A business person needs to take care of all the aspects of business, be it marketing, finance, accounting or sales. However, sometimes the person forgets one of the major aspects of business ~ brand image. Positive brand image can help you to grow your business. If you are a marketing student or professional, an aspiring entrepreneur or a business owner, this blog is for you.
What Is Brand Image?
The customer’s perception of the brand, based on the logo, design, mission, product quality, distribution channel, tone and language of the brand communication, marketing campaigns and graphical representation of the brand is known as brand image.
It is not directly connected with the product quality or service provided. Brand image is the overall reputation of the brand which is created by customers considering their personal interaction with the brand. Here, the company’s role is to ensure that the customers have a good and memorable experience with the respective brand.
You can also read “How To Use Instagram Insights To Improve Your Growth“.
Why Brand Image Is Important?
Since it is the viewpoint that customers develop for the brand, it is important. Is it enough to justify the importance of the brand image? Because this could be achieved by maintaining product or service quality as well.
There is a lot one can achieve by developing and maintaining the brand image, such as…
1. Making An Impression
“First impression is the last image” we do not know how practical does it sound for humans but in the business world, it makes a lot of sense. Customers judge your brand from the very first interaction. If it goes well, you win the customer or else, you may lose four more because the word of mouth is the biggest influencer we have in the market.
The key factors on which your brand could be judged are website, language, interaction with the staff, store cleanliness, interiors of the store. So make sure you are giving a long-lasting positive impression of your brand.
2. Brand Image Helps You Improve Management Skills
If you want to maintain your brand image, you will definitely look into work management at every level. You will want to make sure that everything should be organised to offer a pleasing time to your customer.
The pressure of brand image maintenance will become the motivation to work in a systematic manner. Even if things would be smooth, you may desire to put things together differently to give a unique customer experience.
3. Helps In Retaining Customers
Brands incur huge costs in grabbing more customers. That is why they try to retain their existing customers by offering loyalty programs, discounts and offers. If your brand has a good brand image in the market, it will help you maintain your customer base.
For instance, brands such as Starbucks, Apple do not have to do much for retaining their customers as they have made such a brand image that their customers feel privileged being their customers.
4. Ways To Measure Brand Images
To put consistent yet relevant effort, measuring brand image is essential. If you do not forgot the customers’ point of view of your brand, you may experience loss of customers or a downfall in brand reputation. Since the brand image is an intangible asset of the company, it can not be measured in numbers. We have got other options to evaluate your brand image.
5. Brand Perception Surveys
It is an easy way to understand customers’ perceptions about your brand. You just need to roll out the survey in the market to get opinions from the audience. Traditionally, the marketing team used to do it by putting it in packagings and then the public used to courier it which was difficult and sometimes could not work too.
Nowadays, you can do it really effectively by posting online polls, releasing digital surveys and offering promotional discounts too which helps in upscaling sales too.
6. Social Media Interaction
These days everyone puts their opinions on social media. Encourage your customers to put something about you, whatever they feel so you get an idea of what do they think of your brand.
For instance, many companies give discounts for sharing feedback on social media. No matter whether it’s positive or negative. Therefore, it is important to select the best social media channels for your brand.
7. Focus Groups
Such group discussions usually happen before launching a new product or upgrading brand offerings. Here in focus groups, the brand tries to evaluate the brand image by asking certain questions from a random or general group. It helps in gaining overall brand strength and the overall nature of the business.
8. Brand Concept Maps (BCM)
A visual representation of brand value in comparison with other competitors. This map could be created with the help of surveys outputs and focus group discussions. There is no harm in saying BCM is the graphical representation of focus groups results and survey outcomes.
9. Semantic Differential Scaling
It is also a kind of survey with defined adjectives or adverbs out of which the surveyor needs to choose one. All adjectives will have a certain score by which an average is taken out and further determine whether the brand is perceived positively or negatively.
Wrapping up
While concluding the blog, it is important to convey how critical it is to gauge the brand image as if you are unaware of your brand image, the public will make you aware of it. Believe us, it will be not a favourable situation for the brand. Also, maintaining and measuring brand image regularly is important as it is better to spend on developing brand image than recreating it positively, as it is difficult to inculcate in one’s mind and change their mindset.