Are you proud of your brand?
In recent years, an increasing number of distributed brands have prioritized marketing activities that bolster brand equity. The most "valuable" businesses routinely attract more prospects and customers than competitors. Additionally, high-value multi-location enterprises typically hold higher customer retention rates. Moreover, recent data suggests that prospects and customers will pay more for a great experience. In fact, 64% of consumers prefer brands that deliver powerful customer experiences.
To build strong brand equity, executives and marketers must continually monitor customer sentiments. Even the slightest disruption to the overall brand experience can cause significant ripples. As such, the savviest businesses utilize proper marketing tools to gather rich customer insights and optimize every interaction that prospects and customers have with the brand.
In this article, we'll teach you how to strengthen your brand value across the entire distributed network. From brand headquarters to the local affiliate, use these expert insights to increase your brand experience at every touchpoint.
5 Tips to Increase Your Brand Value
As an industry-leading brand management and local marketing provider, we know what brand equity means for multi-located brands. In our 20 years of experience, the following activities contribute to the most significant increases in brand value.
1. Deliver a Seamless Customer Experience
Start by focusing on the customer experience. A consistent customer experience means that customers will see, hear, and "feel" the same things from one location to the next. For distributed brands, a consistent customer experience must deliver on the brand's core fundamentals at each and every location.
For example, consumers expect the Marriott in Albuquerque to fold its towels exactly like the Marriott in Kalamazoo. Does the Dunkin' in Chattanooga brew the same coffee as Dunkin' in Reno? Additionally, each piece of printed material should use the correct brand colors, fonts, and messaging. The fact is, customers expect multi-location brands to look, feel, and deliver the same product, service, and experience across all franchise locations.
To deliver a seamless customer experience, you should look across your entire distributed network. What are the core elements of your overall brand experience? What do customers appreciate about your brand? What do they dislike? Try to glean as much information about your franchise locations and look for opportunities to highlight your brand's unique strengths.
2. Personalize Your Brand's Marketing Experiences
An increasing number of brands are prioritizing marketing personalization. In fact, recent data indicates that over 50% of companies are now making serious investments towards innovations in marketing personalization.
Traditionally, personalization has been closely associated with email marketing. In this instance, marketers distribute relevant content based on the contact's purchase history, life cycle stage, and more. However, in recent years, brands have looked for opportunities to infuse personalization into other forms of marketing including search, social, display, and digital.
For example, EasyJet launched a data-driven campaign that brought customers' travel history to life. The brand's campaign used customer data to collect individual stories based on their travel history. The brand analyzed this information to provide contacts with relevant travel experiences. EasyJet even gave away a pair of international flights weekly during the entire duration of the marketing campaign.
Moreover, many industry-leading brands add a touch of "personalization" based on location. For example, instead of using images of mountains to promote a retail location in Florida, brands might incorporate images of palm trees and sandy beaches.
3. Leverage the Power of Storytelling Marketing
For many years, marketers have used the power of storytelling to increase brand equity. Why? In most instances, prospects and customers don't want to be sold to directly. The savviest marketers know that crafting a compelling narrative is a simple and effective form of indirect marketing.
For example, SoulCycle has come up with a powerful story to encourage prospects to join the "cardio party." Beyond the brand's modern equipment, high-intensity workouts, and inspirational fitness coaches, it's the brand's unique narrative that really entices people to join the movement.
Download our free playbook and learn how to increase the design and marketing competency of your local users and franchisees.
4. Make it Easy for Customers to Buy
Building a simplified buying process is one of the most effective things marketers can do to increase the value of their brand. "The more overwhelmed customers are, the more likely they are to regret their purchases," says Jordan Bryan, contributor at Gartner. To simplify the buying process, your business needs to answer consumers' questions and concerns well in advance of the purchase.
A prescriptive approach to sales guides customers to the most important information they need in order to complete a purchase. In this instance, your brand should provide "do this" and "do not do this" recommendations to move customers through the buying process.
According to Scott Collins, principal executive advisor at Gartner, "Prescription works because it effectively cuts through the clutter of information and choices, guiding them through key purchase decisions."
5. Invest in a Brand Management Platform
Finally, investing in a brand management platform is an easy way to achieve brand personalization, alignment and, in turn, increase your brand equity. The fact is, managing multiple creative asset systems leads to serious disorganization. Moreover, haphazard local customization results in compromised brand standards.
A brand management platform empowers brand managers to deliver the brand consistently while customizing for local in a scalable way. This kind of robust software allows brand managers to enforce brand standards in every creative local execution. When your brand delivers creative consistency across the distributed network, consumers are more likely to come back to the brand for repeat purchases.
Strengthen and Maximize Brand Value With CampaignDrive
While building and maintaining brand equity presents a real challenge for distributed brands, corporate marketers can work with their franchisees to construct better local experiences. With continuous support from corporate teams, your local affiliates are well-equipped to attract and retain more prospects and customers.
For an extra leg-up, many of the world's most successful multi-located brands including Marriott International, Polaris, and The Melting Pot have invested in a brand management platform.
CampaignDrive makes it easy for local affiliates to deliver great brand experiences at scale. A single self-service platform, local affiliates have direct access to customizable and dynamic creative templates. With CampaignDrive, it's as simple as logging in, clicking on materials customized for your location, and applying simple tweaks – it's that easy!
To kickstart your local marketing activity, we recommend downloading our free guide: The Local Marketing Playbook. Use this expert guide to align local marketing teams, deliver greater brand consistency, execute effective local marketing strategies, and improve your bottom line.
