What dimensions of my brand can I still manage?

Even if demand for your product or service has completely halted, the brand building work should continue (within financially viable parameters of course). While sales tactics may not work for now, long term brand building activities will be critical to remain relevant after the crisis.

A time for brand management fundamentals to kick in!

Brand management is only as effective as marketers’ understanding of consumers’ knowledge structures of brands. As such marketers would ideally need “mental maps” of consumers’ brand knowledge. That knowledge can be summarised as the brand’s equity.

Brand equity is also defined as the value of the brand and, thus, the value of the strategic market position. It is the difference between the price that customers will pay for the generic utility and the same utility when branded (i.e. when the utility is strategically positioned).

Why is Brand Equity so Important?

Strong brand equity brings the following advantages to successful brands: decreased vulnerability to competitive marketing strategies and now during the pandemic crisis a better chance for sustainability and remaining buoyant.

Strong brand equity brings the following outcomes:

• Decreased vulnerability to challenging market conditions
• Greater consumer loyalty to the brand
• Greater trade and retailer support
• Less elastic consumer response to price increases more elastic response to price decreases
• Opportunities to utilise brand extension strategies
• Increased perceptions of the products performance

Simply put, a lack of equity reduces a brand to commodity status.

There are two important elements that you can manage: Brand awareness and brand image.

Brand awareness is directly proportional to customers’ ability to identify and recall the brand under different conditions.

Brand image comprises customer perceptions of the brand. It is directly proportional to what the consumer/shopper associates with the brand.

The strength of associations is a function of the quantity (amount) and quality (nature) of information processing consumers’ give to their brand experiences. For instance, the deeper a consumer thinks about product information (like an advertisement) and relates it to their existing knowledge, the stronger the brand association in their memory will be.

Now is even a more important time to consider the following strategic outcomes:

1. Continue to build deep, broad brand awareness with the target consumer.
2. Create a distinctive point-of-difference in terms of image attributes for your brand.
3. Create and reinforce the distinctive points-of-difference in terms of functional attributes for your brand.

So, what are the tactical and practical aspects you can do now?

• Measure and track – set-up a way to measure and monitor sources of brand equity as the brand cycles through this economic downturn. Ensure you can track positive, accessible reactions to your messaging. Does your tracking show equities are;

1. Still relevant and meaningful to consumers and customers;
2. Own-able and distinctive versus competition and;
3. Sufficient to generate sustained business growth?

• Stay relevant – ensure you communicate excellence at delivering the benefits users truly desire.

• Price based on consumers’ perceptions of value. The brand creates value for the firm by reducing the following:

1. Demand risk: e.g., can we stabilise sales?
2. Competitor risk: e.g., can we prevent competitors from taking our customers?
3. Communication risk: e.g., can we communicate effectively?

• Be properly positioned and drive a consistent message centred around your brand equity and the 4P’s (Price, Product, Promotion and Place). The 4Ps manifest the brand in the marketplace. Stated differently, these 4Ps are the tools of brand implementation and mediate the relationship between brand capability and brand knowledge. They are key to strategic brand-decisions in marketing.

 

• Allocate proper support – re-evaluate the right level of budget that supports the business during the crisis and is sustained over the long run.

 
Products come and go; brands have long-enduring features. Once brand awareness
and, especially, brand image are weakened or even ruined—the damage is difficult to reverse.