What comes to a consumers mind when he or she thinks about your brand? Let’s face the fact; you have the key to paint the perfect picture of an online reputation you want in the mind of your customer.
Creating your brand persona is as important as developing your brands online reputation. Whatever you put out to your consumers is what they will remember your brand for.
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For example, when you think of noodles, the first thing that comes to your mind is Indomie noodles.
In Nigeria, most people refer to all noodles as Indomie even with other brands of noodles; it hasn’t still changed the fact that in some consumer’s minds, Indomie noodles represents all noodles irrespective of the varying manufacturing company.
It just goes to tell you that the brand image Indomie noodles has created in the minds of its consumers makes it easy to tag all other noodles as Indomie noodles; because to them, it is the “king of noodles”.
You know what they say about first impressions that same theory works even with brands, products and services. Once your consumer gets the wrong reception from your brand, it will take 110% of the effort you put in attracting that customer to get them back.
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Some elements are essential in creating your brand persona; it might be your service delivery, brand logo, product quality etc. In many cases, people tend to form their opinions and perceptions about a brand before they even know what it is and what it’s about.
This is why your visual presence is essential in order to differentiate your brand effectively among the competition, and build trust with your consumers. Trust me when I say, a consumers first interaction with your brand is more visual.
According to research by The Paper Worker One-third (1\3) of consumers decision-making is based on packaging. Meaning the physical attributes of your brand forms part of the perception consumers have towards your brand. I love to use the #shareacoke campaign by Coca-Cola as an example of physical attraction.
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During the campaign, people keep buying coke because of the idea of having to see their names on the bottle of coke; it motivated them to buy more and rating the brand as excellent.
Sometimes, we purchase products we have never used before just because we get attracted to the packaging.
Your brand packaging represents your brands promises to deliver quality to the consumer but once that is faulty, then you have painted the wrong brand image in your consumers mind.
The visual identity of your brand goes beyond aesthetics; it is a step towards creating the best impression to your customers.
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It is what consumers remember and the first thing that comes to mind when they picture your brand and nothing does this job as good as logos and trademarks.
The internet revolution and the current age of social media have forever changed how brands tell their story of relevance to the customers.
Visual identities have evolved to reflect the current generation of consumers and how they perceive brands.
Companies have realized that their identity is the most important representation of their business, and needs to be communicated through symbols, visual representations, designs (website and product), catchy phrase, and services that are simple and powerful in order to be recognized and distinguished from other competitors by millions of consumers.
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Fortunately for you, creating a brand that is recognized by customers is easy these days, thanks to the internet. Businesses that do not have a strong brand identity will be lost among the billions of other businesses and information that your customers might or might not be interested in.
Why do consumers select your product or service over a competitor?
The odds are your branding is good: meaning, your name, online reputation, personality, and what you stand for sets you apart. This post will highlight the essentials of keeping a lasting positive identity in your customers mind.
Create an online reputation using meaningful logos
Logos form an integral part of a brands online reputation. It is a visible identity of what a brand stands for and what they are about. This is what distinguishes your brand from other brands.
It is a unique and outstanding design that tells your brand story. Companies like Coke, Pepsi, Apple, Mercedes etc have their distinguishing brand logos that make them easily differentiated from other brands that make similar products as they do.
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For example, BMW, Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Mercedes are all car companies but what makes it easy to separate them is their logo. First of all, you have to understand the relevance of the logo and what it represents in your business.
Great brands stand for something. Symbols (logos) are the fastest form of communication from a brand to the consumer. They become more powerful with frequent use and are the most visible reminder of what the brand stands for.
A brand’s identity must express the organization’s unique mission, history, culture, values, and personality. Symbols engage intelligence, imagination, emotion, in a way that no other learning does.
Nike’s logo was designed in 1971 and is an abstraction of a wing. This symbol gives meaning to a company that markets running shoes and inspires consumers to “Just do it”.
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Brands are always competing with each other within their business category, and at some level, competing with all brands that want the attention of consumers. Because of all of this competition, it is not enough to just be different.
Brands need to demonstrate and communicate their difference, making it easy for customers to understand that difference. Consumers are reassured by logos, symbols and trademarks that are familiar.
In order to be familiar, brands need to commit to a central idea over time in order to transcend change and remain recognizable.
An effective brand identity positions a company for change and growth in the future. It supports an evolving marketing strategy.
Coherence builds trust and fosters loyalty with customers. Every brand should have a style guide – a mini instruction manual for implementing your visual identity consistently.
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It includes directions on logo usage, choosing the right fonts and colours, as well as photos and illustrations.
The collection of color, imagery, typography, and composition is what makes an identity differentiated. All elements of a visual language should be intentionally designed to advance the brand strategy.
Your brand’s identity should be centered on creating an emotional connection with your customer. If your identity is not well defined it will lack personality.
Although a visual identity is a small component of your overall brand, it is the first connection formed in the mind of the consumer.
Market with the right tone
Sometimes, we go overboard when trying to please our customers thereby neglecting those things you term minor. Those “minor” elements make up your brands online reputation.
Be selective on the type of marketing tone you use especially when it comes to your advertisements and brand slogan.
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You can’t make a campaign that is not marketable and expect people to run at it and do your bidding. You have to be sure of what you are saying to them.
Your brand online reputation it tied to the fact that once your tone goes wrong, then the whole essence of creating a brand persona is defeated.
Your customer service determines your online reputation
Customer service, your approach towards dealing with customers problems regarding your product and other things make up what might be termed customer perception towards your brand.
Something happened once with a friend, some amount of money was deducted from her mobile phone and when she called the service provider, she kept getting one story to another and at the long run, she never got a refund.
Am sure some of us can relate with this story especially with some of this Nigerian mobile service providers. That is bad customer service and it doesn’t speak well of the brand.
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My friend experienced this similar thing like thrice and she was tired of the whole idea and had to drop the sim card. That is the same way your customers will react after a bad service experience but in some cases, the business owners don’t really care especially when they have over time acquired a large customer base.
Then they feel like losing one customer won’t hurt, but honestly, once they keep leaving one after another, then at a point, you will have non around. Probably that is when the hard reality will knock you down.
Customers are expected to be tendered for especially if you really want to grow as an enterprise. According to research, 78% of consumers have bailed on a transaction or not made an intended purchase because of a poor service experience. Just imagine the amount of customers you will be losing with just bad service.
Your customer service experience amounts to how good or bad your customers will rate your brand. The probability of selling to a new prospect is 5-20% while 60-70% is the probability of selling to an existing customer.
It is advisable you keep your existing customers because they are very loyal while you keep striving for more prospects. Also, bad customer experience will take 12 positive experiences to make up for one unresolved negative experience.
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This should keep you on your toes to ensure your customers get nothing but the best when it comes to your services.
Always have this at the back of your mind; a customer’s opinion about your product is formed by the manner of service he or she experiences while interacting with your brand.
Your brand identity is intertwined with this variable so the earlier you realize this and change your customer service approach, the better for you business growth.
Ensure that your customer service staffs are well behaved, friendly and accommodating with customers.
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News of bad customer service reaches more than twice as many ears’ as praise for a good service experience. Take the time to address unhappy customers and do everything within your power to remedy the situation.
It’s not only worth keeping their business, but also avoiding any negative word of mouth exposure.
Make your word your bond
Avoid being tagged an organization that doesn’t live to its promises. Once you know you can’t meet certain perimeters you should avoid making promises with things you can’t fulfill. Its better you promise to do the bit you can than promise heaven on earth.
Customers will read your brand as not being trustworthy which will eventually lead to lack of brand trust, thereby leaving your customer with a negative online reputation about your brand..
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Your online reputation should mean everything to you. I will quickly give an example with what just recently happened to Samsung.
The Samsung Note 7 had a bit of a burning fault, exploding and damaging the whole phone.
It caused a bit of an issue for Samsung because they are known for the quality of product they provide but with the flammable phone, it was a kind of a backlash on them as a brand.
To save face, they decided to compensate their customers who experience the technical fault and also decided to give $100 to those customers who decide to remain with Samsung.
This won’t totally be their fault but with the sort of quality they are known for, but with this, it was like not keeping to the promise of quality.
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The good thing about this is, the customer must have engaged with your product to have had either a positive or negative experience but the bad thing is once the experience doesn’t leave up to expectation, then your product is as well as out of the door.
It is highly important to keep up with your promise(s) to your to avoid sending the wrong signal to your customer(s) about your brand.
Your competitors are always ready to infiltrate and take over your customers at anytime, especially when they meet up to the customers’ expectations. It is wise to talk less and do more.
Create a website or blog to improve your online reputation
The easiest way to capture your customers is to provide them with information you know they are longing for. With blog, you can continuously publish content that will be of great value to your customers.
This will make them view you as an authority in that niche which is part of forming an online reputation for your brand and in your customers mind. Your content should be insightful and educative.
Also, your website should provide necessary information about your brand and how beneficial it is to your prospects. Your website is where you can conveniently marketing your product.
Your website should be easy to navigate through and also interactive enough to keep them going.
For example, I checked Pandora website and I kept moving from one page to the other because it was interactive for me, I bet you if it wasn’t, I would have long checked out and never returned.
It is important to ensure you use images and designs to tell your brand story to your prospects and customers alike.
Conclusion
By now, you should have an idea of what a strong on-line brand identity is, and why it is so important to keep it clear and consistent.
When your presence on the internet is strong, you can stand out from the crowd and make sure customers find you before they turn to your competitors instead.
Finally, there is one thing that most people don’t do in building their personal or corporate brand. They don’t focus or may not be consistent. Inconsistency destroys trust and credibility especially when dealing with your online reputation.
Your brand is what you want to be known for, so don’t change it up every six months or year. Figure it out and then stay laser focused. As for consistency, you just can’t announce it and hope people get it.
You have to remind people over and over. Don’t forget there are other companies who are out there waiting with their arms wide open to receive your customers once you fail them.
To create your brand identity takes all the elements I have mentioned in this post to make your brand positively rated by your customers thereby making them loyal to the brand.
Don’t forget, it takes 12 positive experiences to make up for one bad experience.
Please do share with me some of your experiences with other brands, product or service that was either negative or positive.
The post What do consumers think about your brands’ online reputation and why it matters? appeared first on NATIVEDGE.