Instinctively, every business owner understands the importance of Brand equity, but they may not realize its nature and meaning. In terms of marketing, brand equity is everything that helps differentiate your brand from other brands. Brand equity is built on the direct experiences of customers with your products and services. This experience, repeated many times, will create the value, the equity of the brand, and it becomes a sign that exists in the minds of customers to help them recognize your brand among thousands of other brands.
Brand equity creates customer loyalty to the products and services sold under that brand, its value goes beyond the product itself. It is what motivates your customers to recommend you to their friends and family.
Everyone wants to own a valuable brand, but building it is not easy, this is a difficult problem.
The good news is that the path to building brand equity is clear. Here are five simple steps you can take to build your brand equity.
1. Be clear about your position
The first step to building brand equity is defining your positioning: the unique value your company represents and delivers to customers. Unique value here means that you offer customers clear options that are not available from other brands.
To define your brand positioning, you need to get all the key leaders in your company together and decide what you want to do differently and better than your competitors. This may seem obvious, but most small businesses are so busy serving customers and making money and paying their employees that they forget to look at the brand itself.
You don’t need an agent or a consultant to get started. Here are two exercises you can do yourself. One simple exercise that I like is to locate XYZs.
“We have X, X can solve problem Y in the only way Z”
X is the product, service, or whatever you choose.
Y is an unmet customer need.
Z is the difference, advantage, uniqueness that you have, while your competitors do not have.
2. Tell your story.
Clear positioning is key, but a positioning statement is an internal brand standard, not an external one. Your next job is to make your brand something exciting, blending brand values with emotion.
All brands are stories, and the best way to start is to document them and share the best stories you have: Build insights about your company, times when you did something unusual to get your customers' attention, or a story behind each product.
The best information is always tied to social media and web applications, which are within the reach of all companies, allowing them to share their stories more widely through video and audio.
B.Good, a small chain in Boston, does this very well. It is a burger restaurant with a promise of “real food,” positioning its brand in a very strange way, positioning it against the conventional values and conventional burger experiences.
The story of “real food” begins with stories about “real people”
The story of real food begins with the stories of “real people” who create their restaurant experiences. You’ll be reminded of those stories when you’re in the restaurant or online.
3. Bring it to life
Once you have your story, you need to bring it to life. Make sure your company is seen and perceived by the outside world in a way that matches reality. These elements, which open up issues related to customers’ ability to identify with your brand: the basics (starting with the brand name and logo) that create the accents you want? and the basic media: website, brochures.
One client of mine talked about his website, describing it as a camouflage, covering up everything that makes his company special. Does your corporate identity system truly showcase the best qualities of your brand? Or does it obscure them?
4. Start building your brand before your customers buy it.
Think beyond the transaction. Brands start at the transactional level, but brand experiences go much further. The impressions of your brand begin long before a customer makes a purchase. The principle is simple: Give away your brand value for free. In the professional services world, this is known as your service flavor or your intellectual property.
Igor is a San Francisco-based brand naming consultancy. It has developed a methodology. The methodology is laid out in a hundred-page spread, which includes guidelines for clients on how to name their brands. Igor allows clients to use its methodology for free, and it doesn’t require them to register or do anything complicated, just go to Igor’s website and they can use the methodology.
In a generous move, Igor gave away its intellectual property, a rich and engaging guide to naming its brand. Igor understood that giving away the guide would not hurt its business – on the contrary, it would create new business opportunities for the company.
Not just intellectual property, Peet′s, a coffee retailer, allows its customers to send their friends an “eCup,” an email that rewards them with a free cup of coffee. This is a very clever way for Peet’s to allow loyal customers to help promote the brand.
5. Evaluate your efforts
Here are a few direct ways you can measure your brand's progress.
Ask your customers
Survey a small group of your customers, including potential customers and those who are already in your idea. You’ll be surprised at how honest they are about your brand’s strengths and weaknesses. Make sure to ask valuable questions in your survey: Would you recommend us to a friend or colleague?
Check your position in search.
I don’t know how Igor is rated, but I know that it does what it’s supposed to do very well: basic search results. Type “product naming” into Google, and you’ll have a good chance of seeing Igor in the top 3 results.
Monitor conversations on social networks.
Most customers are expecting real, honest conversations about the brands they love and hate. Check out what they’re saying about you on blogs, newsfeeds, and websites.
Finally your brand can be valued, if you doubt this, take a look at the annual brand value surveys of top brands.
These companies also started from scratch, focusing on their market positioning. They built special relationships with customers, expanded their product lines, and they were creative in bringing their brand positioning to market.
These are low budget activities and you can do it starting today.
According to Nhut Linh – Lantabrand
