It’s not enough to have a brilliant business idea. What drives customers to make a purchase is the brand and how they perceive it. Usually, people choose more familiar and well-known brands because they trust them. There are many different factors that influence perception, and, of course, there are many ways to strengthen it. For example, larger companies invest significant amounts of money in television commercials and similar campaigns, but smaller companies can also make efforts in this direction, even with smaller budgets.
Today’s article will focus more on measuring how customers perceive your brand. Why? Because by conducting research and gathering data on your customers’ attitudes and opinions, you can make more informed decisions, improve your brand message, and adapt your marketing strategies to resonate with your target audience. Understanding and measuring perception are crucial for increasing your sales, successfully launching new products, and attracting media attention and potential customers, so let’s get started.
1.What is brand perception?
This refers to the thoughts, feelings, and beliefs that consumers have about your brand and the products or services you offer. It also includes the experience, reputation, and word-of-mouth recommendations that customers hear. Building a positive brand image is not that difficult; you simply have to fulfill all the promises your brand has made. Another thing you should never forget is to strive to satisfy your customers.
2.Why is it essential to care about your brand perception?
It is crucial because, as mentioned above, it influences customers’ choices and makes them more likely to choose your products or services over those of your competitors. But that’s not all. When customers like your brand, they are more likely to try your new products or services because they trust you. Another important point is that they would find it harder to switch to another product or service because they already have established relationships.
One piece of advice we can give you is to invest in marketing campaigns that aim to strengthen your target audience’s awareness of your brand’s existence and its goals and beliefs. This way, you can more effectively compete with the already more recognizable companies or market leaders, and people would notice you more easily.
3.How can you measure perception?
Certainly, there are different methods, but here are the four most well-known ones:
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Surveys:
Conducting surveys is a good way to measure brand perception. Create a set of questions that aim to explore customers’ opinions, thoughts, feelings, and comments about your brand. For example, some questions could include associations or descriptions they would use for your brand or their recent experience if they have shopped from you recently.
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Social listening:
Use tools to help you monitor the discussions about your brand on internet. This will help you respond promptly to negative comments or positive ones. By following these discussions, you will have the opportunity to improve the aspects that people don’t like and emphasize the things they do like.
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Brand audit:
Conducting a comprehensive brand audit serves as a foundation for all future strategies. It also helps evaluate your brand’s positioning and the competitive environment. To perform an audit, analyze your unique selling proposition, evaluate your competitors’ strategies, and identify their strengths and weaknesses. This information will be valuable in guiding you when planning all future activities to support brand perception and better compete against rivals.
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Focus groups:
Although focus groups may be considered an older technique, they remain effective, especially for such evaluations and analyses. To conduct a focus group, first, gather a group of participants. Then, come up with questions to ask them. The questions should focus on whether the participants recognize your brand and how they perceive it. Remember that the questions should be open-ended, not ones that provoke a simple yes or no answer. Another important step is to find a moderator or take on that role yourself. The moderator is the person who will ask all the pre-established questions. You should also have someone to take detailed notes so that you can later analyze all the responses the participants provided. Some other conditions to follow are that the focus group participants should be between 6 and 10, and you should conduct several focus groups to gather a sufficient amount of information.
We hope that these tips and recommendations have been helpful to you. If you still need assistance with branding or marketing your company, feel free to contact us.
Antoana Bakalova – Copywriter