Imagine running for mayor in Ecommerceville, USA. There’s an important step you’ll need to take before you launch your campaign: Determine if you’re a viable candidate by doing thorough research on yourself. This investigation into your brand perception looks into any potential liabilities and assesses the public’s impression of a candidate. Reviewing the research helps a candidate understand their support base, identify weaknesses, and find remedies.
For a business, assessing public opinion is known as brand perception. Just as in politics, conducting research to understand your current standing can help your team address any potential concerns and shape a compelling marketing strategy.
What is brand perception?
Brand perception refers to the public’s overall impression of a company’s brand. It is an assessment of the customer’s feelings about the function, quality, and purpose of what you sell. Brand perception is related to brand identity and brand personality, but, while these aspects are defined by internal marketing efforts, brand perception reflects how the public sees your goods or service.
Brand perception is formed when customers interact with your business, your products or services, your marketing materials, or related media. Each interaction with your brand leaves customers with an impression or perception that is formed as a result of these interactions. Brand perception can be influenced by a variety of factors, including price, purchase experience, brand messaging, word of mouth, online reviews, endorsements, customer service, and media coverage.
Why is brand perception important?
Positive brand perception is a powerful marketing tool. Favorable public opinion can nudge consumers into sampling products from a particular brand. Maintaining a good reputation creates brand equity, a term for the value associated with recognizable brand names. Negative brand perception, on the other hand, may discourage prospective customers from trying your product.
Understanding how customers perceive your brand and the factors influencing their opinions helps your team develop effective marketing strategies. For example, imagine that you own a small business manufacturing rain booties for dogs. After analyzing brand perception data, you learn that customers believe your brand makeshigh-quality products, but they feel that the booties are overpriced. In response, your team could choose to run a campaign emphasizing the value of your product—noting that tests show your booties last longer than those of your competitors. This messaging could help alleviate price concerns and attract customers.
How to measure brand perception
Brand perception measurement involves seeking a genuine understanding of your brand’s reputation. Here are some of the methods you can use to conduct brand perception research.
Brand perception surveys
Developing and circulating brand perception surveys can uncover information about your target audience. A well-written survey can yield specific, actionable insights. Brand perception surveys target either existing customers or a broader audience.
Customer satisfaction surveys
Surveying existing customers can reveal your brand’s strengths and weaknesses. These individuals are familiar with your product or service and might offer insight into various aspects of the customer journey. Customer satisfaction surveys can also generate data on the perceived quality of your product or service.
Social listening
Social listening involves monitoring social media platforms for mentions of your brand online. What people say on social media channels often reflects how existing or potential customers feel.
Brand audits
A brand audit is a comprehensive look at the factors influencing your brand’s perception. Audits often include reviews and news sources, in addition to an analysis of where your brand stands relative to the competition. Analyzing competitor data can help your team find gaps in the market and develop a unique selling proposition that may help your product or service stand out in today’s crowded marketplace.
Focus groups
Focus groups collect feedback from a specific group of individuals by gathering them in a room (or on a video or conference call) and asking targeted questions.The individuals in a focus group represent a market sample designed to reflect your potential customers. The positive and negative feedback provided by the participants helps businesses gain market insights. Companies may use focus groups to gain a deeper understanding of their target audience or to collect data about a new demographic.
Brand perception examples
Brand perception regularly influences marketing strategies. Consider the following examples of real ecommerce businesses using perception as a component of their brand messaging.
Immi
Shopify merchant Immi sells a proprietary line of low-carb, keto-friendly ramen noodles. To dispel public perceptions of instant noodles as junk food, Immi partners with prominent athletes and features their endorsements on its homepage. By including messages from figures associated with fitness, Immi aligns its product with the idea of health.
EcoRoots
The bath and beauty shop EcoRoots uses favorable reviews to promote its eco-friendly brand perception. The sales page for its zero-waste dental floss features a customer review praising the product and its packaging. This provides social proof and assures prospective customers that it offers a superior quality product.
Goodee
Goodee, another Shopify merchant, uses social marketing to shape its brand perception. This minority-owned home goods store communicates its eco-friendly and sustainability values by including a mission statement and a public impact report on its homepage.
Tips to improve brand perception
Improving brand perception is a cross-departmental effort. Content and marketing teams can contribute by bolstering your brand’s social media presence, sales teams can incorporate customer feedback, and support teams can improve the customer experience by providing exceptional customer service. These are some of the methods companies may use to improve their overall brand perception.
Focus on customer service
Great customer service can create goodwill with the consumer. If customers feel valued, they are more likely to have a generally positive perception of your brand.
Address weaknesses
Draw on the data from your brand perception study to identify areas for improvement. Any negative feedback about your brand represents an opportunity to improve. Addressing concerns raised by customers, either through product changes or consumer education initiatives, can bolster your brand image.
Create memorable messaging
To develop great brand perception, your product or service needs to stick in the customer’s mind. To create emotional appeal, a brand could consider executing a social good campaign. Social good campaigns demonstrate a commitment to a cause by contributing in some way, such as donating a portion of proceeds to a charitable organization. Emotional messaging can deepen consumer relationships and create loyal customers.
Showcase reviews
Reviews from satisfied customers are a form of social proof. Positive reviews affect brand perception—they are a signal that your product fulfills its brand promise.
Brand perception FAQ
What are brand perception examples?
Brand perception refers to the overall consumer impression related to your brand—a positive perception sets your brand up for success. Examples of brand perception could include customers viewing a brand as relatable, affordable, or an alternative to other brands.
How do you determine brand perception?
Measuring brand perception requires taking steps to understand public sentiment about your brand. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways, including conducting surveys, executing brand audits, running brand focus groups, and practicing social listening.
What is brand identity vs. brand perception?
Brand identity refers to a company’s internally constructed brand—elements of brand identity include graphic design choices and marketing tone. Brand perception, on the other hand, refers to the public’s opinions of a brand.
Does brand perception influence sales?
A positive brand image can be a powerful tool for driving sales. In addition to attracting a new audience, good brand perception can help build customer loyalty.
