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Written by : Shavonne Schwister |
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in our introduction we defined brand equity as the measurable value that your brand brings to your business based on the perception and customer experiences brand equity can be positive or negative brands with negative brand equity would be better off with no name on it at all if consumers think highly of a brand it will usually have positive brand equity simple enough right every marketer should be after having a more positive brand equity why positive brand equity allows you to set your product or service at a higher price point gain competitive advantage especially in a commodity market increase the success of a new product or service launch gained attention from bloggers press and industry leaders and convince investors that your business is worth investing in just to name a few the goal for any brand building program is to increase brand equity now imagine having a brand with a horrible reputation you'd have a really hard time convincing consumers that you're worth the purchase getting people's attention introducing a new product or getting someone to invest in your business it's clear why you want to have a positive brand equity now let's go into exactly what builds it building brand awareness is the very first step that a marketer needs to take to build brand equity around their brand like we said before it's the extent to which consumers are familiar with your brand and its qualities this is what you will focus on the most when your brand is getting introduced to the market having high brand awareness is absolutely necessary in getting more sales and a higher revenue but why according to author and Harvard professor Gerald's Altman our purchase decisions are 95% subconscious when a consumer is ready to purchase something they're going to go with what's most familiar the brand they know and trust the most this is especially important for big-ticket items like a car when consumers know your brand and see it it plants the seed of you in their minds when your target audience has a problem you want them to think of you as the solution you can increase brand awareness through using search engine optimization also known as SEO to get your business's page to the top of the search or the search engine results page you can host events what better way to attract potential clients and get them familiar with you than throwing an event it could be purely for fun or more of an educational workshop for potential clients you can become a sponsor you can also find an event someone else is hosting and sponsor it make sure that the company or the person that you're partnering with is relevant to your target market sometimes you do have to pay the coordinator to be a sponsor but for smaller local events you can even become a sponsor by providing free samples of your product and having an activation during an event you can provide free content your website should be a massive source of information for your target market through blogging ebooks or other free content you give people the opportunity to experience your brand before they even make a purchase you can become an authority on a subject and a trust source of information in our branding mastery course you'll learn exactly how to create branded content that will bring in thousands of readers social media having a social media presence is absolutely essential in building brand awareness you want to make the best impression you possibly can on your target audience and the power of social media gives you the ability to capture the attention of consumers who may have never learned about you otherwise different people will associate your brand with different things once consumers become aware of your brand they'll begin to associate it with different things or attributes this can happen before or after a purchase brands like Apple are associated with design BMW is associated with sophisticated and superior engineering and being fun to drive as a brand manager you will have a great influence on what consumers associate with your brand so why do I say influence and not ownership well it's because you can't choose how people will react to your brand this is why it's so so important to understand your target market and what their needs wants and desires are you'll never have total control of what people associate with your brand but when you know what your audience wants from you you'll be able to create stronger positive brand associations as you'll know how to solve a customer's problem before they even have to ask consumer culture today has our brands blended seamlessly into our lives we use brands to represent who we are and what we stand for as naturally social creatures humans want to belong to something to be part of a group the most successful brands out there have built communities around themselves to bring their buyers together for example motorcycle brand harley-davidson has a group called hog an exclusive membership only available to the proud owners of a Harley brand associations are formed by a customer's contact with your business through the advertisements and promotions that you put out the communities you build around your brand word-of-mouth your price the quality of your product or service if you have any influencers or endorsers working with your product your brand's visuals and logo and your brand's personality you will learn how to establish and develop your brand's personality and visuals in chapters 4 & 5 of our branding mastery course forming positive brand associations is necessary to help build your brand's equity the more good memories a consumer has with your brand the butter is for you repeated positive interactions between a consumer and a brand be it direct or indirect bring a person one step closer to the ultimate brand managers dream brand loyalty brand loyalty loyalty is a powerful word brand loyalty happens when a customer becomes committed to your brand and becomes a repeat buyer sometimes even for life once a person becomes loyal to your brand it is extremely difficult for a competitor to break that link meaning you should develop strategies to increase brand loyalty among your consumers consumers are loyal to brands not products the purchase decision is highly complicated and a great deal more based in emotions and perception than cold hard facts the Pareto principle explains that 80% of your future revenue comes from 20% of your current customer base that is huge businesses spent five to twenty five times more to acquire new customers than to retain their existing ones repeated customers are cheaper to market too they spend more and they make purchases more often why wouldn't you want that for your business but it won't come without an effort on your part consumers aren't loyal to brands out of the goodness of their hearts you're really gonna have to earn that loyalty first and foremost the number one key to building brand loyalty is to always be providing something of value people don't want to be sold something they want to see the value of something this means always creating high quality content and offering truly quality products or services secondly
Thanks for your comment Raylene Vardeman, have a nice day.
- Shavonne Schwister, Staff Member
in this video we'll be covering four steps to building brand equity for your startup building brand equity can be a truly powerful investment for any business startups in particular can benefit significantly helping them grow a loyal customer base who will return to purchase the brand's products again and again while brand equity most likely isn't a priority for many startups the compounding effect it provides for your brand makes it one of the most underrated and often misunderstood methods of growing your company from the ground up so what does brand equity even mean although it's been happening naturally in the world since around 5000 years ago researchers and academics only actually began studying the process of building brand equity since the 1980s although accountants and marketers tend to disagree on the definition of brand equity it can be simply defined as the strength of a brand and its ability to convince customers to pay a premium for a product above the price set by competing generic alternatives so why are we happy to pay a higher price tag for an iphone when we could pay a fraction of the price for an android which basically does the exact same thing the reason isn't solely down to the high level of brand equity apple has built and enjoyed since steve jobs returned to apple in 1997 but it is a critical factor when the brand apple comes to mind it is often associated with terms such as state-of-the-art design innovative technology and also even the word sexy apple understands one key marketing principle better than most customers buy products that are an extension of either the person they are or who they desire to become in future this suggests that the products that we wear buy and use help us to tell a story our story we use products to give the world a glimpse into who we are and what we believe and how we think but brand equity isn't just relevant to premium brands the same rules apply to companies in any industry wishing to truly stand out from the generic substitutes but you might be asking what are the benefits to building brand equity so why should a startup even care about building brand equity i mean it's not that you don't have a million other things to do right well investing early and delivering as much value to your customers as possible can come with a wealth of benefits above and beyond simply charging more and generating additional profits some of the key benefits for startups who focus on building brand equity can include investors seeing your brand as being more investable customers being loyal to your brand and even becoming evangelists and talented employees being more likely and desiring to work for you and even taking a less competitive salary to do so so now we know what brand equity is why it's so important and the benefits that it can bring the last question is how can you start building it the first step is that customers have to be aware of you a customer can only begin to develop a perception of your brand if they are aware that you exist so the first step for any startup wanting to build brand equity is to position themselves effectively in the market and focus on appealing to a specific target audience before we start shouting about how great our offering is we first need to understand who we are communicating with we don't want to make the cardinal sin of trying to appeal to everyone and anyone always look for a niche that has little competition and low barriers to entry it's best to be a big fish in a small pond as opposed to a tadpole in the ocean next learn where your ideal customers hang out and how they spend their time if you've completed the previous step correctly you should have a really good idea of who your target audience is and how you can best connect with them for example if your product is a protein pancake brand you likely have figured out that a really profitable segment that you could target could be people who were just fitness enthusiasts and people who enjoy staying in shape so some obvious placements for your advertising efforts could be product placement at a local gym or sponsoring a fitness related social media influencer or even engaging in various fitness related online communities the trick to generating awareness for your startup is based on two fundamental steps the first being understanding your customer and the second being communicating the right message at the right time using a range of different signals is important when communicating with your potential customers in order to create memorable experiences and this is where the strategic development of signals comes in so the second step is to connect with your target audience using as many sensors as possible you may feel like you don't understand what signals are but we actually come in contact with thousands of them every single day a signal is simply every physical thing we sense relating to a brand which leads us to creating a thought a moment or hopefully a memory inside your mind when i say senses i'm referring to our sight smell touch taste and what we hear signals are sensed by us and then these little experiences come together to create our thoughts experiences and memories which we then associate with the brand or the company that delivered them so how could a startup apply these exact same principles to their brand building efforts well the first step is to define which sensors you can realistically use you can then look to enhance the opening experience by appealing to your customers touch by adding an elegant ribbon to your packaging for example the scent of your candle could be used and it could be subtly sprayed inside the packaging before shipping to enhance the orbiting experience even further although adding music to your packaging is a little bit unrealistic you could also use a piece of audio or music which is unique for your digital advertising some carefully selected music can really help your customers associate your brands with pre-existing perceptions in their minds at this stage your focus as a startup is to appeal to as many sensors as possible which can come together to create little moments for your customer these little moments and experiences can all come together nicely to create memories which are crucial in the process of building brand equity which takes us onto the third step of actually creating memorable moments think back to a brand which made you feel inspired motivated or even just content in your own skin the brand which makes us feel something is often the brand that we feel more engaged with which often leads to us buying from them an example is gymshark which has used the power of storytelling to connect with a range of segments in an engaging way for years by publishing content stories and advertising focused on empowering athletes to be a visionary they align their message to resonate with their target audience and the fitness journey that they are currently experiencing by being supportive educational and empowering their target audience during their journey jim sharp manages to play an actual part in that person's progress and the confidence that they d
Thanks Patty your participation is very much appreciated
- Shavonne Schwister
About the author
I've studied paleoradiology at Montana State University Billings in Billings and I am an expert in applied anthropology. I usually feel lazy. My previous job was agricultural engineer I held this position for 7 years, I love talking about foreign language learning and xbox. Huge fan of JoJo I practice rock climbing and collect prizes.
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