Products are made in the factory, but brands are created in the mind

Walter Landor

The physical value of your products may be easy to calculate, but your consumers’ perceptions are what really determine the value your brand and products have in the marketplace. Because of this, your ability to build value into your brand and communicate that value to customers through your marketing is essential to the long term success of your business.

Brand equity is the perception customers have of your products and services based on what they think of your brand. Apple, Google and Microsoft are all considered to have high brand equity.

It’s difficult to assign a monetary value to a brand, but no matter how intangible brand equity may seem, a strong brand reaps considerable business benefits from:

• Awareness
• Credibility
• Reputation
• Customer satisfaction

These benefits serve as tools to marketers to help them attract the ‘mindful consumer‘ who wants to buy from a brand high in value.

The Mindful Consumer

In his talk, John Gerzema asserts that buyers are no longer in retreat (as they were during the economic crisis), but have become what he refers to as mindful consumers.

The mindful consumer is willing to buy, but craves value. In the search for value, they consider factors like social proof, identity reflection and attributing it to their ‘personal brand’. Let’s look at three ways to drive value:

Give your brand meaning. Strive to build your brand as a status symbol & make it symbolic. I’m a big fan of Rory Sutherland and he once told a story of a king who, to prevent famine, decreed the potato a royal crop and put guards around the fields to make the previously rejected vegetable desirable. The king changed the perception of the crop’s worth, not the crop itself. He advises that ‘anything worth guarding must be worth stealing.’ You may not be able to decree your products or brand a ‘royal crop,’ but you can strive to create the same kind of perception of your product.

Connect to emotions. Emotional preference is important: while services may be similar, that emotional connection can create the perception that the “connected” brand exceeds customer expectations.’ It means presenting a product, no matter its function, in an empathetic way.

Build loyalty. Tailored content is the start of a long term relationship. If you continually produce content that interests leads and customers, you can keep them coming back to your brand and build loyalty. Learn what channels your customers are on and the type of content they want to see and then put consistent, tailored content on those channels.

In a connected world where perception determines your brand’s value, having customers on your side gets you the recommendations, reviews and social proof you need.

The incident served to emphasise how e-commerce and social media have transformed shopping behaviours. In the month that Petersfield Bookshop felt the benefits of an enhanced online presence, digital channels accounted for 19% of all retail sales in the UK, up from 12.8% five years prior. That proportion surged to a record high of 33.4% in May as COVID-19 lockdown measures meant that most traditional brick-and-mortar avenues were unavailable, further demonstrating how an increased reliance on the web is reshaping age-old habits. Meanwhile, social media has enabled people to discover new brands through their peers, celebrities, and the brands themselves. Indeed, in April, 27% of global consumers said they’d found new brands or products since the start of the pandemic via ads on social platforms.

So, how can they go about building their brand online in a way that resonates with people?

Discovery and engagement is one area to focus on to ensure your brand sets its tone and characteristics right up front in the customer discovery phase. Consistent content generation is one way in which brands are building their online profiles while also seamlessly blending in ‘commerce content’ (think subtle selling) to ensure products and brand beliefs are being showcased.

Building relationships is also key to driving a community aspect around your brand. Your brand strategy needs to include your ‘community strategy’ from the start. Making consumers feel like they belong to a community (that your brand might of even created) is a strong method of creating a space for people with shared interests.

Offer a sense of intimacy and exclusivity – With 55% of UK consumers (IPSOS) feeling they’re going unrecognised when interacting with online merchants, there’s a clear need for brands to personalise the way they communicate with shoppers. This can be done via personalised email campaigns or even by creating exclusive content or offerings for customers once they have purchased your product or service.

It’s a long road to gain trust and become a trusted advisor within the lives of your consumers but if you think about some of the first steps above, we hope you’ll be on your way.

For brands and businesses trying to navigate these uncertain times, we’ve put together a guide that looks at 3 key areas that might help vaccinate your brands health for when we reach a new kind of ‘normal’. Think of it as a playbook to navigate the now and the next.

In the face of difficulty, businesses are finding exciting opportunities to not only survive, but thrive, putting future-forward processes and operations in place to ensure their success long-term, even in the face of uncertainty. There have been powerful pivots brands and retailers are making to create services, products and experiences that meet the quickly evolving needs of consumers in a climate of restriction and crisis. These emerging consumer behaviours and savvy businesses strategies are leveraging creativity, agility, technology and resourcefulness to respond.

1. Embrace the digital way 

If you’re primarily run out of a brick-and-mortar store, it’s time to find the digital version of whatever work you were doing. Can you deliver your product or service electronically? If you own a boutique, now is a great time to launch an ecommerce store with a 90-day Shopify trial. If you’re a fitness instructor, you can continue your regular workout classes virtually with Zoom. Ask yourself: what you can provide online?  

2. Leverage your existing assets and resources

Leverage your current assets and resources and align them with your customers’ current needs. What could you change in order to fulfil those needs? What do people need most right now?  How can your company fill that need with your existing resources? If your business is unable to operate, is there a way to pivot to digital or a business that is deemed essential?

3. Deepen loyalty with existing customers

We’re all in this together. Be real, authentic and transparent about your efforts to serve your customers as best as you can – and let them know how they can support you in return. Loyal customers are champions for your company and brand ambassadors. Continue to maintain a strong relationship with your clients whether directly, individually, in newsletters, and or/via social media. Show them you care. Trust matters (more than ever)! 

With people spending more and more time online, it’s a great time to share relevant and engaging content related to your business – figure out the best way to engage with your current customers and do so in creative ways.  

4.Explore the benefits of collaboration

here’s an African proverb that says, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”  The objective of collaboration can be new ideas, exploring synergies, and creating new business partnerships, where 1+1 = 5.  Partnerships can help give you access to new customers, new products or new markets. What partners can you work with that also have resources you can leverage? Is there a partner you think could help sell your product or service to their customer base? What could you offer them in exchange? Is there an opportunity to bundle your products together? True partnerships and successful collaborations are win-win. 

If your business has been greatly impacted by the current crisis, you’re not alone. It’s important to remember that great companies can be built in hard times. If you think you might want to pivot or have been thinking about it, Brainchild would love to be part of that conversation. Ready to throw some ideas around?

Most businesses will suffer in a recession, usually because demand reduces and uncertainty increases. Experts are talking about this being like no other similar economic situation witnessed, there have been no oil price increases, financial panics, and most governments have moved to implement unprecedented measures to assist companies to ‘hunker down’ and weather it out as best possible. 

But whilst it is unlike previous downturns, there are certainly some lessons that can be learnt and there is plenty of evidence to support how you might weather this storm and come out of it in a relatively strong position ready to build again. 

Get comfortable with change

You’re probably dealing with an overwhelming amount of decisions from debt management, client relationships, how best to support your workforce in their new ways of working, how to adapt your services to be fully remote and getting your head around the lightning speed your organisation has had to digitally transform. But the underlying thing to remember is that a recession is a high-pressure change management environment, you need to get your flexible head on, be comfortable with change and be ready to adjust quickly.

Focus on your current customers 

Take an empathetic approach, check in regularly, think about what their pains are right now and consider if there is anything you can do to help. Switch your focus onto your clients and not yourselves, understand the crises they are facing and how you could help mitigate their problems. Now is the time to strengthen those relationships even more than before. If you don’t have key client plans in place, get them done. If you do, review them at the very least weekly. Get your best people client facing and engaged. 

Double down on sales and marketing

You’re probably thinking ‘well they would say that wouldn’t they’ – but it’s not just from personal experience of the last recession, there is plenty of evidence to show that those companies that simply switch off all sales and marketing efforts in a downturn take longer to turnaround and risk losing audience and momentum. The flywheel has to keep spinning and the more fuel you add to it the more momentum you gain for the upturn.

We are all going to have to make some very difficult decisions in the coming weeks and months that could have ramifications for a long time after this global crisis comes to an end on the future of our businesses. 

Whether you’re a new business or one that’s been around for decades, these times might be more difficult than you’ve ever faced before – seek out the opportunities in dark times and your business will survive, you just have to be bold enough to go for them. 

Marketers often think of search as a lower- funnel channel. But people are just as likely to search early in the customer journey for deals, ideas, and inspiration

The customer journey begins with your first engagement with a prospective customer. Customer Success solutions allow you to follow them through each stage of the journey and monitor usage of your product or service—all the way through renewal. This process comprises tracking, measuring, and monitoring customer health at every stage, predicting issues before they occur, and providing course correcting to ensure the delivery of continuous business value.

In order to accurately chart your customer journey, there are five key steps you must complete:

1. Define the customer lifecycle stages
2. Identify touch-points and moments that require attention at each stage
3. Create health scores and alerts customised to each stage
4. Establish key Customer Success plays for each stage
5. Implement a feedback loop using signal analysis

Once you’ve mapped the customer journey you can use it to implement an Early Warning System for your brand. This solution helps you move away from fire fighting at–risk touch-points and empowers your team to focus on proactive customer retention at key moments across their journey of interacting with what you want to sell.

On that note, we developed what we call the BrainPlan, our brand guide for mapping and spotting the biggest opportunities for your brand across the journey you offer to your customers through to how you communicate and on which channels – get in touch if you fancy talking more about how we go about that!

Now, chances are that if you’ve already been in existence for some time, you already have a fairly good idea about your DNA and brand identity. But if you don’t, or if your big idea is just starting to take shape, here’s a few handy tips about what you can do to find out your own DNA:

Look within yourself: As clichéd as it may sound, most of the answers to your existential questions are within you. Take a trip down memory lane and think back upon what was it that motivated you to start your own company – was it some incident, was it some problem you were trying to solve, was it some movie character you got inspired by? That should help you get a deeper insight into the cause that you’re rallying for, which is what your DNA is all about.

Your core values: Even though all companies try to follow some or the other basic value system, there are inherently some things that you feel more strongly about. For example, some companies may believe in doing good work, others may be all about making clients happy. Some may be into offering premium products, and the others may be all about value for money. Identify your core values and they’ll help you discover your DNA.

What makes you different? Since you’ve survived for so long and probably already established your own niche in the market, it’s worth taking a step back and thinking about what truly differentiates you from your competitors. Is it your willingness to be extra client-centric, is it your quirkiness or fun quotient? Thinking on this can help you find what your motivating and uniting factor is.

Clients: Sometimes your clients can inadvertently give you an idea about your brand’s DNA. Do you usually work with startups or experienced companies? Do you work with a particular industry sector? Or do you work with companies in a particular city? All these could be key indicators to your brand’s personality and DNA.

How does your brand communicate? Most brands communicate with their customers and the general audience in some form or the other. Is your brand funny and aggressive? Or is your brand guarded and professional in its communication? Realising how you communicate can also give you an insight about your brand’s voice, personality, and DNA.

The importance of a brand’s DNA can’t be stressed enough. And once you do discover your DNA, it is your responsibility to wear it with pride, and stick by it every step of your entrepreneurial journey.

To move, to breathe, to fly, to float, to gain all while you give, to roam the roads of lands remote, to travel is to live

Hans Christian Andersen

Modern business travellers are less frenetic and more deliberate. They travel for two reasons: to meet their corporate objectives and to support their life’s objectives. For a growing number of them, the first is meaningless if it doesn’t contribute to the second. 48% of travel managers stated in a recent Bloomberg article cited an increase in travellers’ work/life balance inquiries. The issue is so significant, that 25% of respondent travel managers are developing new key performance indicators (KPIs) based on the traveller experience.

The modern business traveller lives in an age of powerful, cost-effective and accessible technology. It is the era of multi-channel hyper-connectivity, personalisation, customisation and consumerisation. They are plugged into personal social channels and work platforms simultaneously. Travel suppliers and retailers invest heavily in giving travellers what they want, when they want and where they want. All of which equates to a far more comfortable, enjoyable and productive travel experience. With each passing quarter, business travellers are more empowered and increasingly knowledgeable – these are not the old ‘road warriors’ from yesteryear.

Experience is everything.

Rigid schedules, fixed plans are now (or should be) a thing of the past. Mobile tools give travellers convenience and more control over their travel experience. A large majority (76%) of travel managers have introduced, or plan to introduce, apps that give travellers access to real-time information while they are on the move and most have introduced, or plan to introduce, apps for mobile booking and expense management.

While corporations are ready to deploy connected technology to support travellers, there is less provision for those who request non-traditional places to stay (like AirBnB for example) or who wish to take advantage of flight auctions. Few corporations – just 1/10 from a recent poll on Amadeus – offer insurance to travellers who want to combine leisure with their business trip. It’s much more likely, however, for corporations with a large traveller population aged between 20-30 years old to offer this kind of cover.

Considerations for supporting modern business travellers.

1. Think about how people travel for leisure, and take those principles of decision making and bring them into how you deliver or might think about your business travel programme.
2. Be there when your travellers need you the most, offer them flexible options for lodging and exploring the city they’re doing business in.
3. Map out your business travel process and architecture (like our BrainPlan service) so you can openly see how you approach business travel, discovering opportunities and redundancies along the way.