How much of your understanding of your brand perception is based on knowing, not guessing?
Is it based on in-depth knowledge and insights, or seen through rose tinted glasses?
Your brand is way more than just your logo or product; it’s the total of every thought, feeling, and association people have in relation to your company. It’s not a nice-to-have; it’s a crucial part of long-term success.
The perfect balance of brand awareness and perception – being well-known and for the right reasons – is a power move not possible through guesswork. The good news is that through tailored market research with your customers, we can provide you with the knowledge you need to perfect your brand perception.
The benefits of strong brand perception
Having a strong brand adds layers of security and success to the foundations of the business you’ve built.
Customers are pre-sold on your products and services, already assured of the quality and integrity. They’re loyal, returning time and again without thought of cheaper alternatives, whilst advocating to others. Having this premium perception allows for premium profitability as customers pay for the confidence they have in you.
It also provides a buffer in relation to risk mitigation, assuring customers that any crisis will be well managed, as well as filters through to your employer brand to support retention and recruitment.
When brand perception does damage
Perceptions of your brand begin to damage when your business is known for negative or conflicting actions, slowly chipping away at your market share.
Do you call customer service a business value, and yet your external reviews complain of how poor your customer service team is?
Perhaps you claim to be innovative and technologically advanced, but your clients repeatedly experience delays due to technical problems.
Or maybe something negative has happened out of your control, but the way you managed it was deemed unorganised or unprofessional.
Some negatives can be easy to identify, whereas others can slowly affect your reputation. Others completely slip under the radar as they’re not being monitored at all.
This is where knowledge beats guesswork hands down.
How to perfect brand perception through market research
You might think you know where you stand with your brand perception, but is it what the market actually feels? While anecdotal conversations and assumptions can be useful, they’re not enough to drive business decisions. By uncovering real insights from real people, market research helps you move beyond assumptions to uncover what truly drives your customers, employees, or stakeholders.
At MMC, we utilise a combination of quantitative and qualitative research, including methods such as surveys, focus groups, and in-depth interviews, to provide a comprehensive overview of how our clients’ brand is perceived. We cover areas such as:
- Brand awareness – who knows of the business
- Brand associations – what words or feelings come to mind when thinking of the business
- Brand attributes – the characteristics that they relate to the business (i.e. reliable, innovative)
- Position in the competitive landscape – where the business stacks up against competitors
- Customer stickiness – whether customers return to the business despite alternatives being available
- Brand equity – the strength of the brand over its competitors.
By uncovering actual intelligence in these areas, businesses benefit from knowing their real strengths and weaknesses, rather than guessing. They can identify gaps in their market and ensure that their ways of working align with the values and beliefs of their customers. Business decisions and strategies can then be developed utilising knowledge and insights from the real people that matter to the success of the business.
A real-life example
We recently worked with fellow Sunderland-based business, Richard Reed Solicitors, to establish their brand perception. While they had a feeling on how their business was perceived, they made the investment to know before risking moving forward in the wrong direction.
MMC identified that the business is widely recognised and positively associated with its Sunderland roots, experienced team, and approachable service style, empowering Richard Reed to use the insights to guide their marketing strategy going forward.
Laura Kerry, in Richard Reed’s Marketing Team, said:
“Thank you for all the work that has gone into this project. It has been an absolute pleasure working with you and the MMC team. We found the insights from the survey incredibly valuable, and they will play a key role in shaping our strategy moving forward.”
It’s time to start knowing
Your brand is not purely cosmetic; it is the foundation of your business success. It’s about understanding your market, creating and maintaining authentic connections with your customers, and growing a brand that truly resonates with the people that matter.
If you’re ready to really get to know your business brand, contact us to book in your consultation.
