In a market environment with globalized and aggressive competition, a positive brand recognition benefits the prosperity of the company. People will not opt for a product that they do not know exists.
A good brand leads to:
31%
higher shareholder growth
3x
higher growth than competitors
31%
more sales than the competition
More market share
By improving brand recognition, it also improves the company's market share. When customers recognize it, the competitive position in the market is better, and rivals move to the position of followers instead of leaders.
NPS (Net Promoter Score) improvement
Market demands are constantly evolving and therefore user perceptions. For this reason it is necessary to continuously develop and improve the brand strategy. The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a measure to test the perception of customers and their preferences and the impact on the brand.
By regularly surveying customers and reviewing the resulting NPS score, it's easier to take action. If the score improves, it means that the improvement plans are producing constructive results.
Produces stronger relationships
Customer relationships require commitment and attention to detail. They don't end by "closing the sale."
In fact, the brand consists of establishing serious and emotional connections between the company and the clients, in which both parties must obtain benefits:
Clients: They face a problem, they are grateful for the benefits they get and the customer experience, they communicate it to their network contacts and they pay regularly for your product / service.
Trademarks: Offers extraordinary solutions to customer problems. As a brand, it also communicates transparently and is 100% focused on customer needs.
How the brand builds strong connections
Online brands take care of the relationship with customers and their perception.
For example, Nike, one of the most powerful brands, establishes connections with customers through a committed and sustainable image:
As one of the world's leading sportswear brands, Nike knows how to create an emotional bond with people from the start. By implementing well-conceived marketing campaigns, Nike has become a more social brand.
It is about motivating consumers to "just do it" and eradicate the impediments that make it impossible to see it.
This emotional bond between the brand and its customers does not always promote sportswear. Instead, Nike's brand revolves around narrative and lifestyle. Nike encourages the athlete, and as a result, customers connect their goal with the clothing.
Improve customer retention
Engagement is critical in building your brand recognition and retaining customers. The days of visual advertising in newspapers, streets, television etc are over. Today, you need to continuously generate interaction and invest in developing those valuable interactions with the market.
Investing in engagement conveys values to customers, and supports customer loyalty and retention. The more interaction of customers with the brand, the greater possibility of keeping them in the product or service.
For them, the tasks to be developed are:
- Define brand identity
- Personalized communications
- Disseminate success stories
1.- Define the brand identity
With a defined brand identity, engaging with target customers is much easier. People must feel that they are interacting with a person behind the brand, instead of a corporate machine that only seeks to cover a channel at low cost. More importantly, customers must share the same brand voice and somehow identify with it.
Your brand identity and voice must be conveyed in all actions, in terms of content and customer experience. For example, ASOS, the online fashion and accessories retailer.
The consistent youth and elegance of the brand is conveyed in every page, content and the clothes that are associated with them. Each term in the texts is also a relevant part of its identity.
2.- Personalized communications
Personalization is key to all customer engagement strategies. And when it comes to interactions, take a personalized approach. Personalized interaction encourages and increases the chances of customer engagement.
For example, Starbucks through the mobile application it has a rewards system, allows you to customize orders, payments, etc.
In addition, customer information (purchase history, location, personal data, …) is used to personalize communication as much as possible.
3.- Disseminate success stories
When your customers see other customers recounting their success stories, they become part of the brand and enter a community that goes beyond just selling. People get more engaged when they see other user-generated content and this increases their trust.
For example, BMW shares photos of the same owners of its vehicles. ASOS also identifies personalization and user-generated content by posting images of customers wearing its clothes.
Building customer confidence in the brand
Trust is everything for companies. According to Edelman, people trust companies more than they trust governments. The more they believe in the company, the more customers will engage with the product and the more they will recommend it to other buyers.
To promote trust in the brand and retain higher value customers, at least ensure:
- Clear and transparent value proposition
- Quality of contents
- An excellent customer experience
Clear and transparent value proposition
The value proposition makes or breaks the trust that customers have in the business. It is a commitment made with customers that must be fulfilled. When formulating the value proposition, be realistic and, more importantly, transparent to customers. You have to reflect on what the product represents, who it is for and why it is useful.
In the case of Stripe it's clear who the target market is, the benefits are concisely stated, and the navigation transitions from the start are seamless.
2.- Content quality
It is obvious that creating quality content as you build your brand increases customer trust. When the business is established, the content helps customers solve their problems, and that trust is further cemented.
The minimum characteristics of the contents must be the following:
3.- An excellent customer experience
The customer experience is essential for all brands and is something that makes the difference between companies. Customers deserve a personalized customer experience that shows how much they mean to the brand.
Humanize the brand
Companies are created and managed by people.
Customers want to feel that they are buying and interacting with people. As human beings, they want to see, understand, hear and feel the identity of the brand.
The elements to be able to transmit this are:
- Introduce the people behind the brand
- Search for human participation regularly
1.- Introduce the people behind the brand
As mentioned, people love to interact with people. To increase engagement and retain customers, show that there are people who can solve problems.
For example, a public page can be used, with names and photos of the employees of a department. You can also create pages to share employee stories on social networks, success stories, some non-critical personal data, etc.
2.- Search for human participation regularly
Interact and listen to customers and interact regularly. Motivate the customer to tell stories, experiences, ask them about the quality of service, make them part of new launches, listen to their opinions and respond, create working groups with customers, … There are countless tools that, if well executed, make the customer feel an integral part Of the brand.
Regarding interaction in social networks, relevant collateral impacts must be taken into account. The most important impact is that all interaction is visible, or likely to be visible, by all the followers of the network. Therefore there are some principles to follow in relationships by these means.
- Respectful interactions in form and substance.
- Admit mistakes and be humble.
- Immediate response to comments and messages. Be urgent, attentive and, above all, useful in social networks.
- Keep listening. Only then will you be able to respond appropriately.
Gradually improve customer loyalty
Loyal customers are long-term customers. Having people come back for more product or service is essential to the success of the company and the brand. Therefore they produce prosperity, recurring income and benefits.
However, retaining your best customers is not an easy task. It is a long-term gradual process.
The brands with the highest loyalty are those that believe that the future value of the customer begins from the moment they are aware of the brand.
People do not opt for a product or a service, they want an individualized and comfortable brand experience from the beginning.
Some good practices to establish are:
- anticipate departures
- Loyalty offers
- Remember and communicate with customers
1.- Anticipate departures
Prevention is the best medicine. Before a customer decides to leave, there are often red flags to watch out for, such as inconsistent behavior patterns, insufficient use of the product and frequent customer service inquiries.
For example, a good CRM helps to anticipate much faster. It allows you to track the purchasing patterns of each customer and find out if someone has not bought. If customers are not consistent in purchasing, they may be considering competitors.
2.- Loyalty offers
One of the best ways to improve loyalty is to reward your most valuable customers. Over 70% of people say they would stick with a brand if they were offered a good loyalty program.
3.- Remember and communicate with customers
People sign up for all kinds of products and quite often forget that they signed up for a service or subscription. It's good practice to reach out to them via email or push notification with an offer they can't resist and cement the relationship.
Conclusions
In short, the best thing you can do to improve your brand recognition and customer retention at the same time is to provide quality service and be honest with customers.
When customers trust the company, it grows and the brand will stand out in the process.
Keep in mind that retaining customers is a time-consuming process. When you know your business goals and focus on them together with your customers, the chances for increased brand awareness and customer loyalty grow exponentially.
