Creating brand equity

Posted by Jane Toohey on 7 March 2011 | 0 Comments

Tags: brand equity, brand awareness

The customer is now in control of the channel to market, they decide how they want to be communicated with and we, as brand custodians, have to comply. We have to take a 360 degree approach to building brand equity, we have to be present in all mediums and across all channels. A brand sits at the core of the business, and as such, at every customer touchpoint (externally and internally). The brand must also convey the desired positioning and communicate the key messages.

To create strong brand equity we must engage the customer in a total brand experience, the emotional reaction the brand generates in the customer is ultimately what creates brand equity. Remember also that brand awareness is very different to brand loyalty of course. Brand awareness we can build more quickly through a tagline, an engaging ad, publicity and so on. Loyalty, on the other hand, takes time and the customer experience must be managed continually.

It is important to create and nurture brand champions; people you can rely on to communicate the brand experience clearly and build loyalty amongst their peers. Employees are key brand champions and are one of the most important groups when generating brand loyalty. Internal branding is key, when time is taken to communicate the brand throughout the organisation this ensures everyone is ‘singing from the same song sheet’.

From an external perspective the key brand differentiator when delivering on brand equity is customer service. Never over promise and under deliver, always exceed the customer’s expectations and always keep your promises, then you are on your way to becoming a trusted brand.

The most important brand values in generating equity are honesty, trust, consistency and to some extent familiarity. How do you convey these valued feelings to a consumer in order to get them to search you out, especially in our 21^st century society, where we are all constantly looking out the latest and greatest and being encouraged to try new things? The only way to fight this is to constantly deliver on your brand promise; it takes time, excellent customer service and a commitment to internal branding.

Unfortunately there is no quick fix!