Brand Image – Brand Identity – Brand Strategy – Brand Identity Guru
Many brands within a given business group are perceived and accepted by consumers in different ways. By personifying a brand (How would you describe brand X if it were a person?) we can discover that, for example, consumers perceive brand A as a young, impulsive, lively, attractive, energetic, and idea-filled woman. In the same way, Brand B could be a laid-back, conservative, older man. The brand can also have a completely inexpressive and bad image. This is how brand C may not have real personal characteristics, thin, tall, imperceptible and calm.
The image basically expresses a way in which a consumer thinks about the brand and the feelings that the brand arouses when the consumer thinks about it. Based on these characteristics, which the consumer associates with the brand, the company can build a competitive advantage for its brand.
What kind of image should our brand have?
Before answering this question, it is important to consider various market factors and circumstances: company objectives, consumer desires and expectations, trade groups, and various other groups. A company builds its brand image through commercial communication with its consumers. This is how a company informs the consumer of what the brand represents, what its values are, what the company is offering or guaranteeing to the consumer, what are its advantages, its qualities, etc. Consumers interpret all the information obtained and form a subjective perception of the brand or its image.
Why investigate the brand image?
Understanding the image of a brand is vitally important for the long-term management of a brand. It is also important how consumers formed the brand and what kind of relationship was formed with the brand: what the brand means to them and how they accepted it. Understanding the relationship between consumers and brands can help a business monitor successful brand positioning and advertising efficiency.
How do we investigate the image?
The brand image is formed in the long term and represents a non-conscious and “untouchable” area, which needs to be investigated using projective research methods that help the consumer to overcome certain obstacles and limitations, as well as to be inspired by the world of brands. . The consumer, therefore, not only focuses on the brand, but mainly on their experience with it and on its regular users. It focuses on the opportunities, which ones are the most suitable for the specific brand and what kind of image the brand presents, etc.
We are able to research and describe the brand from various perspectives. We get a lot of different associations, ideas, benefits, and people that the consumer somehow connects with the brands, that needs to be properly and correctly interpreted. It is important to define the key characteristics and values that the consumer associates with a specific brand. Relevant findings show the results of long-term management of a brand and represent key dimensions on which a brand’s competitive advantage is based.