Month: July 2024

Branding for technology businesses can be defined as a process of creating unique identity & perception for the product in the mind of its customers. Effective branding creates differentiation among its competitors & communicates its unique value proposition.

Technology branding purpose is to create a greater perceived value & difference between similar technologies.

Defining a cohesive brand strategy includes crafting brand story, identity, brand collaterals, digital assets and messaging. It also involves brand distribution and brand recall in the future.

This implies that you should not misunderstand technology branding as a creative only exercise. It is as much social and theoretical as it is creative.

Before we jump to creative execution, we should realize that Branding actually starts with Brand Positioning and Audience Mapping. Your logo or design is not even 25% of the overall Branding of the company.

There will be a lot of blogs & case studies on the internet which talk about Brand Positioning and Brand Strategy but we are highlighting and debunking few very important things to help you get the right knowledge you need.

To understand more about Brand strategy we at Potent study a lot about Brands, Why do they have unwavering loyalty, Why do they are loved across all platforms? What are the key ingredients that form the foundation of good Brand positioning? We came across few interesting studies which we would like to discuss here.

In 2006 Carol & Ahuvia coined the term “Brand Love” and defined it as a revolutionary brand sentimental disposition. In simpler terms as explained by Bergkvist and Bech-Larsen, consumers organize the sum of cognition, emotions, and behaviors in a mental prototype because they adore a particular brand.

In a 2022 report by Talwalker & Hootsuite using Talkwalker’s Consumer Intelligence Acceleration listed out top 50 brands who enjoyed “Brand Love”. They also explained why it is critical and what brands should learn from it.

Key takeaways were as follows :

• Top 50 loved brands are environmental, social, and economic sustainability leaders
• Nearly all loved brands are communicating about their environmental efforts
• Brands are active part of user life(style)
• They align their tone of voice in the way digital audience think today hence they generate real advocacy & engagement on digital platforms

So how is Brand Love measured?

Brand love is an amalgamation of 3 scores which are measured across digital platforms of the brands. The 3 scores are Passion score, Trust score and Csat score

1. Passion score

Measures extreme passion, either positive or negative, towards an entity.

Measured with keyword, image, and emoji analysis to define and weight results based on the level of passion portrayed

2. Trust score

Measures the level of trust between the consumer and the brand.

Measured with keyword, image, and emoji analysis to define and w eight results based on the level of passion portrayed.

3. Csat Score

Measures the level of satisfaction among the consumer base across reviews and identified customers.

Uses review databases and keyword introductions to identify brand customers, and then denotes results based solely on those Individuals.

Now that we know what exactly constitutes brand love, lets understand how to drive Brand love?

Installing a user-centric approach while providing exceptional product experience and acting on user beliefs helps drive Brand love.

Building a strong connection with your customers is about igniting passion and making your brand compatible with their life(style). Consumers are looking for a value match: this is me, this is what I stand for, and this brand reflects that.” says the report.

Today customer trust and satisfaction is paramount and can never be neglected. Social media gives a platform to everyone to vent, appreciate and reject products. So It is a no brainer for any brand that is going into the market to adopt ways and means to wow their customer. As the old adage says an angry customer tells 100 others and a satisfied customer sometimes tells none. Brand loyalty is scarce hence to drive loyal customers you need to build a tone of voice and mission, which separates you from your competitors.

To develop effective tone of voice & branding we generally need to zoom out from your product and think in following direction:

1. What are the current available options for my customers?
2. Will they develop a burning desire to try different solutions?
3. What time and place do they think to switch, what are the triggers, social signals etc.

There is a brilliant framework developed by Thinkforward called the Act Framework.

Most of the time the founding team are obsessed with their offering and never realize that the potential users don’t think as much about the product. There are already options out there they might be using, and despite gaps they are fine using it as long as the current offering is a means to an end solution.

This is where Brand Positioning comes into play. Basecamp has done it brilliantly and if you read more about how their product actually does very little and still is used & endorsed by millions of people. Their competitors offer way more features, way more personalization and still have less users.

To understand more on Brand Love and Brand Positioning let’s look at some of the brands & their social media and how they are putting tremendous effort into getting consumer advocacy & trust.

These companies have dedicated teams to increase brand love and engagement. Their focused efforts have yielded unprecedented results more than any company can ever get via just product marketing & feature selling.

Conclusion

We aim to cover such brilliant brand stories in this blog and will keep on updating whenever we find a brand that truly wins on brand love and brand positioning.