Like human health, it is wrong to ignore a few telltale signs of sickness when it comes to a brand’s health.
Imagine a scenario where a drop in your brand mentions for a month can be attributed to the changes in the shopping season. However, if this trend continues for three months, you must get the diagnosis. It might be an infection with customer success or a viral ( the bad way) in your social media attribution.
Constant checkups on your brand health are not merely a good-to-have practice but an ideology that should be omnipresent in your brandus prospectus.
What is brand health?
Brand health is a parameter that defines the brand’s presence online and offline based on its capability to deliver promises to its customers. It depends a lot on the audience’s perception – a positive perception means the brand health is on the rise, and if negative, it equates to a decline.
Key elements of brand health
Why do you need a robust brand?
The end goal of every brand is recognition, which makes it an enabler for quick decision-making. Recognition allows the product to be a regular part of the consumer’s life and stay there for a substantial amount of time.
Fostering Quick Decision-Making: A strong brand helps consumers make quick decisions by providing them with a clear understanding of what the brand stands for and why it is the best choice. This is especially important in a competitive market where consumers are bombarded with choices.
Influencing Consumer Choices Over Time: Brand health is important because it consistently influences consumer choices. A positively perceived brand is more likely to be chosen over competitors, leading to increased market share and profitability.
One amazing example is the HUL brand and its product, the Clinic Plus shampoo.
For many Indians, the shampoo has held a special place in their hearts. Launched in 1972, the product started with an educational stance. Then it moved on to relationships, one of the most pertinent being a mother-daughter bond, which continues to be an essential messaging and brand recognition. Not to mention, this product has been devised for Indian hair, making it more likely to be accepted within this demographic.
Emotional connection, relevance, and awareness play key roles in elevating your brand’s status. This is a bigger requirement today, considering the fickleness of consumer behaviour and, of course, the competition.
This brings us to the four central pillars of a brand and its health.
These elements can help you determine how your brand is perceived within the consumer mindset and, of course, how well it is performing in the current market scenario.
Brand health rests on four major pillars
- Mental Availability
- Differentiating Factor
- Awareness and Experience
- Emotional Attachment
1. Mental availability
This is the mental availability your (potential) audience and consumers have for your brand.
Is your brand the first name that pops up in your consumers’ minds when considering a purchase from your industry? Are they more likely to choose your brand over the new products?
If your brand is among the first names that pop up in your consumer’s minds, then you have a better share in their mental real estate. This means you are immune/ less likely to be eroded of your positioning over time.
However, this is more the case with legacy brands that have been around for years. They have the benefit of time.
New brands need to build that foundation before they can make claims as the primary providers of the industry.
How can they do this? We’ll discuss that in our upcoming subtopic on nurturing your brand.
2. Differentiating factor
The differentiating factor is a brand’s uniqueness —what it brings to the table that other brands can’t. Now, one might argue that saturation is almost omnipresent in the market, and we are empathetic—however, differentiating factors like sustainable sourcing, ethical means, quality, etc., can make a difference.
As a brand, you need to pick that one differentiating factor and point all your messaging towards it. We have discussed the case of the Indian dairy brand Country Delight, a new (relatively) member of an industry dominated by legacy brands for years.
Read more about it in the next scroll.
3. Awareness and experience
Brand awareness and the experience it offers are another key aspect of brand health. If your brand can offer an experience that they want, they are more likely to keep your product in mind. You might be their first choice, so top the awareness charts and increase the level of your brand recall!
For instance, the experience your customer seeks is where they can save time and effort in the morning before heading off to work. Amazon’s Alexa made it easy for the early risers and hustlers to leave their house in peace without worrying about ‘did I leave the light on?’. It is all taken care of at the tap of a button or simply the user’s voice. This highlighted the product’s ease of use, which led to a positive experience and, as history knows, a positive brand awareness.
4. Emotional attachment
If your brand has climbed this pillar, you will likely be on top of the list of preferred brands in your category. An emotional attachment is when your brand or its product adds a hint of nostalgia for the consumer.
For many Indian children, butter with roti or toast has been a staple diet, fulfilled by Amul butter. Even today, the children of yesterday and the grown-ups of today prefer Amul butter over other brands (unless they are considering health alternatives). Most consumers have emotional attachments to the brand, and even if you are new to your industry, it is never too late to connect with your target audience. Case in point: Paperboat is a brand that has used nostalgia as its foundation and has quickly built a loyal customer base.
Nurturing Your Brand Health
1. Identify your category entry points (CEP)
A school of thought developed by Jenni Romaniuk and Bryon Sharp of Ehrenberg Bass Institute, category entry points are the cues that trigger a consumer’s brain when they see a category and influence their purchase decision. These helpful markers are necessary to build a pathway towards a well-thought-out and informed purchase decision.
We will take that shampoo example again to add more context.
When purchasing shampoo, consumers usually look for its ability to deep clean their hair. This is the foremost checkpoint for that shampoo brand. However, it should not be limited to that alone. Deeper checkpoints like bounce, texture, shine and suitability to a particular type of hair have roles to play in increasing the shampoo’s likeability among the target audience.
| Actionable Tip: If you have just started your journey as a brand, make an exhaustive list of these checkpoints. From simple to highly specific, build these categories and create buzz around your brand, keeping the select few in mind. However, it is very important to not skip over the basic checkpoints, like clean hair for a shampoo brand. |
Having these checkpoints is necessary for brands as it allows them to maintain consistency in messaging, relatability, and overall product sales.
Speaking of consistency, in an interview with the Economic Times, Srinandan Sundaram, category head – hair care, Hindustan Unilever Ltd. said, “ Through the years, HUL has learned not to bring radical changes to a brand with a wide footprint and large following. In 2003-04 we changed the code of the brand, moving from a signature to a platinum product. It was something the consumer could not relate to. One of my learnings is you have to carry the consumer along. Dramatic differences alienate them. We need to determine which codes are core”. |
2. Build your mental availability or mental market share
We spoke about what mental availability is when it comes to building brand health. However, mental market share or mental availability is the brand’s link to the category entry point.
In this step, we will discuss its different elements and how you need to work on them to capture real estate in your customer’s mind.
There are three major elements of mental availability when it comes to brand recall:
Mental penetration: The proportion of the brand’s market share for at least one category entry point.
Network size: The number of opportunities it takes for a customer to recall your brand in a certain category. How many people are thinking about your brand, and how often?
Share of Mind: The mental space your brand has regarding your customer’s recall capability.
To improve mental penetration, network size, and share of voice, a brand can start by highlighting the one key thing it is good at. This aligns with targeted messaging and campaigns, which a consumer can often relate to.
For instance, the dairy brand Country Delight has carved a niche for itself in India’s already saturated milk industry by simply addressing a common pain point prevalent in the category. The brand’s mental penetration would be achieved by hitting category entry points of freshness, strict quality, and transparency, which few regular milk suppliers fall short of.
So now, when discussing fresh dairy, Country Delight is one of the names with strong recall value.
“Our vision was to revolutionise the way milk is delivered in India. We wanted to provide consumers with pure, fresh, and unadulterated milk delivered directly to their doorstep.” – Chakradhar Gade, Co-founder, Country Delight.” |
3. Follow the ‘W’ framework
For example, special occasions and milestones have a special place in our hearts, often celebrated with something sweet. Cadbury tactfully placed its product Dairy Milk within celebrations or a positive time with its tagline “kuch meetha ho jaaye” perfectly exemplifying the ‘when.’
Brand – Cadbury
Product – Dairy Milk
Checkpoint – When
b. While
‘While’ is a checkpoint of the ongoing activity that usually happens while the said brand’s product is consumed. This checkpoint can be something like watching TV, reading a book, cooking, and during the rain, to name a few.
For example, people are most likely to use a laptop during working hours or when they need reliable technology to get things done. Apple’s Macbook has always been on-point in creating a sleek message of style and functionality. So, you can say that the ‘while’ checkpoints for Macbooks are working hours / productive time.
Brand – Apple
Product – Macbooks
Checkpoint – While
c. With what
While this is not exactly a synergy, it often happens that two products always go well together. The ‘with what’ checkpoint defines what complements or works well with your brand’s product. Now, this accessory product need not specify a brand, but it does create a symbiotic relationship between the two.
For example, Pepsi is often consumed with cuisines like burgers and pizzas during parties and get-togethers. So the brand has tactfully captured the ‘with what’ checkpoint by bringing itself to the table, quite literally!
Brand – Pepsi. Co
Product – Pepsi
Checkpoint – with what
d. Why
This checkpoint is a straightforward element of the customer journey, highlighting the motivation and cause of why the consumer should purchase from the said brand. It’s, after all, the ultimate cause behind a sale.
For example, the need to maintain energy during the treacherous summer seasons can be the ‘why’ checkpoint for consuming Glucon-D. This is well placed for young students and workers who often have low energy because of the heat.
Brand – Zydus Lifesciences
Product – Glucon-D
Checkpoint – Why
These checkpoints are an important part of your consumer journey map, guiding you with a mental picture of what, when, and how your potential customer is most likely to buy your brand. These checkpoints help you be ready to be the first brand that pops into their minds and gently nudge them towards a buying decision.
If you are a new brand, you need to keep these checkpoints in line with your marketing strategy. Your campaigns are more likely to work if you know they will impact customers on more than just a visual level but also on their day-to-day lives.
What leads to a decline in brand health?
1. Lack of communication
2. Staying mum when a competition challenges you
We are not saying you go to war with your competitors whenever they say something remotely negative about you. However, they will be working on anti-branding activities for your business, and you can do nothing about it.
Or can you?
Instead of expecting to stop them in their tracks, create a strategy to contradict their story with your positive spin and perspective. Have a healthy communication strategy on your social media handles, dispensing any myths and negative points (unless they are serious) without directly pointing out your competitor’s argument. Negate it with your narrative.
This way, you ensure that you have maintained your ground, and now your audience also knows the truth. On the other hand, if you choose to stay mum, your audience will most likely think you are to blame for those accusations, and their trust will be eroded.
So stay strong for the sake of your brand health.
3. Maintain a sluggish performance
For your customers, the only thing that matters is whether they receive what they asked for on time. If your performance regarding delivery, customer service, and other segments is sluggish, your brand health will first suffer.
If you get enough feedback about your sluggish performance, start the remedy process one step at a time. If there is a concern regarding delivery delays, switch your delivery partner and make communication more inclusive. If your customer service needs a ramp-up, start by automating redundant responses with the help of AI and save critical concerns for the human representatives.
Your brand health is bound to improve as you go make these small but necessary tweaks.
4. There is a shift in your messaging and mission
If you are undergoing a rebrand, kudos to you. However, suppose you are simply derailing from your original messaging and offering with no significant upgrade in service or product. In that case, you are en route to a hospital cuz your brand’s health will suffer.
Stick to your core offering and ensure all your representation and activities align with what you stand for and aspire to be. You can do this by creating a standardisation code for your brand and guidelines that ensure the messaging remains on track.
How to measure brand health - some metrics to keep handy
Key brand health metrics are essential for understanding the performance and perception of a brand. These metrics help businesses measure how well their brand resonates with their target audience and identify areas for improvement.
Here are some key brand health metrics:
Net Promoter Score: The net promoter score is an awesome indicator of how well your audience and customers perceive your brand.
If you receive more positive reviews, your brand health is good and even rising. If there are more negative reviews, you need to get personal and request detailed feedback to improve your customers’ experience.
This also includes brand advocacy, which measures the extent to which customers are willing to advocate for a brand, such as by recommending it to others or defending it against criticism.
Brand Awareness: This metric measures how well consumers recognise or recall a brand. This can be measured through aided or unaided brand recall surveys which offer quality customer feedback and sentiments.
Brand Equity: It represents the value of a brand, including its reputation, loyalty, and perceived value. Brand equity can be measured through financial indicators like brand value or through consumer perception surveys.
Brand Sentiment: Indicates the overall feeling or attitude towards a brand, often measured through sentiment analysis of social media mentions, reviews, and other online content.
CSAT Score: The CSAT score measures how satisfied customers are with their experience with the brand, including products, services, and customer support. We have spoken at length about essential CSAT tips that you can include to up your brand health and awareness.
Market Share: Represents the percentage of total sales in a market that is captured by a brand. It indicates the brand’s competitiveness and growth potential.
These metrics can vary depending on the industry, target audience, and brand’s specific goals, but they provide a comprehensive overview of brand health and performance.
Maintain a timely check-up for your brand health at all times
Your brand’s health is directly proportional to how well you are noticing the mishaps and the symptoms and taking precautionary (or corrective) measures to ensure it doesn’t fall sick.
One of the most reliable preventive measures is social listening. Knowing what your brands are saying about you proactively lets you know how well your brand is faring in the branding world.
You can check the online conversations going on concerning your brand and nip the fever in the bud with the right medication and countermeasures.
With Locobuzz, you can listen to all the mentions and conversations regarding your brand on autopilot mode. All you have to do is punch in the keyphrases relevant to your brand, industry, and category, and you will receive a fully-fledged report on what your consumers (or others) are saying about your brand.
