As a business leader or an entrepreneur, you need to know customers value your business. But value isn’t just about having a great product; it’s also about the intangible worth— or equity– of your company. Successful, high-value brands know that boosting brand perception and brand equity requires a multi-faceted plan of attack. That means a comprehensive strategy that includes not just the obvious (content, marketing, sales, etc.), but a number of other important components.
Think of a brand you know and love, and the delightful little details that keep you intrigued and their employees happy. Whose brand image surfaces in your mind when you picture biking around the office campus or dozing off in a company nap pod? What store do you imagine when you think of free snack samples, Hawaiian shirts, and super-cheerful cashiers? Who guarantees free returns, exchanges, or repairs, no question asked, with delightful customer service?
The point is, positive brand equity can come from a host of unexpected places besides the actual value of your company or your products. You know this intuitively because the ones that put the extra time and effort are the ones you think of first. And you know it concretely, because the data shows its brand experience that builds value over time. Here’s what you can do, starting now, to boost your perceived brand equity and build lasting growth.
Create Helpful Content
One of the most powerful ways to grow your brand is to become a trusted resource for potential customers. By publishing thoughtful, authoritative content, you let your audience know that you and your brand know what you’re doing. When readers associate your brand name with credible content, they learn to lean on you for important information. Down the line, this leads to more sales traffic and improved customer sentiment.
According to DTC accelerator Boomn, content production and editing is a key step in the playbook for scaling a business. The right content strategy can boost your website traffic and performance and increase your annual sales. With a powerful enough content strategy in your toolkit, you may even be able to turn around a business that’s failing or in distress.
To hook readers and showcase your brand’s topical authority, you’ll need unique, engaging content on relevant topics. This can include pillar pages, white pages, newsjacking articles, email updates, and regular updates to your blog. You can also use data as part of a powerful targeting strategy that draws more organic traffic to your site. AI and analytics tools can give you a better understanding of what’s important to your readers and what topics you need to cover.
Center the Customer
A common quality among winning brands today is a greater emphasis on keeping their promises to customers. High-value brands set high expectations, then deliver on them with a high quality product and customer experience. When something goes wrong — an inevitability no matter how tight a ship you run — there are systems in place to fix it. Successful companies know that a small loss of cash can fix a big brand problem, with long-lasting returns.
Good customer service, for instance, should take significant priority over penny-pinching on paychecks or refunds. If a customer isn’t happy with a product, for any reason, smart companies are extremely generous with returns. Some athletic wear companies, for example, will return or replace products that don’t hold up or perform as well as expected. Others will offer free merch or gift certificates along with refunds to keep the customers’ experience ultra-positive.
This willingness to lose a few dollars in the short-term translates to a major boost in perceived brand value. It lets you show your customers you want to take care of them; not just hoard their cash. Companies can also demonstrate this care with easier interactions, such as multiple ways to get in touch. Letting your customers choose their preferred contact method — call, text, email, chat, physical store — gives them more control and ease in their brand interactions.
Add Details that Delight
Remember the companies above that you could identify in your head from a single-sentence description? One thing they all have in common is that they go out of their way to make business transactions feel more like fun. If you’re in e-commerce, this could translate to beautiful UX design or a gamified metaverse experience. In other industries, it could mean making your physical space more joyful and interactive.
Not every company can afford to build a giant slide or an adult ball pit in the middle of their company offices. But you can still follow in the footsteps of those companies that have turned their offices into mini theme parks. Adding active play and exercise equipment to your property, store, or campus can add excitement for both children and adults. Employees and customers can enjoy the physical fitness benefits, while their children get a new place to play.
According to AAAStateofPlay, this type of equipment can encourage movement, socialization, and an active lifestyle in both children and adults. This can translate to happier, healthier, more engaged employees who enjoy their jobs and feel more motivated to perform. It also gives any on-site customers something whimsical to remember your brand by. And, it lets customers and clients know you’re thinking of them and their families first.
Choose the Right Values for Higher Value
A recent Google survey showed that a whopping 82% of consumers prefer a brand’s values to align with their own. They’ll cut ties with brands that aren’t, say, a religious or political match for their values and beliefs. Customers will vote with their wallets, whether it’s about transgender rights, conflict in the Middle East, employee wages, high emissions, or you name it. The key is to study your audience, then operate by the values of your most loyal and/or likely customers.
According to Forbes, sustainability is one of the top driving forces of consumer behavior in the U.S. Many consumers — millennials, especially — are willing to pay more for brands they know or believe are sustainable. A joint study by NielsenIQ and McKinsey found that products with ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) criteria showed disproportionate growth over those that didn’t. Those that can claim both environmental and social responsibility sell the most.
Other major values players include employee welfare, as well as diversity, equity, and belonging. High value brands practice inclusivity, and customers notice — especially when it’s authentic. But this has to apply internally within your company, not just in your marketing efforts. Treating your employees well, DEI aside, is also a big value-add. You get more engaged employees, more interested customers, and a chance at publicity on a “Best Companies to Work for” list.
Build a Better Product
As you can see from reading, there’s a lot more that goes into brand value than having a high-quality product. But at the end of the day, product quality does have a major influence on your brand’s perceived equity and reliability. That doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to use more expensive materials or produce a luxury product to succeed. It just means you need a product that works well and meets the needs and expectations of your target audience.
If your product quality is already high, that means you don’t start cutting costs and sacrificing the user experience of your most loyal fans. The short term cash savings could quickly result in disappointment, lost sales, and a decline in your brand reputation. On the flipside, increasing your brand value doesn’t necessarily mean you need to create a more expensive-to-make product. Instead, focus on unique features and small changes that customers want from you.
One of the best ways to build a better, higher-value product is to read product reviews and listen in on social media. Check in with Reddit, Facebook, and any other online spaces where people might be talking about your products. See what they’re saying about not just your brand, but your competitors, as well. Then, add the features, fixes, styles, and colors your customers are saying they want, and to build immediate value — and a great reputation.
Telling Your Authentic Story
Every strategy for building company equity is going to look a little bit different depending on the brand. Customers tend to spend on the brands that they feel are a match for their identities. Brand perception, as well, is highly influenced by each consumer’s individual differences. People also tend to trust recommendations from friends, family, and their favorite influencers. At the end of the day, there will always be some folks who just won’t see your true value.
That said, the best way to boost your brand value is to lean into the assets you already have. Not the ones you report on your tax return, but the details and differences that make your brand special. Don’t try to please everyone; you can’t win every customer, and you’ll brandify your brand identity by trying. Instead, listen closely to what your customers and followers are saying, and focus on winning more of the people who are right for you.
