Building customer loyalty via brand equity

Branding is mostly about a promise. Yet what defines “branding” best as a marketing initiative is the promise itself, and branding is only as good as the promise it keeps.

It’s important to create a healthy brand. The brand promise can manifest in many ways: the way it looks, the way it makes you feel, its voice—as long as the messaging is consistent. Think about how many of us still know all the words to Band-Aid’s, “I am stuck on Band-Aid brand ’cause Band-Aid’s ...” (“stuck on me”—you know you know it!), and Oscar Mayer’s, “Oh, I wish I were an Oscar Mayer wiener...” There is brilliance associated with branding, but what resonates with the public is just as often a mystery.

So what’s the promise? Band-Aid brand and Oscar Mayer are going to perform the way a consumer expects them to, and there is an emotional appeal in the childlike likeability of the brand.

But what about BMW? What is that brand promise? It promises high quality and high performance. It is a status symbol associated with prestige. BMW first made that promise, and then they delivered on it. It is successful because the company keeps delivering on that promise, reinforcing it with consistent messaging.

What these brands have in common is they address the big picture. They created a name, symbol, design or emotional appeal that identifies and differentiates their product. They carry a tacit promise that their brand is better than the others: Band-Aids will stick to your skin (unlike other, lower-quality brands); Oscar Mayer meats are delicious; driving a BMW means you have arrived at a high level of success. Creating emotional associations helps consumers identify with your brand.

Before a company makes a brand promise, it is important to understand the brand definition. This entails competitive, strategic thinking. A complete branding plan includes the almighty promise, and it must be in place before a promise can be made.

Your brand is you: your promise and your commitment to your customer. It is who you want to be and who people perceive you to be.

Building a healthy brand begins with the right ingredients. Why do your customers need it? What emotional reward will they receive? Why is your brand better than the competitor’s? It’s like growing strong crops. Go back to basics. Check the soil and make sure it’s fertile. Cull the best seeds. Take care planting each seed. See which areas need light, extra water, a touch of TLC. Some excess may need to be trimmed so the fruit can ripen. Watch and see which crops flourish. Go from there.

Brand equity can come and go, but putting heart and soul into the brand promise can make the difference between a strong crop that will feed generations, or a one-hit wonder crop that might not make it through the winter.

Unique branding benefits

Define your brand, make a plan

It will take some time before even a carefully-built brand becomes a household name. It starts with the promise; but, acting on that promise will achieve greatness through brand recognition, competitive advantage, long lifecycles, mass production and delivery to the market.

Remember the emotional reward. A brand should inspire or evoke a positive feeling. It can deliver a sense of pride or tug at the heartstrings (think Kodak).

First, identify your brand’s distinctive characteristics. Create the power brand that is sought after because of its distinctive qualities and attributes. This is important to stakeholders, customers and prospective customers, and should be even more important to you. Start with a clear brand assessment—an objective analysis of the image and perception the brand should convey.

The brand promise comes next. Much like the promise of a stronger, better, healthier crop, your brand promise is under pressure to deliver. Develop a brand blueprint that includes disciplined actions for the brand’s representations, including the name, new design, tagline and brand story.

Then, cultivate! Brand cultivation marks the beginnings of a strong crop that will set tongues a-wagging. Everyone follows the blueprint. Goals are set. Tasks are assigned. Timing is factored in. The company principles establish brand equity goals, and the communication plan will naturally develop next steps.

If all goes well ... you wind up with the brand advantage. The initial growth of a healthy brand is a strong first step, which then should be coordinated and maintained with consistent messaging. It is critical to remain open to improvements or adjustments the customer base warrants.

Consistent, strategic branding—and well-defined, well-designed brand imagery—lead to strong brand equity and added value. Added value allows a company to charge more for its brand than unbranded products. Eventually, the brand is instantly recognizable, and embodies and symbolizes the characteristics created for it.

At the end of the day, the goal is to firmly embed your brand image in the mind of the consumer to increase market share, build brand equity and develop unwavering customer loyalty.

In other words, branding, when done correctly, can make it a very good year.

Carol Andersen is the president of Knack4Design Inc.