Analyze Your Audience

Understanding What Your Customers Want

When thinking through the process of building a brand that's resilient and stands the struggles of time, you first need to realize that your customers ultimately determine what your brand stands for and the trust and rapport it represents.

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How Do Your Customers Want To Feel

Most people in the world, if you take a moment to hear their stories are usually running on programs and beliefs about how the world works. When designing your brand, you must position your brand with those already prenegotiated beliefs unless you are purposely trying to change someone's mind about how something should work.

"Your brand is what other people say about you when you're not in the room."Jeff Bezos, Founder and Former CEO of Amazon

Branding Foundation: Research and Analysis

At the foundation of effective branding lies market research and data analysis. By diving into potential customer segments, brands can uncover:

• Specific pain points of their target audience
• Unique preferences and behaviors
• Aspirations and motivations driving consumer choices

This wealth of information allows businesses to create realistic stories and messaging that share what they believe and stand for, ensuring that every marketing effort resonates with authenticity.

"It took us three years to build the NeXT computer. If we'd given customers what they said they wanted, we'd have built a computer they'd have been happy with a year after we spoke to them - not something they'd want now."Steve Jobs - Late CEO of Apple

What Promises Do Customers Want To Hear

Every day, sales and marketers hustle the market making bold promises, claims, and offers, a good brand makes a clear promise and ensures that promise is met quickly and effectively.

"A brand is a promise. A good brand is a promise kept." Muhtar Kent, Former Chairman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company

The Power and Pitfalls of Brand Promises

In today's competitive marketplace, brand alignment is a valuable asset. However, achieving this alignment hinges on consumers' ability to understand and articulate a brand's core values.

A brand promise, distinct from a mission statement, encapsulates the most compelling and credible characteristics of a brand. It serves as a concise summary of what sets a company apart from its competitors.

Recent Gallup research reveals a stark contrast in how effectively companies communicate their brand promises to consumers. While some organizations have masterfully positioned themselves in the minds of their target audience, others have struggled to make a lasting impression.

Measuring Brand Alignment

To quantify this phenomenon, Gallup conducted a comprehensive study involving over 6,600 consumers familiar with six major American brands across diverse industries, including airlines, retail, hospitality, financial services, food and beverage, and automotive.

Participants were asked a simple yet revealing question: "How would you describe what Brand X represents, and what makes it different from its competitors?" Their responses were then compared against each brand's core identity elements to determine the degree of alignment.

Surprising Brand Alignment Results

The findings were eye-opening. Only two brands - the airline and the major retailer - achieved an impressive alignment rate of 90% or higher among consumers already familiar with their brands. This success demonstrates these companies' effectiveness in communicating their unique value propositions.

However, the remaining four brands fell significantly short, with much lower alignment rates. This disparity underscores the challenges many companies face in effectively conveying their brand promises to their target audience.

These results highlight the critical importance of crafting and consistently communicating a clear, compelling brand promise. In an increasingly crowded marketplace, a well-articulated brand identity can be the key differentiator that resonates with consumers and drives long-term success.

In essence, brands are not just marketing tools; they're the bridge between a company's vision and its audience's desires, paving the way for meaningful connections and lasting brand loyalty.

The Long-Term Impact Of Brand Alignment

Over time, brands become invaluable assets in shaping a company's narrative. They enable the creation of:

• Compelling and authentic messages
• Consistent brand-aligned storytelling
• Emotional connections with the target audience

By leveraging brand, companies can ensure that every touchpoint with their audience reinforces their core objectives while speaking directly to the hearts and minds of their customers.

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Audit Your Competition

Competitor analysis is crucial for successful brand growth. It needs to be done at the early stage of the company's development to see whether it has a solid chance to fight the competition and become a valid player in the marketplace.

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