Aaker primarily sees brand identity as consisting of 8–12 elements which fall under four perspectives:
- Brand as Product – consists of product scope, product attributes, quality or value of the product, uses, users and country of origin.
- Brand as Organisation – consists of organizational attributes and local workings versus global activities.
- Brand as Person – consists of brand personality and customer-brand relationships.
- Brand as Symbol – consists of audio and visual imagery, metaphorical symbols and brand heritage.[7]
Aaker first introduced the model in his book Building Strong Brands (1996).
Publications
editAaker is the author of more than 100 articles and 14 books on marketing and branding.[8][9]
- 1991. Managing Brand Equity, second edition 2009 ISBN 1439188386
- 1996. Building Strong Brands ISBN 1471104389
- 2001. Developing Business Strategies ISBN 0471064114
- 2000. (with Erich Jochimsthaler) Brand Leadership: The Next Level of the Brand Revolution ISBN 1471104370
- 2004. Brand Portfolio Strategy: Creating Relevance, Differentiation, Energy, Leverage, and Clarity ISBN 1439188831
- 2005. From Fargo to the World of Brands: My Story So Far ISBN 1587364956
- 2007. Strategic Market Management ISBN 0471415723
- 2008. Spanning Silos: The New CMO Imperative ISBN 1422163687
- 2010. Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant, Jossey-Bass ISBN 0470922591
- 2014. "Aaker on Branding", Morgan James Publishing, ISBN 978-1614488323
- 2018. "Creating Signature Stories Morgan James Publishing, ISBN 9781683506119
- 2020. "Owning Game-Changing Subcategories" Morgan James Publishing, ISBN 9781642798906
- 2023. "The Future of Purpose-driven Branding" Morgan James Publishing, ISBN 9781631959882
- 2024. "Aaker on Branding 2nd Ed." Morgan James Publishing, ISBN 9781636986654
References
edit- ↑ "MBA Prof Of The Year: Stanford's Jennifer Aaker". Poets and Quants. January 1, 2019. Retrieved October 26, 2021.
- ↑ "David Aaker". Career Advising & Professional Development | MIT. 2023-03-18. Retrieved 2026-03-25.
- ↑ Mitrak, Andrew (2026-03-19). "David Aaker: "The Father of Modern Branding"". marketinghistory.org. Retrieved 2026-03-25.
- ↑ "David Aaker | The Marketing Society". marketingsociety.com. 2025-10-30. Retrieved 2026-03-25.
- ↑ Davis, Scott (May 4, 2015). "The Future Of Marketing: A Conversation With David Aaker, Colleague And Hall-of-Famer". Forbes. Retrieved 7 January 2018.
- ↑ Schawbel, Dan (January 13, 2011). "Personal Branding Interview: David Aaker". PersonalBrandingBlog.com.
- 1 2 Aaker, David (1996). Building Strong Brands. Free Press. p. 400. ISBN 002900151X.
- ↑ Forsythe, Brad; Schilens, Ray (June 15, 2012). "Author David Aaker Explains How Companies Should Beat Competitors by Making Them Irrelevant". The Advertising Show. Archived from the original on July 10, 2012.
- ↑ "Simon & Schuster Profile". SimonandSchuster.com.