Abstract: Brand image is the attributes set and the related associations of a brand in consumers’ mind. The study explored the factors of brand image system of three different product categories and their weight. The factors of brand image were explored through questionnaire. Toothpaste, sports sneaker, and personal stereo were chosen as product sample, and four hundred and twenty undergraduates from Tangshan city and Beijing as subjects (each person evaluated two kinds of products). Hereinto the first two kinds of products which were requisites of undergraduates, sports sneaker belongs to high conspicuous products and toothpaste was low conspicuous product. On the other hand, personal stereo was the sample of development and entertainment products. Several factors of three products’ brand image were taken out with exploratory factor analysis. In order to explore the weight of the brand image factors, and as the factor contribution ratio method is not veracious, holistic quartation method was used here. Twenty six undergraduates evaluated the weight of the image factors of three kinds of brand with holistic quartation method. Product function, advertising and propaganda, market orientation, product grade, corporation image are the factors of toothpaste brand image. Product function, advertising and propaganda, symbolic meaning, market orientation, brand appetency, consuming experience are the factors of sports sneaker brand image. Corporation image and product function, advertising and propaganda, consuming experience, symbolic meaning, price and function ratio are the factors of personal stereo brand image. So the hypothesis was proved that brand image is an ordinal and organic system, “ordinal” means the weight of factors are different, “organic” means that brand image can be deposed into several factors and the factors belonged to function components and meaning components. function components are the factors about physical characteristics and function, which are called “hard factors”; meaning factors are those that can show the personality、value and lifestyle of consumers, which are called “soft factors”. The research also gave evidence of the hypothesis below: the factor structures of brand image of different product category have commonness and individuality; the function components of low conspicuous products are more important than the counterpart of high conspicuous products.

Key words: brand image, function components, meaning components, product category