How to Build a Strong Brand

Q: What makes a brand strong? If you had to make yours stronger, would you know how to do it?

Many factors influence the strength of a particular product or brand. If you understand these factors, you can think about how to launch a new product effectively, or work out how to turn a struggling brand into a successful one.

Let's have a look at Keller's Brand Equity model, also known as the Customer-Based Brand Equity (CBBE) Model.

The concept behind the Brand Equity Model is simple: in order to build a strong brand, you must shape how customers think and feel about your product. You have to build the right type of experiences around your brand, so that customers have specific, positive thoughts, feelings, beliefs, opinions, and perceptions about it.

When you have strong brand equity, your customers will buy more from you, they'll recommend you to other people, they're more loyal, and you're less likely to lose them to competitors.

The four steps of the pyramid represent four fundamental questions that your customers will ask – often subconsciously – about your brand.

The four steps contain six building blocks that must be in place for you to reach the top of the pyramid, and to develop a successful brand.

Let's look each building block in detail.

• Brand Identity – Who Are You.

In this first step, your goal is to create "brand salience," or awareness – in other words, you need to make sure that your brand stands out, and that customers recognize it and are aware of it.

You're not just creating brand identity and awareness here; you're also trying to ensure that brand perceptions are "correct" at key stages of the buying process.

Ask yourself what decision-making processes do your customers go through when they choose your product? How are they classifying your product or brand? And, when you follow their decision making process, how well does your brand stand out at key stages of this process?

• Brand Meaning – What Are You?

Your goal in step two is to identify and communicate what your brand means, and what it stands for. The two building blocks in this step are: "performance" and "imagery."

"Performance" defines how well your product meets your customers' needs. According to the model, performance consists of five categories: primary characteristics and features; product reliability, durability, and serviceability; service effectiveness, efficiency, and empathy; style and design; and price.

"Imagery" refers to how well your brand meets your customers' needs on a social and psychological level. Your brand can meet these needs directly, from a customer's own experiences with a product; or indirectly, with targeted marketing, or with word of mouth.

Ask yourself what type of experience you want your customers to have with your product? Take both performance and imagery into account, and create a "brand personality."

• Brand Response – What Do I Think, or Feel, About You?

Your customers' responses to your brand fall into two categories: "judgments" and "feelings." These are the two building blocks in this step.

Your customers constantly make judgments about your brand and these fall into four key categories:

Quality: Customers judge a product or brand based on its actual and perceived quality.

Credibility: Customers judge credibility using three dimensions – expertise (which includes innovation), trustworthiness, and likability.

Consideration: Customers judge how relevant your product is to their unique needs.

Superiority: Customers assess how superior your brand is, compared with your competitors' brands.

Customers also respond to your brand according to how it makes them feel. Your brand can evoke feelings directly, but they also respond emotionally to how a brand makes them feel about themselves. According to the model, there are six positive brand feelings: warmth, fun, excitement, security, social approval, and self-respect.

Ask yourself What can you do to improve the actual and perceived quality of your product or brand?

How can you enhance your brand's credibility? How well does your marketing strategy communicate your brand's relevancy to people's needs? How does your product or brand compare with those of your competitors?

• Brand Resonance – How Much of a Connection Would I Like to Have With You?

Brand "resonance" sits at the top of the brand equity pyramid because it's the most difficult – and the most desirable – level to reach. You have achieved brand resonance when your customers feel a deep, psychological bond with your brand.

Keller breaks resonance down into four categories:

Behavioral loyalty: This includes regular, repeat purchases.
Attitudinal attachment: Your customers love your brand or your product, and they see it as a special purchase.
Sense of community: Your customers feel a sense of community with people associated with the brand, including other consumers and company representatives.
Active engagement: This is the strongest example of brand loyalty. Customers are actively engaged with your brand, even when they are not purchasing it or consuming it. This could include joining a club related to the brand; participating in online chats, marketing rallies, or events; following your brand on social media; or taking part in other, outside activities.

Ask yourself what you can do to reward customers who are champions of your brand? What events could you plan and host to increase customer involvement with your brand or product?

Sources: Inc. mindtools, KL Keller,