BRANDIN EU Branding Handbook for SMEs | Page 44

Brand equity www.mktnmanagement.blogspot.hu III.7. MONITORING AND REBRANDING Awareness Loyalty Familiarity Image & Personality BRAND EQUITY Preference Availability Associations What is brand equity www.launchengineering.com Benefits Inimitability Penetration Attributes Levels of Brand Meaning Value BRAND EQUITY Personality Awareness Portfolios Preference Loyalty It’s worth thinking about... What do people think of your brand? Is your brand equity growing? What benefits do you want customers to associate with your brand? What is the vision of the brand that you want to create? 42 Nowadays we live and work in the age of technology, so it is important to have a strong online presence. You must also be aware that public opinions of your product will be easily posted and visible on the internet at all times, therefore you should always have a look at your brand’s name appearance in others website, blogs, Facebook pages as well as your own. An easy way of doing this is to create Google Alerts for your business and words associated with it. Search Twitter for certain keywords relating to the brand, to see what people are saying. We’ll talk more about what kinds of terms to search for later on, but there are all sorts of tools you can use to keep track of what people are saying about a particular brand online. Then, you can implement damage control when needed, or you can also share people’s positive experience into your own social media networks, which can make your brand more reliable. You definitely have to look at analytics (visits, views, mentions…). Several tools can help you do that. Obviously it is not possible to be aware of all the things that are said on the Internet, but using google tools can help you see the most of it. Therefore you need to track keys words, expressions, and even people connected with your company. As mentioned before, branding is a constant process, it does not end when you have created your name and image. It is vital to be constantly monitoring your product and also the market in general. Regular market research, and observing existing and new competitors will help you maintain your importance in the market. If you feel your brand or the market in general has shifted then you must to keep up to date, and consider adapting your brand in order to stay in trend. Regularly updating your brand can enhance it and positively shape customer experience. The market evolves and it is important to be aware that rebranding can sometimes give a company a fresh, updated feel. The key when rebranding is to maintain consistency, and not to lose your original brand visual to ensure that you are still recognisable as the brand image you started off with. Brands can be successfully revamped by updating old styles while celebrating its history. Finally, you have to try to respond to all comments, whether they be positive or negative. Rebranding involves several steps; it is important to do it at the right time and not because it has been a long time since your company image has not changed. You have to influence and shape the brand as what the brand could be using keys questions regarding your current situation. Before rebranding you have to obtain customer feedback in order to know what is working and what is failing. Your knew image should be supported by the company’s history, it does not mean throwing everything away… It will help you create and develop a new story that should send the right message. All your company communications from the website to the employee should support the new identity. You have to constantly promote your new image and never stop supporting it. 43