When people hear the word “Coke,” they enjoy a refreshing feeling and often think about getting a bottle to accompany that feeling. They also think about innovation when they hear “Apple.” That is the essence of brand perception.
While brand perception is a term that describes consumers' feelings, it is, however, measurable. A company can acquire data that helps to measure and thereby improve brand perception.
This article highlights the strategies involved in this process. But first, let’s define brand perception.
What is Brand Perception?
Brand perception is the term that describes how your customers feel about your brand. It is a combination of the feelings that arise when your brand is mentioned or seen. Your brand perception can be tailored to your niche or product.
Brand perception is defined by the consumer and not the company. In other terms, brand image is what you project to your audience, while brand perception is what they see and feel. Brand perception is a combination of different sensory feelings, sentiments, experiences, and thoughts. Hence, it is a metric of feelings but can heavily affect your business figures.
Why is it Important to Understand Brand Perception?
It is necessary to understand your brand perception, how to measure it, and how to improve it. When you have a favorable brand perception, there is room to build trust with consumers. Trust helps to generate sales, establish a connection, and form a loyal community.
A favorable brand perception can also influence purchase decisions because it can sway customers to buy your product with little or no persuasion from your end. There is more profit in revenue when brand perception influences purchasing decisions.
Brand perception is also important because it gives you a competitive edge. When you have products that are similar in value to your competitor, the feelings of the audience about the company often determine which product they will readily buy.
Strategies for Managing and Improving Brand Perception
Here are the strategies involved in improving brand perception.
Employee-Focused Improvement
Another tool in your playbook is to carry your employees along in your journey to improve brand perception. Insights from employees are some of the most reliable in seeking out improvement areas. They are the brand’s first point of contact with the industry.
A positive relationship between the company and its employees will only improve the brand perception. This will move employees to advertise the brand with commitment. Their commitment will show in their bid to enhance customer satisfaction.
Active Online Presence
An active online presence is another strategy to improve your brand perception. The company should carry its customers and target audience along using a proper online presence. It is a proactive way to stay in charge of the brand’s image.
One way is by sharing relevant content like tips, improvements on products, and the latest additions. Another strategy is to be quick in responding to complaints, negative content, and reviews. The company has to be quick in responding to complaints and reviews. All these will enhance the online presence.
Understand the Competition
You also need to know your competitors in any particular niche. With a proper analysis of your competitors, you have the right tools to understand their strengths and weaknesses. This information and others will help shape your market strategy.
Your company can find ways to make innovations or business tools that especially feel the voids left out by those weaknesses. You can also craft a business strategy that is unique to your competitors and thereby build a unique perception.
Innovative Marketing
Keeping your customers engaged and interested in your services through an innovative marketing system. While your company must engage in the popular forms of marketing, it can also explore other innovative means. You can set up local contests or forums to have customers engage with each other.
While your brand maintains an online presence, it can do it using new means. Jump on the latest trends, connect with individuals with unique and positive stories, and use their influence to elevate your brands. It helps to establish your presence and perception.
Brand Identity
You can only improve brand perception by improving or optimizing your brand identity. Success in your business is the fastest way to shape brand perception. That success is only achievable through brand identity. A proper identity highlighting your goals and values adds to your visual identity in the market space.
Then, there is a need for consistency. Your brand can showcase consistency using similar tools like color schemes, topography, and other visual cues to advertise its image and identity.
Tools to Measure Brand Perception
It is necessary to measure and evaluate brand perception. You get to see parts of your strategies that contribute the most to a positive perception. You also acquire data to recognize areas that need improvement.
Brand Perception Surveys
A survey is a direct form of data collection to perceive what your customers think about your brand. The survey allows you to gather this data quarterly or during campaigns and see how your audience is perceiving your contributions or strategies. You can use targeted questions or open-ended questions that allow a customer to share their heartfelt input. Be ready to accept and work on both good and bad inputs.
Social Listening
You can listen to discussions, tweets, and posts on social media to measure how people perceive your brand. Social media is often filled with unfiltered assessments of a brand. Your brand can use both negative and positive comments to shape brand perception. An active form of listening where the brand engages in these posts also helps to improve perception by strengthening the relationship with customers.
Customer Reviews and Testimonials
Another form of customer feedback data is reviews and testimonials. Check out the reviews on your product and services on relevant sites. When you combine data from multiple reviews, it allows you to notice areas of concern. Repeated reviews or comments also help to identify concerns that should take priority. These reviews can also help to measure how the market sees your brand.
Comments