matt higgins

Whether you consider it a discipline, philosophy, or strategy, brand marketing simply isn’t an option. If you’re going to have a brand name, you absolutely have to decide what that brand means. This includes the obvious like logo, colors, fonts, taglines, but it also includes the persona of the brand. It’s a lot of work and it’s a lot of fun, but it’s critical to note that after you define and establish your brand, it’s not over. You need to monitor its health. In this digital age, there are a lot of metrics to consider but the blood pressure and heartrate of brand are equity and affinity.

Brand Equity

The more marketing you do the more brand equity you build. Think of brand equity as working like a checking account. You need to put money in if money is coming out. Running a Super Bowl ad seen by over 125-million viewers builds a lot of brand equity. So does partnering with a top influencer and content creator like MrBeast who has approximately 490-million subscribers. Sponsoring your local rec. baseball league and getting your company’s name on a sign in the outfield also builds equity. These are investments. Specifically, these are investments in how well known your brand is. It’s awareness, but brand equity blurs the line between pure awareness and relevance. It’s really how top of mind you are.

The problem is equity silently slips. Time is like hidden fees. Let enough time go by and, if you haven’t been investing, putting money in, all of a sudden, your brand equity has slipped.

Brand Affinity

Is your brand loved, trusted? Do you have raving fans? Are your customers loyal? This is all about brand affinity. Affinity is the emotional connection customers have to your brand. In the past, L.L.Bean built tremendous brand affinity with a no-questions-asked return policy. Shirts, backpacks, slippers, and more were all guaranteed for life. Due to abuse, L.L.Bean had to modify its policy, but because, for decades, it had built so much brand affinity, it survived what could have been massively damaging and actually has shown growth. L.L.Bean’s customers trust the brand. Even without the lifetime warranty, they trust they are getting quality.

So how do you monitor equity and affinity? Social media is a great look as to how people view your brand compared to others. Social media isn’t just a task you let the social media manager take care of so you never have to worry about it. Social media allows you to see exactly how customers react to your brand and your competition. Another great tool is third-party consumer surveys. Companies like Kantar specialize in brand strength insight. If you have the bandwidth, you can also conduct your own surveys. You can survey existing audience on your website, via email, social, etc. Or for a potentially more unbiased pool, you can run a paid program on third-party sites like the popular social platforms and YouTube. You can also use a service like Pollfish to get survey data by paying per response. There are tools to get solid data on your brand’s health and how it compares to your competition. The best way is free, be connected. Observe without bias. Know your audience and see for yourself what brands they prefer and why.