Our topic for this week is brand equity development, in which we introduce the practice of "brand singularity," drawing insights and inspiration from our experience conducting brand research for many clients. What we share here is relevant to both B2C brands and B2B, the latter being where most of our clients today live.
In a previous post, we discussed the delicate task of developing and nurturing your brand. Another important challenge is also developing your brand identity so that that its connotation in the minds of your buyers is uncluttered and singular. Too many brands try too hard to stand for too many things, leading to brand diffusion. The essential principle here is that brands that stand for more than one essential and singular concept end up not standing for anything at all. Their brand become indistinguishable and commoditized in their market space. It occupies no unique position in the buyer's mind and therefore carry little weight when buyers make their purchase decisions. This is corroborated in our qualitative research interviews. Enterprise and Mid-Market C-level executives who are decision-makers for technology solutions tell us that many categories contain too many brands that have become virtually indistinguishable from each other.
How singular then is your brand identity? How can you tell? One effective way is to survey your target buyers (minimum recommended sample size for B2B decision makers is 300; 500 for B2C) using the following methodology:
- Ask them the following question: Which of the following connotations or attributes do you associate with Brand X? Provide them with a list of four to five attributes, with at least one "dummy" variable) asking them to "select all that apply"
- Next, ask them to rank these attributes in order from most associated to least associated with your brand.
- Then, created a weighted ranking of the responses to the ranking question, giving extra weight to each variable when it was ranked in first place.
One additional challenge we have found in our brand development research is that sometimes even though a company has made large investments in creating positioning around a particular brand attribute and that identity is well established in company's customers minds, the brand struggles to establish a unique identity and differentiated identity with new prospects. This is because there is another essential element to the successful practice of brand singularity-that the singular brand element you are trying to develop is also articulated simply enough. Words matter and simple words anchor more easily in buyer's minds than complex concepts. To this end, research methodologies such as projective techniques and emotional laddering used in qualitative in-depth research can be extremely helpful.
Lastly, the illustration below is from a recent client study and an example of a non-diffused, well anchored brand. More importantly, it illustrates the value of being a brand essentialism practitioner. In this case, despite a highly competitive B2B market space with lots of price cutting by competitors to win business, this company's brand, which rated high on the brand test we described above, carried considerable weight in the purchase decision as The 25.9% brand impact on the purchase decision was at least eight points higher than that for their next closest competitor.
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To learn more about our brand development research methods or about our Brand Power Grid™, please contact us at insights@svrg.net
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Alan Nazarelli is Founder & CEO of Silicon Valley Research Group. The company works with the world’s most innovative brands to provide timely and actionable market intelligence to enable them to make informed market decisions.
