Brand perception refers to how prospective and current customers react to seeing or hearing about a company`s product or brand and how the company is perceived within the market. Leading organizations spend millions of dollars to create their most important intangible asset as it can be a decisive factor in the purchase funnel. Be it commodities or niche products, a positive brand perception always gives an edge against competitors.
Brand perception is not an outcome of a single interaction between the company and the customer but is created over a number of interactions before and after a purchase or even when no purchase is made. The various types of interactions include, but are not limited to, visiting the company`s website, visiting its stores or offices, meeting an employee, talking with customer support, experiencing or trying a product, or viewing an advertisement. Hence, companies try to control as many avenues of interaction as possible so that they convey an integrated message.
All organizations need to keep a tab on how their brand is perceived by the customers-both existing and potential. One of the prevalent ways to measure brand perception is to conduct surveys. Major metrics that are used to quantify the results of these surveys are:-
Brand Recall:- This metric is an indicator of how many customers or prospective customers mention a brand when a relevant cue is provided to them. Generally, respondents are asked unaided recall questions like Please name all the car brands you can think of, before being asked aided recall questions in which specific prompts are provided like Are you aware of brands A, B, C, and D?
Higher unaided recall is expected for established organizations as they already have a Brand Name and if their Marketing Campaigns are successful then the respondents should remember their brands without any further prompts. For upcoming brands it is better to set higher aided recall targets than unaided recall targets as they are still trying to establish their brand.
Brand Loyalty:- This metric is reflected by how many customers purchase a brand repeatedly. It indicates the commitment that customers have towards a brand and is the basis of a strong relationship between the brand and its customers. It can be measured by asking questions regarding purchase of other brands in the past like Have you purchased any other brand of packaged milk in the past 3 months or future purchase intention like Which brand of packaged milk are you considering to buy next. Another way to measure brand loyalty is to examine customer response to situations where the preferred brand is unavailable. Respondents are given various options like I will buy another brand which is available, I will go to another shop to search for my preferred brand, I will buy another variant of my preferred brand etc.
Share of Mind, Share of Heart and Net Promoter Score are some other metrics used for measuring Brand perception. These metrics can also help in identifying competitors and their brand perception.
