How do you build a brand image that will be remembered?

Brand image, often associated with the notion of branding (or brand marketing), is one of the pillars on which your success is built. Visual identity, slogan, social media strategy... but what is brand image, and how can you make it a real asset for the development of your business?

This article, co-written with Anthony Rochand, consultant, trainer andco-founder of LEW, provides you with a definition and tips on how to grasp all the issues involved. You'll then be able to deploy a marketing and communications strategy that guarantees a coherent, strong and memorable brand image.

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What is corporate branding?

A company's brand image is defined as the representation that consumers have of that same brand. For example, one brand instinctively evokes premium or even luxury. Another naturally seems to appeal mainly to millennials...

💡 As a general rule, the criteria governing brand image fall into two categories:

• objective criteria: for example, quality, price or product range;
• subjective criteria: less obvious elements such as reputation and consumer experience.

A company's brand image is therefore sometimes difficult to measure, since it is a matter of feeling, mental representation and the appropriation of the brand by each individual.

What are the components of brand image?

However, brand image is perceived through very specific components, such as :

• brand recognition,
• brand awareness
• visual identity,
• culture,
• reputation,
• brand concept,
• customer experience,
• range status,
• quality,
• storytelling,
• internal and external relations.

How to build a memorable brand image?

1 - Define a brand strategy in line with your value proposition

First and foremost, it's important to ask yourself what your value propositionreally is. To do this, you need to ask the right questions:

• How will you raise your profile and differentiate yourself from the competition?
• Do you want to project a high-end product image?
• Would you prefer to highlight your eco-responsible concerns?
• Or your technological advances?

Whatever the case, your added value will serve as a common thread throughout the development of your brand image, as you focus on it to remain consistent in all your actions:

• consistency with your products and their prices,
• consistency with your brand name,
• consistency with your visuals,
• consistency with your business development,
• consistency with the expectations of your target audience,
• consistency with your values and practices, etc.

💡You need to truly embody your value proposition by adopting practices, particularly internally, that match the image you want to spread. For example, if you sell organic products, public opinion expects you to implement eco-friendly practices within your company or in the way you address the market. In the event of a paradox, your brand image is likely to suffer.

2 - Clearly define your target

A company's brand image needs to meet its audience, so always ask yourself who you're primarily interested in, who you need to target.

That's why it's important to know your personas. Ask yourself the right questions

:

• What is the socio-demographic category you want to target?
• What are their characteristics?
• What are their expectations and needs, and how can your offer meet them?

3 - Take care of your offer

Always ensure that your products or services are in line with the expectations of your personas. What's the point of a well-honed marketing strategy if your offer doesn't live up to your target's expectations? Or not in line with your visual and written communication?

Price, technical features, design, degree of innovation... these are all parameters to consider, and evolve as necessary to keep in step with your audience and market trends.

4 - Think "customer experience

Customer experience, by its very nature, is also a matter of feeling. Positively influence your customers' feelings, by adopting a customer-centric approach that extends beyond your product alone.

How can you do this?

👉 By taking care of all the interactions and relationships they have with your brand, across all points of contact:

• website,
• social networks,
• after-sales service, etc.

To do this, don't hesitate to use CRM software. By centralizing and analyzing all your prospects' and customers' data, this tool enables you to address them with the appropriate messages and actions. In this way, you optimize the customer experience and customer satisfaction.

5 - Adopt the right visual communication

Images, and therefore visual identity, have a considerable impact on how potential customers perceive a brand or company.

• How do you design your logo?
• What colors should you choose?
• Which typography is best suited? Etc.

To answer these questions, draw up a graphic charter consistent with your value proposition and your target audience. This document will serve as a reference for aligning your actions across all your communication media.

💡 Did you know that there are software programs that can help you consolidate your visual communications? These are the famous DAMs, dedicated to digital asset management. Bynder, for example, helps you streamline your content creation, validation and distribution processes. And thanks to its Brand Guidelines and Brand Templates modules, you can centralize your branding data, so that your teams remain consistent with your brand image.

6 - Prefer good written communication

Words also play an important part in developing a solid brand image. For example, the importance of :

• storytelling: telling who you are, and where you come from, encourages closeness between the customer and your brand.
• Slogans: an impactful slogan can make a lasting impression. Provided, of course, that these few words skilfully condense the company's value proposition and identity.

7 - Show your expertise

Beyond prioritizing the quality of your products and the professionalism of your team, it's worth positioning yourself as an expert in your field to gain credibility and install a climate of trust with your target audience.

To this end, content marketing is an interesting method:

• Write articles and/or white papers on various subjects relevant to your business sector. For example, if you run a jewelry sales site, you could write articles on the different manufacturing or transformation processes;
• Publish photos or videos from the field. As the manager of a jewelry e-commerce site, you can take shots of your workshop, or a video of the packaging of a typical parcel, for example.
• Participate in events related to your business sector. For example, you could announce your participation in a webinar on jewelry design.

8 - Equip yourself with a specialized tool

There are brand management and marketing intelligence software packages that enable you to track the performance of your actions effectively, so you can manage and build your brand image based on real data.

The main features of this type of software vary, but all aim to improve your brand image:

• Create a brand portal that reflects your image,
• Connection to your social networks to evaluate your digital notoriety,
• Collecting reviews to assess customer satisfaction,
• Automatic filtering of your content according to your target audience,
• Integrated statistics tool to track your online performance and boost your e-reputation,
• Assisted logo and visual identity creation, etc.

Visibrain, for example, is an intuitive, easy-to-use social network monitoring platform that helps companies manage their strategy: protecting brand imageand developing influence on social networks. A real performance booster, the tool promises real-time brand monitoring, a crisis management module, influencer and new trend detection, and an automatic alert system to keep you up to date. system to keep you informed of abnormal activity around your brand, post-campaign analyses, competitive audits, etc. What's more? You benefit from comprehensive, tailor-made support from a dedicated consultant!

How important is brand image?

Its impact on consumer behavior

In an increasingly competitive market, having a good brand image is a clear advantage when it comes to standing out from the crowd. In other words, for the same service or product, a consumer will more naturally choose the brand that reflects the identity and values they feel are most positive.

We have also seen that brand image influences brand awareness. The better known you are, the more you become a benchmark in your market.

Its impact on the company itself

Within a company itself, an enhanced brand image can have an impact on corporate culture and employer brand, and consequently on team cohesion, performance and hiring.

It also generates trust. The result? The scales tip more easily in the company's favor when negotiating with investors or distributors, for example.

💡HR software like Taleez integrates natively with your website, recruitment process and corporate culture to enhance your brand image and attract top talent. A true all-in-one platform, Taleez lets you take advantage of a career site customized to your corporate image, a modern application form and intelligent candidate management. What's more? You can multicast your advertisements directly via the tool on over 70 job portals and 15,000 higher education courses!

Threats to a good brand image

Bad buzz

What's the worst thing that can tarnish your brand image?

Being the victim of bad buzz.

And with good reason! A deteriorating reputation, or worse, a scandal, encourages consumers to turn to your competitors.

That's why all the players in your company must always provide an irreproachable offer and quality of service. In this way, everyone contributes to maintaining a positive brand image.

At the same time, keep a constant eye on your reputation and e-reputation through rigorous monitoring. Knowing what people are saying about you means being able to intervene quickly in the event of problems:

• curing: get in touch with the author of negative content to persuade him or her to withdraw their comments;
• flooding: "drown out" negative content by producing positive content that will rise to the top of Google search results.

Lack of follow-up

If you want to perform well in terms of brand image, you need to be able to analyze your results in concrete terms! There are a number of ways to carry out your brand analyticswork.

For example, you can

• Set up regular monitoring, as described above.
• Gather testimonials:
  • Customer reviews: take a close look at them to define your areas for improvement. In addition, you should be aware that some review management software can help you with this task. They give you a clear overview of all the reviews on the web, and enable you to rationalize the actions you need to take to manage them.
  • Surveys or questionnaires: send them to your customers (via your newsletter, for example) and find out how they feel about your brand image.
• Analyze your figures. Use Google Analytics to find out where your website visitors are coming from. If they've found you by typing your name into the Google search bar, they already know you. Insight Yooda, on the other hand, shows you how many searches for your company are carried out each month.

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Brand image: a summary

In the age of the Internet, information about a particular brand travels at breakneck speed.

At the same time, competitive pressure is growing ever stronger.

In such a context, it's hardly surprising that a strong brand image has become a major lever for business development.

But the good news is that, thanks to your identity, your values, your offer, and your marketing and communications actions, it's entirely possible for you to take control of your brand image. Your customers will want to stay loyal to you... and your future customers will want to discover you!