No 1: PROMOTION OF RECOGNITION
There are plenty of products around you that you misname when you refer to them. ‘Google’ is a good case in question. Think about it. Do you use a search engine or do you ‘Google’? For years my family asked me to ‘Hoover’ the carpets. The brands have climbed into our subconscious psyche. The marketeers that helped drive these brands have reached their Nirvana. People love the consistency and if you’re thought of as a trusted partner, you’ll be encouraging returning clients. So, the next time that you ask a friend to Google something, remember that you are doing something special – you are subconsciously promoting and recognising its brand. It’s become generic.
No 2: CREATING AN EXPECTED OUTCOME
If you were faced with taking your car to have its tyres replaced by either a garage who you have never dealt with before or a high street name like Kwikfit, who would you choose? Probably the latter. That’s the power of their brand creating an expected outcome. You don’t know it but somewhere in the recesses of your mind was an image that that chain had planted in there. When you stared at the worn tyre – the image surfaced, and their phone rang. Of course, they did not engender this image with their name and logo alone – it took many years of assiduous work in all of the aforementioned areas to make you lean towards them and trust them enough to try them out.
No 3: A GOOD BRAND WILL GENERATE REFERRALS
Recently, a Nielsen survey on trust /advertising coughed up some amazing stats when people were asked what forms of advertising respondents trusted. In essence, referred marketing make up trumps against all demographics. In fact, it outshone adverts, common content, and brand sponsoring.
Here are some of the stats:
Did you know that 28% of millennials said that they wouldn’t try a product if their friends had not approved it first?
When short of time, ‘word of mouth’ was found to be the main element behind 20-50% of purchase decisions.
With business to business trading companies off the back of referrals – they’ll have a whopping 70% higher conversion rate (they also report a 69% faster close time on sales).
Not only this – but “customers referred to your brand were up to five times likelier to engage with your own referral scheme than clients who weren’t”
No 4: YOUR BRAND SHOULD BUILD TRUST
Who would you rather purchase from? Someone that turns up with a tatty car, speaks to you in an over-familiar way and makes little effort to demonstrate how professional they’ll be? Or perhaps you’d prefer to purchase from someone that comes across as more sincere about your concerns and legitimate. At the end of the day, when you deliver a professional appearance, you’re engendering that feeling of trusted and experienced credibility.
No 5: YOUR BRAND CAN INCREASE YOUR COMPANY’S VALUE
Tell me – if you were to take household brands such a Google or Facebook and try to value them solely on the assets they own – how would you explain the discrepancy between what they are actually worth in terms of their brand and your own valuation. Well, it’s their brand that has helped drive their listed value you see. Therein lies the lesson – a strong and established brand will add a lot to your value as a company. We often find ourselves saying it to our clients in fact since what they pay us for their marketing is invariably dwarfed by the extra value we’ve help add to their company at the end of the process – a fact that’s especially appreciated by
No 6: THE POWER OF EMOTIONS
You probably think that you have chosen your toothpaste in the supermarket this weekend because it’s the best at addressing those horrible cavities that you built up for years by enjoying the foods you shouldn’t have eaten. The reality alternatively, is that emotions factored very highly in your decision. Peter Noel Murray, a consumer psychologist in New York, explains how consumers evaluate brands MOSTLY on emotions rather than information or facts about the brand (sorry if you did buy that toothpaste last weekend – I’m sure you did it for the right practical reasons).
For some interesting information on attracting your local community to you brand, take a look at this blog post. For information on inexpensive branding click here. And follow this link to learn about how your website represents your brand.
