Truth be told, today’s market is very competitive. What this means is that for a brand to achieve success, it must know how to communicate with its customers effectively. This may mean coming up with creative branding and marketing strategies that can help sell the bran’s unique qualities to the customers.
As a brand, business, or entrepreneur, you must know how to build brand equity, at least if you’re looking forward to increasing sales and revenues for your business. Above all, it’s all about looking for ways to remain in the business even in the wave of stiff competition that we’ve seen presently. You see, if a brand can leave a positive impression in your mind as a customer, then we can say that the brand is becoming successful, right?
A brand is a foundation on which a business rests, so businesses should invest heavily to enhance the power of consumers’ perceptions about their brands. Others say that brand equity is the value of a business.
What is Brand Equity?
As we’ve said a few seconds ago, brand equity is the foundation on which a brand rests. You can also refer to brand equity as the value of a brand. That being said, brand equity can either be positive or negative. For example, if customers have a good perception of a given brand, then we can say that the brand has positive brand equity. On the other hand, a brand that under-delivers and fails to meet the expectations of customers will make customers think lowly of that brand. Which will eventually generate a negative perception of the brand? Do you get the idea?
In simpler terms, brand equity and brand reputation mean the same thing. Think of a few brands that have a good reputation world over, for example, Mercedes and Apple. Let’s explore the latter in terms of brand equity.
Apple has extremely high brand equity and we all know that. While their brands are similar to what other brands offer, though the demand, price premium, and customer loyalty at Apple are reported to be the highest as compared to other consumer tech providers. We’re not surprised that brand Apple has remained at the top of the list of the world’s most valuable brands, thanks to positive brand equity.
Before we can look at your brand, it’s also fundamental to look at several how to build brand equity benefits of brand equity.
Brand equity is a valuable asset that a brand can own. In real terms, brand equity is of great significance to businesses, which explains the difference that sets apart brand Apple from its rivals.
Brands with positive brand equity can charge their customers a premium for its products. Think about the cost of designer products such as Nike, Adidas, Apple, Mercedes, and such.
Brand equity is transferrable. For example, a business with positive brand equity can decide to transfer that to another product line, which can boost the revenue that a company draws from its product lines.
There’s improved market share when a brand achieves positive brand equity. You see, brand equity boils down to how wide a brand is known, preferred and recognized by consumers.
Now, on to how to build brand equity.
How to Build Brand Equity
Did you know that the most successful businesses across the world solve customers’ problems? Well, think of Facebook and Amazon. You may be wondering how these businesses and others came to dominate the world, but for a matter of fact, if you’re able to solve someone’s problems, he or she will remain to be your loyal customer.
Brand equity is one sure great way to ensure that your brand is reliable and to make potential customers view your brand as different from your rivals. We’ve also talked about how positive brand equity can help you to make your customer base larger every day.
Position Your Brand as Reliable and Unique
This is always the first step towards achieving positive brand equity for your business and its products or services- making customers realize that you’re unique and reliable as compared to your competitors. You see, when loyal customers purchase whatever you’ve to offer, they’ll without a doubt refer other potential customers to you. We’re talking about word of mouth referrals in this case.
Why do you buy certain products from a certain brand time and again? It’s because their products are just reliable, which makes you keep returning. One way to ensure your brand is viewed as reliable is to strive to ensure that your customers are getting the results they expect. If loyal customers are willing to buy and refer other customers, they’ll do so even if you increase the price.
And then, don’t undervalue the importance of good customer experience- avoid reverse effects that a bad experience can bring along.
Solve a Problem
Most brands don’t know how to build brand equity simply because they’ve no idea of how to solve problems for their customers. Customers purchase products that can help them in their daily lives. That being said, think of a problem that you can solve as a brand and use it to come up with a viable solution.
Next, use that solution to come up with a creative marketing strategy. For example, you can figure out how to bridge the gap between buyers and sellers and eradicating middleman-ship in the e-commerce industry, or such.
Figure Out Your Brand’s Position in the Industry
It’s fundamental to always be in the know about how your brand is fairing in the marketplace- be clear about that anytime. In real terms, that’s the sentence that describes the essence of your brand. Or we can say it’s the “name” of your brand. Describe the problem and solution in this language and see how well that works to your benefit.
When you think hard about your brand’s position in the industry, you’ll know how to explain your brand equity to prospects and loyal customers as well. This way, you’ll make your customers extremely confident that your products will work.
Teach Your Employees About Your Brand
Making your employees believe in what you’ve to offer will go a long way to boost their connection to your brand. Additionally, they’ll get to understand how their input towards the success of your brand can have a direct impact on brand equity. Having your workers invested in your brand and its success will make them feel excited when talking about it. In turn, this will also make them motivated to educate customers and prospects about that particular brand.
In simpler terms, you should involve your employees in everything that says your brand. Also, welcome ideas from your employees because that’s yet another way they’re going to invest in the execution of ideas.
Create a Marketing Strategy
One good thing with stories is that they keep people engaged. Explain your brand’s stories using emotions and you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how much that impacts towards enhancing brand equity.
If a customer can strike a connection to your stories, they may make take action and purchase your products. Give examples of how many customers were frustrated about their problems before your products solved them.
Explain All the Aspects of Your Story
In the marketing strategy, it’s important to create a consistent message that will stick to the memories of your customers. This way, customers will always think of your brand and its products in the event of a problem that your products can solve.
If you have a website, include good images and features of the products. Also, make sure to regularly update your site to increase traffic from search engines. We’re talking about consistently posting useful content about your brand and products. The content you post should be reliable interesting. Next, make sure to share content on all social media such as Facebook and Twitter, including prompts that can cause prospects to click on your links.
Make sure that your content matches the visuals you attach to it. If your brand sells sports equipment, come up with great visuals that fit your customers.
Make Your Brand Memorable
Buyers’ awareness of your brand is yet another important factor in increasing sales and revenues. You see, knowing how to build brand equity is pegged to how memorable your products are. That being said, come up with a nice logo that people can remember. Don’t forget about the slogan as well.
Also, grab opportunities that can market your brand- TV commercials, online campaigns, and other outlets.
Measure Conversion Rates
Now that you’ve done all the things above, it’s now useful to see how much you’re going to reap from your efforts. Judge what prospects say about your brand. You can also analyze search engine rankings and traffic. And also remember to check social media comments.
That’s How to Build Brand Equity
As you may have realized, knowing how to build brand loyalty means consistently tracking customer sentiment. This revolves around utilizing marketing outlets, monitoring consumer behavior, loyalty, engagement, and opinions to determine what kind of brand equity you’re getting in return.
