The importance of brand image

How to create a valuable brand image

Brands must know how to differentiate themselves from the competition to generate more visibility and capture the public’s attention. To do this, it’s important to develop practices that can successfully communicate their values, which is where brand image comes into play.

Through brand image, companies can create a lasting impression in the consumer’s mind and build positive expectations, helping them stand out as the chosen company among the competition.

Today, from our digital marketing agency in Oviedo, we want to talk about the concept of brand image, something you’ve probably heard countless times but might not fully understand its functionality or how to effectively work on it.

What is brand image?

Brand image is made up of a set of tangible and intangible elements that represent the values a brand wants to convey to the public. These elements can include the name, logo, corporate colors, design, or the content created within the company.

It’s increasingly important for companies to stand out from the competition by tapping into emotions, feelings, and values, all of which are communicated through the brand image.

If the audience recognizes the brand, they’ll recognize the product, which serves as a quality assurance that encourages users to trust it. Therefore, the brand image that is conveyed must be carefully thought out.

Components of brand image

Within brand image, we can find two main components: brand associations and brand personality or brand as a character.

Brand associations

This refers to the set of evocations that the brand is capable of generating, creating a positive state of mind in the user and in favor of the brand. Therefore, it’s necessary to communicate the brand’s identity to enable these associations.

The brand value pyramid shows a possible ranking of these associations by prioritizing beliefs and values, benefits, characteristics, and attributes.

Brand personality or brand as a character

This relates to the set of human characteristics associated with a particular brand. The goal is to humanize the brand according to its target audience, giving the brand personal values. To measure brand personality, we should focus on five factors: sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication, and ruggedness.

Model for explaining brand image

To understand brand image, we can refer to the Aaker model (1996), known as the brand relationship model or the relationship between the brand and other aspects of its management. Among these values, we find:

• Brand as a product
• Brand as an organization
• Brand as a person
• Brand as a symbol

Kapferer’s model (2008) is understood as the fusion between internalization categories such as brand personality, organizational culture, and mentalization, and externalization categories such as physical image, relationship, and reflections. These categories optimize the connection between the brand image conveyed by the sender and the image perceived by the receiver.

Chernatony’s relational model (2010) focuses on brand identity from a higher audience level, where the focus shifts from the consumer to the stakeholder. It presents a categorical system integrated by staff relations, brand vision and culture, brand personality, brand positioning, and stakeholder presentation.

Finally, there’s Sterman’s model (2012), which develops a relationship between categories such as corporate identity, product and service marketing, and external and internal communications, allowing us to work on brand image.

Differences between brand image and brand identity

There can be some confusion between brand image and brand identity. On one hand, brand image is the public’s perception of what the brand projects, while brand identity encompasses the elements that characterize and build the brand, managed through branding.

Brand image is more closely related to the feelings and emotions that the company creates within its audience. These emotions are built through marketing actions, consumption experiences, and advertising.

On the other hand, brand identity is characterized by the elements that make up the brand and differentiate it from the competition, helping users identify it. To ensure the identity is consistent, brands typically design a corporate manual where the company’s values and principles are summarized. It’s essential to first consider the values we want to convey and then how we’re going to communicate them.

To delve deeper into the differences between brand image and brand identity, let’s highlight some key elements:

• Content: In brand image, this is uncertain, while in brand identity, it’s determined.
• Origin of the concept: In brand image, it’s created in the mind of the subject, while in brand identity, it’s proposed by the company.
• Time of birth: Brand image appears after identity, once the identity is communicated. Brand identity is created first, giving rise to the brand image.
• Permanence: Brand image can change easily with any new information, while brand identity is created to last over time.
• Subjectivity: Brand image is created through subjective feelings on the part of the consumer, while brand identity is not created subjectively; it’s developed based on market research.
• Effectiveness as a sales booster: In brand image, this booster is high, while in brand identity, it’s more limited, as it originates from the company and the communication developed by the company.

Why is it important to work on brand image?

Companies need to carefully work on the brand image they present to their audience because even if they offer a good service or product, if the image created isn’t appropriate, it will only result in user rejection.

That’s why a well-designed corporate image helps evoke emotions and senses in people, standing out among other companies. The image a company creates will be linked to the positioning it achieves, which is why working on a strong brand image is so important.

Next, we’ll explore a list of advantages gained from working on brand image:

• Stand out from the competition: A strong brand image helps create a visual identity aligned with the company’s values, which is crucial when standing out from the competition.
• Trust: Professionalism in working on brand image helps improve the public’s trust in the company, with people being more likely to trust companies that have a solid image.
• Trust: Professionalism in working on brand image helps improve the public’s trust in the company, with people being more likely to trust companies that have a solid image.
• Price increase: If the company has good added value, it can raise prices and take the business to the next level.
• Virality: As long as the brand and products are good and attractive, virality will be encouraged, prompting other customers to buy them.
• Communicate values and essence: By showcasing the company’s values and essence, we give meaning to our brand, highlighting the importance of sustainability, respect, and cooperation.
• Create the desired impression: Achieving the desired impression allows the public to view us in the best light.
• Attract the desired customer: It’s important to capture the attention of the audience we’re interested in, who may need our products or services. This helps the business maintain better health by dedicating time and energy to assisting people who trust the brand.
• Influence purchase decisions: We know that the market can be highly competitive, so offering an appropriate image is key to influencing user choice.
• Connect emotionally: Emotions play a significant role in people’s lives, so brands that can convey emotions and connect with their audience will have a greater impact and be more memorable.
• Increase sales: Brand image plays a crucial role in boosting sales because if the image is active and positive, it will generate more interest and, consequently, more sales.

Brand image in the online world

The development of digital resources and media has made it essential for companies to invest in this sector, which is why branding strategies must also be tailored to the online world. To be successful and develop a strong brand image online, consider the following aspects:

• Content: The content created should be able to convey emotions, feelings, and values related to the brand. The internet is an easy way to achieve this. We recommend reading our article on content marketing to learn how to make the most of your blog and social media.
• Communication channel: Social media is an excellent platform for creating conversations and dialogues, allowing us to convey the brand’s message and help users with their questions.
• Online reputation: On the internet, we can find opinions about companies, and these comments are useful for knowing whether the company is doing well or not. It’s important to have effective social media monitoring mechanisms to track all comments.

How to improve brand image?

At any time, a company may consider improving its brand image and applying the appropriate techniques. To do this, the following elements can be analyzed:

• Analyze the company from a global perspective: It’s necessary to evaluate what we want to communicate and how we will reflect it in the corporate identity. For this, we must consider the characteristics of our target audience profile.
• Identify strengths: It’s important to know the aspects that make us stand out from the competition because these will help structure the brand image.
• Do not copy: It’s important to innovate and avoid copying what other companies do, creating attractive designs instead.
• Pay attention to the relationship between the elements that make up the brand image: The brand image must align with the company’s philosophy and relate to aspects such as corporate colors or typography.
• Avoid trends: Don’t be swayed by fleeting trends; all work should be reinforced so it doesn’t become obsolete.
• Make the image visible in different communication elements: Once the image is designed, it should be visible in the company’s corporate materials and website. The design, navigability, and user-friendliness should be well maintained.
• Improve brand image every day: It’s important to create quality content daily to convey the most relevant ideas and concepts along with that identity.
• Build affiliate relationships: Spreading the message through other companies is a good way to increase brand awareness.
• Spread the word on social media: Nowadays, social media serves as a platform to increase brand awareness, generating more followers and more interaction around the brand.
• Identify the target audience: It’s helpful to detect who our target audience is and address them appropriately.
• Digital marketing campaigns: Within digital marketing, we can find numerous options to increase the company’s visibility and therefore promote the brand image.
• Track results: When we design the brand and image, we must track the results to see what we’re achieving and how we can optimize them.

As we’ve seen throughout this article, companies have different options to work on their brand image. It’s essential to have a clear idea of the image they want to convey and connect with the audience’s emotions, building a stronger relationship with them.

This is an effective way for the company to offer superior value and differentiate itself from the competition.

We hope this article on brand image helps you improve yours. Additionally, if you have any questions about this concept or any other aspect of digital marketing, we’ll be happy to answer them. We specialize as a branding agency in Oviedo. We look forward to hearing from you!

Digital Marketing Agency Digitalvar

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