(FORTUNE Magazine) – Familiarity breeds contentment at advertising agencies, where brand awareness -- the industry's most cited measurement -- is generally viewed as the best indicator of a brand's strength. Wrong, retorts agency, Young & Rubicam, in a startling renouncement of a fundamental industry tenet. "We are upsetting the apple cart. Chasing awareness can be an exercise in futility," says agency CEO Peter A. Georgescu. Y&R's new approach, called BrandAsset Valuator, theorizes that brands grow differently from the way they are currently built. Georgescu says consumers buy on characteristics such as differentiation, esteem, and relevance long before they get to familiarity, the goal of most advertising. The better measure of brand equity, says Y&R, is a matrix defined by brand stature (familiarity and esteem) and vitality (relevance and differentiation). By that score, well-known labels such as Bayer aspirin, Oldsmobile, and Bold detergent are fading at a rate that belies their name recognition. Y&R cites Home Depot, Victoria's Secret, Snapple, and Dove Chocolates, as brands that are adding muscle, even though they may be less familiar. Y&R's turnabout is based on research conducted in 19 countries with 30,000 consumers, who were quizzed on 6,000 brands. "This is an impressive effort," says professor David A. Aaker of the University of California, author of Managing Brand Equity. "The constructs are very interesting and plausible and represent some new perspectives."

Of course, Y&R isn't suggesting that companies spend any less money on advertising. Y&R client Sears Roebuck is still pounding away on the airwaves, for example. But the agency did use its research to reposition the familiar but frayed Sears image as a family store into the considerably more daring "softer side of Sears" campaign.