eBusiness Weekly
Leslie Mupeti
Professor of Marketing Kevin Lane Keller is a leader in the world of marketing and branding. Keller’s brand equity model which he originally published in his book “Strategic Brand Management”, is widely used among brand builders to measure and analyse their brand equity.
Keller’s brand equity model falls under the CBBE model. CBBE which stands for Customers Based Brand Equity, is the value of a brand based on what customers feel and think of it.
This model gives brand builders a framework to measure brand equity. In order for brand builders to build valuable brands they need to create the perception in the market that their audience values.
Customers perceptions, feelings, thoughts and experiences with your brand have to be always positive if you want to reach them on a more positive, emotional level. Every single touch-point, every interaction with the audience should work towards that positive perception.
The Keller model is a pyramid shape and it shows businesses how to build a strong foundation of brand identity upwards towards the holy grail of brand equity resonance. This is where customers are in a sufficiently positive relationship with a brand to be advocates for it.
Let’s look at the steps of the brand equity model. It has 4 levels, all focused on achieving an outcome that contributes to building brand equity.
Keller’s brand equity model
Level 1: Brand Identity
Who are you?
This level is all about brand recognition and awareness. It is the first step to developing brand equity.
Your audience needs to be able to recognise what your brand is and recall it. Your name, your tagline, your logo and your colours all contribute to brand awareness and recognition.
At this level, as a brand builder, you have the responsibility to:
a) Identify your Unique Selling Point — why would one choose your brand over competition.
b) Conduct market research to identify the wants and needs of your target audience.
c)Target your customers with channeled ad campaigns (social media, Google) to ensure they know who you are and understand your Unique Selling Point.
Level 2: Brand Meaning
What are you?
This is all about communicating what value you offer in the marketplace. Why you’re different. Why should your audience care about your brand and not your competitors?
At this level, as a brand builder, you use performance and imagery to achieve this. Performance is demonstrating how the brand fits the needs and wants of the consumer and imagery is about how the brand aligns with the customers through social and psychological levels.
What do they believe? What does your brand stand for?
At this level as a brand builder you have the responsibility to:
a) Check that your product/service is living up to its advertised promises by analyzing negative reviews, negative comments, refunds and returns.
b) Fix the negatives
c) Exceed expectations by giving customers value add-ons such as freebies or anniversary discounts
d) Make sure your advertising and imagery truly reflect the product experience — it doesn’t over-promise and under-deliver
e) Be prepared to develop packaging, logo, consistent visual advertising and customer service
Level 3: Brand Response
How is the brand perceived?
How is the customer responding to your brand messaging? What response does your brand evoke?
The 2 blocks for this level are judgements and feelings. Judgements are the conclusions your audience comes to in the role your brand plays in their lives and feelings are the emotions that are evoked in your audience through your imagery, messaging and associations.
At this level as a brand builder,you have the responsibility to:
a) Track your customer feedback across social media channels and other data sources to identify pain points and areas of customer dissatisfaction.
b) Fix things that flag up as negative
c) Give special offers and discounts to strengthen customers’ emotional bond with your brand.
Level 4: Brand Resonance
How are you connected with the audience?
have you resonated with your audience on an emotional level? Do they self-identify with your brand?
brand resonance is when a customer is:
loyal to brand, considers it superior, will buy no other product, may join a brand community such as a social media group or clubad, vocates its merits to others .
This is the level you should aim to reach.
At this level as a brand builder, your responsibilities include:
a) everything you can do to keep customers at the top of the pyramid
b) treating level 4 customers as a community of VIPs, you must offer quality extras such as exclusive rewards, free gifts, member-only events and discounts, preferential upgrades or shipping
c) find out why they reached this level
d) keep improving that customer experience which led to customers reaching resonance
8 steps to building your brand equity
Brand equity is the willingness for someone to choose one brand over another or to pay a premium over another brand. It can also be defined as a value premium that a company generates from a product with a recognisable name when compared to a generic equivalent.
Brand equity is very important because companies with a large brand equity stand to make more profits on products because they typically charge more. Let’s look at the 8 steps you can take to build your brand equity.
1. Build visual awareness
Your visual identity is the first touch-point with your audience.
Humans need 13 milliseconds to remember a visual and that is the reason why visuals are important. If you have a unique identity, it’s an advantage for you.
2. Differentiate yourself
It doesn’t make sense for you to go into the market looking like everyone else or trying to follow the trendsetters. Clearly define the position you want to own in the mind of the audience and go after it so that they understand what you have to offer and place you at the top of their minds.
3. Stand for something
Consumers are switched on today and are a lot more conscious than they used to be. They push back from brands that are too salesy. If you show them that you exist for reasons more than the sale/revenue, then you’ll earn a sole spot in their minds.
4. Communicate your value
Too many brands walk into the market and assume that the audience knows about them.
They assume the audience knows why they are there and why they are different. If you don’t tell your audience why you’re there they’re not going to know it. Communicate your value and let it be known by the consumers.
5. Engage with personality
Brand personality is a non-negotiable these days. You can’t walk into the marketplace today and speak like a corporate entity and sound like an entity that has no real people behind it.
You need to walk into the marketplace and show that you have characteristics and engage with your audience on a human level.
Take the time to understand who your audience is, what characteristics they are attracted to and build your personality around that.
You need to leverage a unique tone of voice. The way you deliver your messages. The way you say what you say. Clearly define your tone of voice and a language profile your brand uses.
6. Deliver a consistent message
Your core message isn’t all you need for your brand. You need a set of key messages that you want your audience to understand about your brand. Deliver these consistently and this will shape your audience’s perception of your brand.
7. Tell stories
Humans love stories. If you’re able to tell stories about a journey that represents your audience’s journey and one they can relate to, then they will resonate with your story. They will align with your brand if you successfully weave your brand into the story.
8. Be accessible
Building brand equity is all about building relationships and nurturing these relationships. Brands that put a barrier between them and their customers find it difficult to build brand equity.
Be accessible on email, and social media and don’t put bots between you and your customers.
