5.3 Building and maintaining brand equity
4 min read•july 18, 2024
Building requires a strategic approach and consistent effort. Companies must develop a clear , deliver consistent messaging, and create memorable experiences for customers. This foundation sets the stage for long-term success and customer loyalty.
Maintaining brand equity involves ongoing monitoring, adaptation, and protection. Brands must stay attuned to customer needs, invest in continuous improvement, and guard against potential threats. These efforts ensure the brand remains relevant and valuable in a dynamic marketplace.
Strategies for Building and Maintaining Brand Equity
Strategies for brand equity building
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- Develop clear and compelling brand identity
- Define core brand values and personality traits (authenticity, innovation, sustainability)
- Create distinctive brand logo, color scheme, and visual elements (Nike swoosh, Coca-Cola red)
- Craft memorable brand slogan or tagline ("Just Do It," "Think Different")
- Deliver consistent brand messaging across all touchpoints
- Ensure all marketing communications align with brand identity (tone, style, messaging)
- Maintain consistent tone and style in all brand interactions (, social media)
- Provide seamless brand experience across channels (website, mobile app, in-store)
- Create engaging and memorable brand experiences
- Design immersive and interactive brand activations and events (pop-up stores, product launches)
- Leverage sensory branding to create multi-sensory brand experience (scent, sound, touch)
- Personalize brand interactions to foster deeper connections with customers (customized recommendations, exclusive offers)
- Foster through exceptional customer service
- Train employees to embody brand values and deliver consistent service (Zappos, Ritz-Carlton)
- Respond promptly and effectively to customer inquiries and complaints (24/7 support, social media monitoring)
- Implement that reward customers for continued patronage (points, tiers, exclusive perks)
Tactics for brand equity maintenance
- Monitor and measure brand performance regularly
- Track key brand metrics (, consideration, loyalty)
- Conduct brand audits to identify strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement
- Gather and insights to inform brand strategy (surveys, focus groups, social listening)
- Adapt to evolving customer needs and market trends
- Stay attuned to shifts in customer preferences and behavior (sustainability, personalization, convenience)
- Embrace innovation and technology to enhance brand experience (AI, AR, voice assistants)
- Refresh brand elements to stay relevant and modern (packaging redesigns, website updates)
- Invest in continuous brand-building efforts
- Allocate resources to brand advertising and promotion (TV commercials, influencer partnerships)
- Engage in content marketing to educate and entertain customers (blog posts, videos, podcasts)
- Participate in corporate social responsibility initiatives aligned with brand values (charitable donations, eco-friendly practices)
- Protect brand from potential threats
- Monitor for instances of brand infringement or counterfeit products
- Respond swiftly and appropriately to any negative publicity or crises (public apologies, corrective actions)
- Maintain strict quality control standards to ensure product or service consistency
Leveraging Brand Equity through Extensions and Collaborations
Role of brand extensions
- Extend brand into new product categories or markets
- Leverage brand's existing equity to enter related or adjacent categories (Snickers ice cream, Tide laundry service)
- Capitalize on brand's reputation and customer loyalty to drive adoption
- Ensure extension aligns with brand's core values and positioning
- Develop clear and logical connection between parent brand and extension
- Communicate benefits and relevance of extension to target customers
- Highlight shared attributes or values between parent brand and extension (quality, convenience, style)
- Avoid over-extending brand into unrelated or incongruent categories (Harley-Davidson perfume)
- Evaluate potential impact of extension on parent brand
- Assess risk of brand dilution or confusion among customers
- Consider extension's potential to enhance or detract from brand's overall equity
- Monitor customer feedback and perceptions of extension and its fit with brand
Impact of brand collaborations
- Identify strategic partners that complement brand's values and target audience
- Seek collaborations with brands that share similar positioning or customer base (Nike x Apple, Adidas x Kanye West)
- Evaluate potential partners based on their brand equity, reputation, and compatibility
- Ensure collaboration aligns with brand's overall strategy and objectives
- Develop co-branded products or marketing campaigns that leverage each brand's strengths
- Combine unique assets and capabilities of each brand to create compelling offerings (GoPro x Red Bull, BMW x Louis Vuitton)
- Communicate added value and benefits of collaboration to customers
- Execute co-branded initiatives consistently across both brands' touchpoints
- Assess impact of collaboration on each brand's equity
- Monitor customer perceptions and attitudes toward collaboration
- Evaluate collaboration's influence on brand awareness, consideration, and loyalty
- Analyze financial performance and return on investment of collaboration
Key Terms to Review (21)
Aaker's Brand Equity Model: Aaker's Brand Equity Model is a framework that identifies brand equity as a combination of brand loyalty, brand awareness, perceived quality, brand associations, and other proprietary assets. This model helps businesses understand the value of their brand in the market and emphasizes the role of strong brands in driving consumer preferences and business success.
Brand Awareness: Brand awareness is the extent to which consumers recognize and recall a brand, reflecting the familiarity and visibility of that brand in the market. It plays a crucial role in shaping consumer perceptions, influencing buying decisions, and differentiating a brand from its competitors.
Brand collaborations: Brand collaborations involve two or more brands partnering together to create products, services, or marketing campaigns that leverage their combined strengths and appeal to their target audiences. These partnerships can enhance brand visibility and reach, while also fostering innovation by merging different creative perspectives and expertise. By collaborating, brands can build equity and strengthen their positions in the marketplace through unique offerings that resonate with consumers.
Brand Equity: Brand equity refers to the value that a brand adds to a product or service, derived from consumer perceptions, experiences, and associations. It encompasses elements like brand awareness, brand loyalty, and perceived quality, which collectively influence a customer's decision-making process and contribute to the overall financial performance of a brand.
Brand extension: Brand extension is a marketing strategy that involves using an established brand name to introduce new products or services in a different category. This strategy leverages the existing brand equity to enhance consumer perception and acceptance of the new offerings, making it easier to enter new markets or product categories.
Brand Identity: Brand identity is the unique set of visual and verbal elements that represent a brand, including its name, logo, colors, typography, and messaging. It helps shape how a brand is perceived in the market and plays a crucial role in distinguishing it from competitors while conveying its values and purpose.
Brand Loyalty: Brand loyalty refers to the consumer's commitment to repurchase or continue using a brand's products or services consistently over time. This loyalty often leads to a preference for a brand, even when faced with alternatives or changes in price, making it a critical aspect of effective branding and management strategies.
Brand Personality: Brand personality refers to the human-like traits and characteristics attributed to a brand, shaping how consumers perceive and connect with it on an emotional level. This concept plays a vital role in establishing a brand's identity, influencing consumer behavior, and helping brands differentiate themselves in a competitive marketplace.
Brand Positioning: Brand positioning refers to the strategy of creating a distinct image and identity for a brand in the minds of consumers, relative to competitors. It is essential for differentiating the brand's unique attributes and benefits, ultimately influencing consumer perceptions and preferences. A well-defined brand positioning helps establish a unique value proposition, informs marketing efforts, and drives customer loyalty.
Brand resonance: Brand resonance is the ultimate level of brand loyalty where consumers feel a strong emotional connection to a brand, resulting in deep brand loyalty and advocacy. This connection manifests through positive experiences, consistent messaging, and a strong understanding of the brand's values and purpose, leading to an engaged community of loyal customers who actively support the brand.
Customer feedback: Customer feedback is the information provided by customers about their experiences and satisfaction with a brand's products or services. This valuable data helps brands understand consumer preferences, identify areas for improvement, and enhance the overall customer experience, ultimately contributing to brand loyalty and growth.
Customer lifetime value (CLV): Customer lifetime value (CLV) is a metric that estimates the total revenue a business can expect from a customer throughout their entire relationship with the brand. This concept helps brands assess the long-term value of acquiring and retaining customers, which plays a crucial role in driving strategies for brand equity, online experiences, performance measurement, and personalized marketing efforts.
Customer service: Customer service refers to the support and assistance provided to customers before, during, and after their purchase experience. It plays a critical role in shaping how customers perceive a brand, influences their loyalty, and affects overall brand reputation. High-quality customer service can enhance brand equity by creating positive customer experiences that lead to repeat business and word-of-mouth referrals.
Customer-based brand equity: Customer-based brand equity refers to the value that a brand holds in the minds of customers, based on their perceptions, experiences, and associations with that brand. This form of brand equity is rooted in consumer attitudes and behaviors, influencing their purchasing decisions and brand loyalty. It highlights the importance of creating strong, positive associations between consumers and brands to enhance overall brand value and ensure long-term success.
Financial brand equity: Financial brand equity refers to the monetary value associated with a brand, which can be reflected in the company's financial performance and market position. It encompasses the brand's ability to generate future cash flows, attract customers, and create a competitive advantage, ultimately impacting a company's overall value in the marketplace.
Keller's Brand Equity Model: Keller's Brand Equity Model, also known as the Customer-Based Brand Equity (CBBE) model, is a framework that emphasizes the importance of building strong brand relationships with consumers to create brand equity. This model outlines a pyramid structure with four key stages: brand identity, brand meaning, brand response, and brand resonance, which helps brands understand how consumers perceive them and how to create lasting connections that drive loyalty and business success.
Loyalty programs: Loyalty programs are marketing strategies designed to encourage repeat business by rewarding customers for their continued patronage. These programs often offer benefits such as discounts, exclusive offers, and points that can be redeemed for products or services, fostering a sense of connection between the brand and the consumer. By creating value and enhancing customer satisfaction, loyalty programs play a crucial role in shaping consumer behavior, reinforcing brand loyalty, building brand equity, and leveraging technological innovations to improve customer engagement.
Membership programs: Membership programs are structured initiatives designed by brands to create a sense of exclusivity and loyalty among customers. By offering benefits such as discounts, special access, or unique experiences, these programs foster a deeper connection between the brand and its members, enhancing customer retention and driving repeat purchases. Brands utilize membership programs as a strategic tool to build and maintain brand equity, ensuring that customers feel valued and engaged.
Net Promoter Score (NPS): Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a metric used to gauge customer loyalty by asking how likely customers are to recommend a brand to others on a scale from 0 to 10. It provides insight into brand perception, as it directly reflects customer satisfaction and willingness to advocate for the brand. A higher NPS indicates stronger brand loyalty and is crucial for building and maintaining brand equity, as it links customer sentiment to future business growth and performance measurement.
Perceived quality: Perceived quality refers to the consumer's perception of a product or service's overall excellence or superiority compared to alternatives. It plays a critical role in shaping brand loyalty, influencing brand equity, and determining a brand's value in the marketplace. When consumers perceive a brand as high quality, it often leads to stronger relationships and can enhance the brand's reputation, making it easier to introduce new products or extensions.
Purchase intent: Purchase intent refers to the likelihood that a consumer will buy a product or service based on their interest, needs, and emotional connection with a brand. This concept is vital for businesses as it helps them gauge potential sales and understand customer behavior, ultimately influencing marketing strategies to build and maintain brand equity. The higher the purchase intent, the more valuable the brand is perceived, which directly contributes to long-term success and loyalty.