We talk a lot about the importance of branding. But how do you know if a brand works in practice?
The easiest way to do this is by answering 3 questions:
1.- Do you manage to attract a new audience?
2.- Do they shop with you?
3.- Do they come back for repeat purchases?
If all the answers are “yes”, congratulations, your brand is working.
But this is only the most superficial analysis. The devil is in the details.
Despite the growing demand for accurate measurement of promotional performance, few companies use brand performance metrics . Yes, someone evaluates marketing campaigns. Others also track online reputation. But the effectiveness of branding as a whole is estimated by units.
Perhaps the fact is that there is no understanding of how to do this, what indicators to rely on and what methods to apply. And it can be fixed.
First, let's understand what we mean by efficiency. In our understanding, this is the ratio of the effect obtained (brand perception, changing audience behavior and economic factors) and the costs of achieving it. Simply put, how much we spent on branding and what we got out of it - recognition, income, loyalty. When it comes to business, numbers always speak louder than words.
Branding costs are all expenses for brand development , its visual packaging, and promotion in communication channels. All these data are usually available and convenient for analysis.
But when processing costs, it is important to consider the following factors:
The time period for which funds were spent on branding;
Advertising spend directly increases sales, so they are usually only evaluated in this context. However, promotional activities also create brand awareness and image, which affects future sales.
The resulting effects with branding costs can be divided into 3 groups:
Perception. Here we evaluate whether it was possible to create knowledge about the brand and form a positive attitude towards it;
Behavior. Here we evaluate whether we have achieved the formation of brand loyalty;
Economy. Well, everything is simple here: did you manage to increase income, strengthen your position in the market, increase the capitalization of the company.
When we understand what brand performance indicators to pay attention to, it's time to move on to methods.
A practical guide to branding a company, product, or personMore
Methods for evaluating brand performance
There are many methods for evaluating brand performance. Among them, 4 popular models from the following specialists stand out:
David Aaker;
Leslie de Cernatoni;
Mark Sherrington;
Scott Davis and Michael Dunn.
We will consider only the most interesting, in our opinion, technique - Scott Davis and Michael Dunn. It is based on an analysis of the ways a person contacts a company.
Contact branding model The
effectiveness of brand management is measured by identifying and managing points of contact with the company. It is in the analysis of the Customer Journey Map that the essence of this technique is.
What are "points of contact"? This is how a person interacts with a company: before, during and after the purchase.
Even before the direct purchase of a product or service, brand awareness can be created through advertising messages, PR campaigns, and promotions. This group of touchpoints with the brand has other purposes:
Create a perception of the company and expectations of a positive experience;
To bring to the person the key advantages and benefits of the product;
Motivate the person to consider purchasing the product
It is important that this stage creates expectations that you can later meet with the quality of the product and service. Otherwise, expectations will quickly be shattered by a negative purchase or use experience. There can be no question of any efficiency then. And forget about repeat purchases immediately.
Points of contact in the buying process should form a positive brand experience. How a person was served, how friendly the staff was - there are no trifles here. If this is an offline point, then the atmosphere in the room, sensitive marketing , and merchandising are important for a person. If the experience turns out to be positive, right at this second a person will be determined to pay more than for a similar solution, and will also consider additional offers.
Contacts after purchasing a product or service maintain a positive attitude. Their goal is for a person to achieve maximum satisfaction from the brand. Here concentrate on post-service, guarantees, loyalty programs (discount cards, offers for regular customers). You can measure the effect of this activity by the number of returning customers and those who came on the advice of friends.
What is the point of "contact branding"? It's simple: a positive experience at all stages of a person's interaction with a company leads to an increase in the effectiveness of branding. With negative baggage, exactly the opposite is true. Even the slightest dissatisfaction at one of the points of contact will lead to a decrease in the overall effectiveness of branding.
Brand performance analysis in this model includes strategic and tactical metrics.
The strategic ones are:
building brand capacity;
attracting customers with the help of company attributes;
customer retention;
brand purchases;
brand loyalty.
They are needed to be able to assess the impact of the brand on business performance. With them there is an understanding of what contribution branding has made to the development of the company.
Tactical metrics include:
knowledge about the company;
understanding of the characteristics of the enterprise;
degree of brand fit;
brand confidence;
fulfillment of promises to the audience;
brand preference in a situation of choice;
influence of the brand on the purchase decision;
product satisfaction;
recommendations to friends and family.
They are needed to be able to evaluate the effectiveness of branding actions from the standpoint of shaping the customer experience at points of contact.
Analyzing the metrics, it is easy to understand what are the strengths and weaknesses of the enterprise, and what ways of interaction between the buyer and the company need to be strengthened or adjusted.
A brand is a strategic asset of an enterprise. And it is important to understand how it is used, what is the use of it for the company. And in order to make branding decisions that are based on facts, it is necessary to evaluate the success of all ongoing events. And now you know how to do it and what methods for evaluating brand effectiveness are.
TEXT: ROMAN KOVALEV