Brand perception is critical to every company’s success. Create the brand image you want your customers to have of you.

Decades ago, we used to get filter coffee and that was it. Today at Starbucks, we have to choose from 87,000 different options.

The selection is vast and, in fact, chaotic.

Who can keep track of everything?

When a customer has a strong belief in a brand, they stop thinking. They keep buying it, almost naively. And they’re willing to spend extra because they’re convinced it won’t let them down.

Voila!! It’s like capturing the product category by providing a positive client experience!

The goal of this article is to learn more about how brand perception is formed.

So, how marketers carve out the desired brand perceptions and produce more lasting impressions.

Before we go any further, let us establish what the term “brand perception” actually implies in marketing and what is branding .

Customers’ impressions of a product or service differ from the statements made by the company that owns the brand.

So what kind of all-inclusive cognitive customer thoughts, Brand perception is influenced by

1. prior experience
2. functionality
3. reputation
4. word-of-mouth recommendations – both online and in person

When people think of attractive furniture that is within their price range, the Swedish brand IKEA is the first that comes to mind. This is due to the fact that the brand name has become ingrained in the minds of the majority of people.

People’s good perceptions of the brand cause them to buy more, talk about it more, and be eager to try new products and services from the brand house. Brands can promote not only to customers, but also to their friends and family members, making customers participants in the brand’s success.

Although your customers ultimately decide what your brand is, you can take steps as a business owner to gain control. This is known as branding, which is the active process of forming consumer perceptions of your company.

All of the efforts you take to raise awareness and reputation for your organisation and its products or services fall under the purview of branding. Your branding efforts may not always entirely translate into the minds of your customers, but the more purposeful and cohesive they are, the better the chances of success.

The efforts a firm makes to create and grow its brand perception in the eyes of foreign consumers are referred to as global branding.

Global branding can apply to activities in a single country or across numerous countries, and it can encompass a variety of marketing channels such as digital, direct, and more.

Consider this before making any branding decisions:

– What kind of first impression do you want to make on your customers?

– What is your ideal brand?

Be sincere and delve deeply into your company’s underlying values. This approach should assist you in selecting a brand name.

We often hear the terms “brand recognition”, “brand awareness” and “brand equity” used interchangeably in the branding space. Let’s take a closer look at these terms.

Brand Recognition enables a consumer to clearly identify a company’s brands based on its name, logo and other visual indicators like color, font, packaging etc.

In other words, when customers go to a store, can they recognize the brand as one to which they’ve already been exposed?

When brand recognition goes one step ahead it becomes Brand Awareness. At this level, a client may recall not only a brand name, but also other brand-related facts.

The ability of a consumer to identify a brand’s presence when its product category is discussed is referred to as Brand Awareness. For example, you’re likely to think of Pepsi or Coke if you need a cold drink. Although there are many alternative cold drinks in the market, Pepsi and Coke have managed to establish brand awareness in the minds of customers.

Brand  Equity  is  the  incremental  effect  of  brand  awareness on  product  price. The firm’s brand equity enables it to make a bigger profit on each sale.

How brand equity adds to bottom line?

Once a person is well-versed in your brand, they will be able to recognize you on their own. According to Keller and Lehmann, a strong brand name serves as a reliable indicator of product quality for inexperienced customers and creates price premiums as a type of return on branding investments.

In effect, customers pay a price premium to do business with a firm they know and admire. Because the company with brand equity does not pay higher costs to create and sell the goods than its competitors, the price difference goes to their profit margin.

The advantages of brand equity are as follows:

• Less-dramatic revenue drops when the market conditions are bad
• Ability to charge price premiums.
• Greater corporate interest.
• Licensing & Merchandising opportunities.

What is the trajectory of your brand?

Like humans, brands develop and mature over time.

Consider all of the brands you come into contact with on a daily basis.
Some you use, some you’ve heard of, and some you’ve never heard of.

The point I am making is that each of these brands is at a specific point in its “brand life cycle.”

Some brands (such as Instagram) come out of nowhere and swiftly dominate their niche markets.

Most successful brands (such as Volvo) age organically and become “old” brands, with which most people associate a prior generation.

However, a small number of brands (such as Coca-Cola and Disney) appear to be timeless.

What’s the trick?

Careful management of their brand trajectory.

The measurement of a brand’s current and future standing in its target markets is known as brand trajectory.

Specifically, a full examination of a brand to assess its health, find its sources of equity, and suggest methods to improve and harness that equity sets the brand’s trajectory.

Regular customer surveys of brand awareness and positioning are used to track brand trajectory.

Polls can show a consumer’s assessment of an established brand as well as their thoughts on its future potential.

What exactly is great customer experience?

Put yourself in the position of the customer to answer.

How a customer perceives their interactions or experiences with you is their reality.

For example, if customers leave an engagement with your staff with the impression that their needs weren’t addressed, they’ll link those negative thoughts with your company for the rest of their lives and are unlikely to return.

The customer journey is made up of several touchpoints, which are crucial in shaping the customer experience.

The numerous places at which a client will come into direct or indirect contact with your brand (before, during, or after they purchase something from you.) are referred to as customer touchpoints.

Customers can be turned off by a stray touchpoint such as off-target advertising, invoicing errors, or a clumsy website.

Fortunately, you have influence over the majority of these touchpoints. All you have to do is identify them and start getting feedback.

Companies must provide the same experience to customers every time they connect with them in order to establish loyalty and retain them.

Consistency generates predictability and sets expectations. This, in turn, leads to trust. When a brand earns a customer’s trust, the relationship is solid

Following an integrated Digital Marketing strategy you can accomplish communication consistency by unifying all channels and planning your tactics with a single goal in mind, getting them all to work together to move your customer further along the buyer’s journey.

Factors that contribute to brand creation

A) Make your brand’s promise:

The ethical and legal responsibilities a business and product upholds.

A corporation must have a promise or statement in order to build a brand.

Your brand communicates what people should expect from you and what you should promise. Be sure everyone in the company agrees and believes in the message when making a promise on the brand.

B) Continuous voice brand:

You talk to your consumers as a brand voice. The general tone of consumer engagement is referred to as brand voice.

Consistency demonstrates serious communication, which is well received.

Your brand voice should be consistent across all channels, including your company website, blog, and social media accounts.

You may have a fun, easygoing, or grave voice. Whatever option you choose, be sure you maintain consistency across all channels of communication.

Case Study 1: Coca-Cola brand positioning

When brand positioning is done well, it multiplies the impact of all other marketing efforts. Having unique brand positioning helps improve your company’s visibility in your target markets.

If you had to rate the Coke brand, how would you rate it? Why?

It’s very likely that you’ll give it a rating of 4 or 5.

Coca-Cola is the first thing that comes to mind when I hear the phrase “soda,” and I’m sure it’s the same for millions (if not billions) of other people.

This is an innovative company that began in the pharmaceutical industry before moving into the beverage market.

Their emblem is instantly recognizable, their bottles are ageless, and their product line is expanding without sacrificing any of the company’s originality.

Coca-Cola tagline “It’s the Real Thing” has become so synonymous with Coke that it’s hard to imagine a time when the nearly 14-decade-old soft drink wasn’t known as “The Real Thing.”

Despite Coca-Cola’s stronghold in the soft drink industry and vast global reach, the company has sequentially improved its marketing spend each year. Coca-Cola believes in expanding its consumer base through experiential marketing, which aims at creating an emotional connect with customers.

Positive consumer perception is crucial for Coca-Cola, as it faces headwinds in the carbonated soft drink category due to the unhealthy tag associated with these drinks.

Case Study 2: Coca-Cola and McDonald’s Are Getting Bigger and Better Together

The fast-food chain McDonald’s is Coke’s biggest restaurant customer since 1955, and the two companies share a special, symbiotic relationship.

McDonald’s and Coca-Cola had a similar aim and vision for worldwide expansion.

Those two businesses collaborated to help each other flourish and extend around the world.

Their collaboration yielded enormous transformational benefits for both parties, in terms of resource and expertise exchange, marketing synergies, and risk reduction by targeting comparable demographic end customers.

As McDonald’s expanded across the globe, it frequently used Coca-offices Cola’s as a launch pad.

During the “Jurassic Park” marketing in 1993, Coke officials suggested that McDonald’s package their beverage with a hamburger and fries, establishing the Extra Value Meal.

In addition, Coke has lately worked with McDonald’s on the creation of a new range of smoothies.

Conclusion

Consumers today are candid about their feelings and experiences, and their peers look to them for advice on whether or not to buy a product. Not just the actual purchase of goods and services, but every aspect of a consumer’s connection with your brand contributes to their opinion.

As a result, client connections are the foundation of any organisation, and how customers perceive your brand establishes the tone.

Brand equity is a metric that measures how your brand is perceived by customers.

If your brand equity is strong, customers will be more loyal to your brand, products, and services.

When it comes to your brand, don’t convey mixed signals.

Now that you’ve learnt about the value of branding, you may leverage your online business presence with digital marketing techniques. It’s thrilling to think about how far digital marketing can carry you. Here are some further reading recommendations.

• When it comes to building a brand, it also means to have an Effective Online Presence. Read this blog by Socialytics a Online Brand Making Agency In Mumbai.
• To learn more about why you should embrace Social Media Marketing in 2021, check out this blog post on “How to start social media marketing”.
• Use Facebook ads for your branding, and use Google ads for your sales.
• An effective cold email outreach campaign can help you find new customers.