March 16, 2021
Understanding how your target audience perceives your brand is an important step in making more informed decisions about the best ways to reach them. It’s important to know how your current and potential customers view your brand, especially if that perception differs from how you want to be perceived. But what is brand perception exactly and how do you measure it?
Brand perception is simply the collection of thoughts, feelings, and ideas your consumer might have about your brand. These stem from all the different ways your audience is exposed to your brand - from purchasing and consuming your product; to reading and interacting with your content; to visiting your website or store. This perception ultimately drives them to make (or not make) a purchase. If you’ve got a strong brand identity and marketing strategy, your brand perception and persona should be closely aligned. Sometimes, however, what your target audience thinks about your company is quite different than what you intended. This dissonance can cause a drop in revenue. To ensure your target audience thinks and feels the right way about your brand, it’s imperative that you don’t leave it to chance. The first step is tracking your brand perception. Here’s how.
There are several ways to tune in to your target audience that will allow you to determine whether your marketing efforts are on track. The first and generally the easiest way to monitor brand perception is through social media monitoring. Regularly tracking what people are saying about your brand is a great way to gauge how consumers think and feel. While social listening doesn’t require a ton of manpower and resources, it can be a bit skewed, as people only tend to engage with a brand if they feel strongly about it - whether that’s positive or negative. Also, if you’re a smaller company or B2B with less buzz, you might have difficulty finding opinions about your brand on social media.
Another way you can measure brand perception is through focus groups and brand forums. This method allows you to hear detailed feedback about your products or services without the need for social media monitoring. Brand forums are also great for more complex supply chain businesses because they connect the companies directly with consumers.
The most accurate method of measuring your brand perception, however, is by conducting a brand perception survey. Surveys allow you to tailor your questions specifically to better understand your target audience and identify not only what they think of your company, but also how to better reach them.
Brand perception surveys are an incredibly useful tool that can help you learn more about your customers, what they think of your brand, and how to connect with them. While these surveys can be helpful, it’s important to make sure that you are asking the right brand perception survey questions to provide the insights you need to amplify your brand and benefit your overall marketing strategy.
At Passport Brand Design, we can help you craft professional and impactful brand perception surveys that will deliver useful insights to help you increase brand awareness. Well-crafted surveys will benefit your company in many ways.
You probably already have tools in place to track the demographics of your target audience - things like age, race, gender, ethnicity, education, profession, income, etc. What you may not be familiar with is the psychographics of your target customers. Brand perception surveys allow you to deep dive into your customers’ attitudes, beliefs, aspirations, and other key indicators that aren't as easily tracked. By gaining these insights, you will be able to tailor your marketing strategy to fit who your consumers are rather than what they are. Understanding their behavior and attitudes will help you begin to predict patterns and deliver the right product at the right time.
Brand equity is the additional value added by your brand name, and ultimately how consumers feel about your brand. For example, there are a number of dish soaps available on the market. Dawn dish soap has high brand equity because of its brand recognition and perception and can therefore charge a premium price for its product.
Using brand perception surveys will provide insights into how your products or services are perceived by your consumers and whether they might be willing to pay a higher price. Today, consumers are looking for brands that go beyond a product or service. They want an experience, and when they have a positive experience, they are more likely to develop loyalty and advocacy and share your brand with others.
Whether you are a luxury brand or a discount store, it’s important to make sure your pricing perception matches your actual brand image. If you’re selling luxury goods, but consumers view your brand as cheap or affordable, you won’t be reaching the right audience. The right brand perception survey questions will reveal how your customers view your pricing in relation to your product and your competition. It’s important that the public’s perception of your brand’s worth aligns with your goals.
Brand perception surveys are also excellent tools for identifying customer challenges and pain points that you might otherwise be unaware of. Often, companies don’t realize even the most common struggles among their customers - from client services and shipping to returns and exchanges. Brand perception surveys allow you to investigate what might be standing between an increase in sales and long-term customer loyalty.
Another great reason for utilizing a brand perception survey is to reveal untapped opportunities for your brand. Through a well-crafted survey, you might learn innovative ways to reach new customers or uncover new audiences that could benefit from your product or service. When you learn more about your customers, you can reach them in more meaningful, and impactful ways and increase your brand awareness at the same time.
We think the importance of positive brand perception is clear. If you’re looking for more information on how to impact your own brand perception, we’ve got plenty of resources on our website and in-house. At Passport Brand Design, we use advanced consumer insights, market research, and brand planning to provide expert-level support throughout your branding process. From helping to define your brand purpose and establishing your visual identity to creating brand guidelines for your company, we can help you every step of the way. Get in touch with us to schedule a consultation and let’s make a positive impact on how your customers think and feel about your brand together.
And if you’re local, come and visit our café grab a coffee and let’s talk about how we can do something with real impact.
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