Brand perception is not such a foreign concept. Every day we make purchases on the basis of how we perceive brands. Just picking up a bottle of Coke instead of Pepsi shows how we place one brand above another.

Brand perception is important for companies to understand. It helps them make choices based on their marketing efforts and target audience. But, before you get into measuring brand perception, you need to understand it.

In this article, we will be talking about brand perception and its importance. We will also be discussing various tips, strategies and examples.

What is Brand Perception?

Brand perception is a consumer’s overall thoughts, experiences, and feelings about a service or product. It is what customers believe a brand represents. This is instead of what brands say they represent. It comes from customer experience, use, word of mouth and reputation. This can be done via social media platforms or face-to-face. 

For instance, if you ask someone on the street whether they like Pepsi or Coke. Someone who prefers coke might say they like the taste better or the colour. Besides that, they may also prefer the font or the design on the can.

Brand perception could be favourable, critical, or impartial. Also, it can impact the success of a product or service. Though changing brand perception is possible through a greater marketing plan, it could be harder to accomplish once customers have formed a perception of a company.

For instance, if a fashion label has a brand image of elegance and high costs, its marketers may struggle to reinvent the company as budget-friendly.

Benefits and Importance

Here are some reasons why brand perception is important to your brand.

• Brand perception develops trust with your audience. It is important for your brand that people trust you. There is also a better chance of them doing business with your brand.

• Brand perception allows you to stand out from your competitors. It is difficult to be recognised in a crowded market. But, if your brand is unique, people will be more likely to buy your product or service.

• Brand perception may result in bigger profits. It is more common for customers to pay more if they trust your brand. This is why when you gain customer loyalty, they keep returning to buy your products or services. This also leads to long-term benefits.

• Brand perception reflects what customers think about your brand and its values. It is always important to be aware of what your customer’s thoughts are. 

• Brand perception also makes it easier for your brand to create brand partnerships, expand to different markets and share new products.

How to Measure Brand Perception

Here are some ways you can measure brand perception:

• Keep track of mentions online. Online mentions are when any person tags or talks about a particular brand. It is usually found in their online content like blogs, social media posts, etc. By tracking your online mentions, you can find out the number of people that are talking about your company online. To monitor these metrics, you can use social media and search engine results. You should focus on things like how many times your brand name has been searched for. Or, you could check the number of tags that connect with your brand content. Also, you can see how many people connect directly with your company’s content. There are a few software programs that can help you with this process. 

• Surveil the social media of your company. Tracking your company’s social media can help you to get feedback directly from your customers. For this, you can stick to some key performance points like dwell time, views, and paid or monetary content. You could also use a software program to manage your engagement on various social media platforms. It is easier to compare data with individual hub dashboards. These hubs monitor engagement and content across different platforms. Besides that, these programs also help you to develop content. You can then post this content on various channels through the same program.

• Check out reviews online. Another source to learn about customers’ brand perception is online reviews. Many people post reviews and feedback regarding brands and companies. These reviews could be good, bad or neutral. Reading these reviews allows you to understand what the overall perception is regarding your brand. You could separate them using spreadsheets. This helps you to determine your data trends.

Pros and Cons

Here are some pros for positive brand perception.

• Consumers are more likely to choose you over your competitors. With positive brand perception, you will stand out in the crowd. 

• If consumers trust your brand, they will refer to your brand. Word-of-mouth marketing is still a great way to reach customers organically. Also, most people trust the words of people they know more than any promotional material.

• Besides that, positive brand perception encourages consumers to stick with your brand. You will likely build a loyal customer base if people trust your brand.

Here are some cons of negative brand perception.

• Brand perception can become negative. This is the case if there is a faulty product or service. It is even more difficult for smaller brands. Also, online reviews are a big part of a buyer’s journey. If there is any negative feedback, people see your company in that light. This is why it is essential to keep reviewing your online presence. It would help if you were quick and sincere while responding to any negativity.

• If your brand is not transparent, you could have a problem. Many consumers now make transparency a priority. This is also because they don’t want their personal data to be misused. That is why companies need to let customers know exactly what their data will be used for. 

• Mistreating customers through corrupt practices and inattention. Consumers will not get involved with a brand that takes advantage of them. Honesty and integrity are important for brand perception. Always make sure that your services and products are up to the mark. 

Tips

Here are some great tips for you to solidify your brand perception.

• Give out surveys. Another way you can learn more about your brand perception is through surveys. They can help you understand your target audience better. A survey contains various questions, statements and rating systems that customers can fill out. These surveys help you get honest opinions about your products and services through various methods of questioning. For instance, you could have open-ended questions for customers to give their views on specific topics.

• Create focus groups. This is another great way to determine brand perception. You can gather a few target consumers in small groups to get honest reviews about your brand. This tactic is quite successful for complex brand chains. Besides that, you can also do them on video calls or in person. Focus groups also help fill in any systemic knowledge gaps. You can also learn how to impact your product development in a positive manner.

• Make your brand modern. It is important to keep your brand up to date on trends. Your marketing need may have to keep updating your brand by fixing a tagline or tweaking your logo. You could also play around with colour schemes. A brand that is consistent yet up-to-date is an important way to boost brand perception. This also creates a wider scope for your target audience, like younger customers. You can do this by researching how other brands have tweaked their branding. Or you could use data to see what your audience resonates with.

Best Practices

These are some best practices for you to apply to boost brand perception.

• Try social listening.  An important part of monitoring your social media is social listening. This technique makes you observe the way your brand interacts on social media with an audience. You can also understand whether they perceive your brand as positive or negative. Besides that, you can also determine the more popular parts of your brand. For instance, it could be your great customer service or selection of products. You could even use a listening tool for social media. This tool helps track hashtags as well as gathers data for you.

• Consider the brand’s target audience. You should review the metrics of your target audience regularly. This helps you make sure that your demographic doesn’t change. You can also think about developing buyer personas. Buyer personas are back stories of your target consumers for a particular service or product. You can go through information regarding leads and online users. Also, observe how this data compares to the buyer personas. You can even change your personalise your promotion efforts for a specific target consumer.

• Audit your brand. A brand audit is a great way to determine brand perception. It is a process of reviewing and evaluating your brand’s position in the market. You can also hire an external consultant to run the audit or do it internally. Besides that, these results can help you see how your brand compares to the others in your industry. If your company ranks higher, it probably has a good brand perception.

Top Brand Perception Examples

Here are some of the best real-life examples of brand perception.

• Snickers: Snickers are a great example of brand perception. Sure, people may choose Snickers on the basis of taste. But, the brand has also cleverly made people turn to a Snickers bar when they are hungry. Through their catchy tagline and humorous ads, you can’t be hungry and not think of Snickers.

• Zoom: Another brilliant example of brand perception is the beloved Zoom platform. Zoom has soon become the staple for video calls ever since the pandemic. Surpassing the popular Skype platform, this app made it possible for loved ones to connect while in quarantine. Not just that, but corporations and schools also transitioned to Zoom for their daily needs. There may have been fatigue created due to constant Zoom meetings. But, Zoom is still a staple for most video call needs. Many people have fond memories of using the app to socialise, or they use humour to discuss the extensive usage of Zoom.

Patagonia: This is another powerful and passionate brand. Patagonia has established a visual presence as a good and caring brand. Their marketing strategies are founded on honesty and quality. Their photography depicts real people enjoying nature and the environment. This company is environmentally conscious and promotes its values through various campaigns. For example, the Worn Wear Wagon travels across the country repairing old items.

• Starbucks: Last up is the famous coffee brand Starbucks. This brand has become the most popular coffee brand for being organic and of great quality. There is also a certain image people receive when they buy a Starbucks coffee rather than a store brand. Starbucks has used this image to draw people to their brand through various marketing techniques.

In Conclusion

Measuring your brand perception is an important practice for any company. It helps you understand your customers’ likes and preferences better. You can also tweak parts of your branding based on the data you acquire.

For instance, you can gather reviews of your new product on a weekly basis. You can then categorise them in a spreadsheet as impartial, negative, and positive.

You can also be more transparent by having a great online presence. Try to give people sufficient data on your website. Besides that, you can offer them surveys and feedback methods.

What are some negative or positive effects of brand perceptions that you’ve seen? How did this article help you? Let us know in the comments section below.