Managing Brand Expectation
Your brand is a promise. It means a customer can expect the same quality and experience every time they purchase and sets an expectation. Brands convey qualities outside the physical.
This translates across many types of transactional relationship. For example, within the software industry, Microsoft or Google could be thought of as a “low touch” vendor, delivering shrink wrapped or downloaded products with little, if any, customer interaction. Oracle, however, would be classed as a “high touch” business, with sales and contractual negotiations and ongoing service level agreements forming part of the business transaction and ongoing support and training included. The expectation is different and the brand reflects this.
The rapid growth of businesses such as ASOS, or streaming services such as TikTok, rely on the successful exploitation of influencers, the Priests and Prophets of style and culture.
As someone involved in what we term “Brand Equity” you should be asking, "who are our evangelists and champions?" With whom will your customers identify? How do we turn a customer into an influencer? What mechanisms do you have in place to communicate, motivate and support them? These are questions we can answer.