This document discusses customer equity and brand equity. It defines customer equity as the sum of the lifetime values of all a firm's customers across its brands. Brand equity is defined as customers' assessments of a brand's intangible qualities, whether positive or negative. The document notes that while managers often claim to focus on customers, in reality brand management usually trumps customer management. It provides several examples of brands that failed or succeeded by focusing on customers versus brands, and provides seven directives for companies to shift their focus more toward maximizing customer lifetime value and customer equity rather than just brand equity.