Black Book, a division of Hearst that provides industry-leading automotive analytics and data, Nov. 15 announced the introduction of the Black Book Brand Value Index (BVI) into the industry. BVI measures various aspects of a brand including brand equity, market position, perception.

BVI can be used by automakers and portfolio risk managers to drive strategic decisions, enhance brand management, and communicate the brand’s value to stakeholders.

“For overall BVI, we identify the typical content, configuration and new vehicle pricing across each segment and compare the wholesale average condition price of 1–5-year-old vehicles for each model against the segment average price to capture an overall sales weighted brand score,” said Eric Lyman, Vice President, Product - Auto Finance at Black Book.

BVI captures how the essence of a brand impacts the used market value of a vehicle. The data reveals insights into which models enhance or detract from a brand’s BVI, the effects of redesigns on model performance, age-related performance trends, and differential performance of brands across comparable powertrains like EVs and hybrids.

“The best example of BVI might be the Honda Prologue vs. the Chevrolet Blazer EV or the Toyota GR86 vs. Subaru BRZ. These vehicles are built alongside each other in the same production facility and have fundamentally identical vehicle characteristics. However, they have unique styling cues and are sold with distinct marketing campaigns into different dealer networks. They also will have varying overall sales volumes while sitting in a showroom alongside different stablemates on the dealer lot. All these factors contribute to variances in retail and wholesale transaction prices,” said Lyman. “These final variances in wholesale pricing are distilled into the final Brand Value Index score.”

In support of the Brand Value Index, Black Book has also released its first quarterly Brand Value Index Report, which provides an overview of brand performance for mainstream brands and premium brands.