What is Brand Salience? + How You Measure It
Brand salience, also known as brand awareness or preference, is the degree to which a consumer holds a favourable or unfavourable view of a brand. A brand is a unique business, product, or service. The most influential brands are the ones that evoke an emotional response in consumers.
Brand salience refers to how effectively you brand a specific business using various marketing communication channels. For example, your brand is likely the “most important thing” to your customer. If you run a business that helps people lose weight, you probably wouldn’t go after weight loss influencers to promote your brand. Instead, you’d focus on getting your name out there through traditional channels like TV, magazines, etc.
Brand salience is a term coined in 1948 by Krech and Crutchfield to describe how brands become known, recognised and remembered. It is an increasingly important concept to marketers because it’s one of the four pillars of marketing strategy:
- Market research
- Branding
- Advertising
- Marketing communications
This post will examine brand salience, how you measure it, and how it relates to your company’s marketing strategy.
What is Brand Salience?
Brand salience is how we associate brands with our identities or understand a product or service as part of ourselves. Brands mean something to us because they carry connotations of our values and experiences. For example, Nike means fitness and speed, and the Coca-Cola brand signifies the American culture of drinking soda.
When considering your brand identity, it’s essential to think about how it relates to your personality and what you want your brand to represent. If you are a creative type, you may consider creating your brand as a creative work of art.
Incorporating a creative brand identity can also be necessary for your brand’s longevity since creativity often evokes emotional responses and increases customer engagement. People are likelier to remember brands incorporating artistic elements in their branding, like the Starbucks logo and Apple products.
Here are some ways to build a creative brand identity for your business:
Make it easy to find
Create a memorable logo, tagline, or product design that captures the essence of your brand. It can be as simple as a picture of a family dog for a pet store or a coffee cup for a café. Make sure it’s eye-catching and that it helps to describe the experience you offer.
Make it unique
Create your brand to reflect who you are and what makes you stand out from your competitors. For example, if your niche is health and wellness, you could focus your brand around inspirational quotes like, “We’re healthier when we sleep soundly.”
Think about your brand in the context of other brands in your industry. Ask yourself what the difference is between your brand and others. What do you want your brand to be? Why should customers buy your products or services over someone else’s?
Ask your target audience what their perception of your brand is. Listen to what they say, and find out what they like or don’t like. You may find no connection between the brand identity you’ve created and your target market, or it doesn’t resonate with them. It would be best to consider this critical feedback as you grow your brand.
Building a Brand Through the Lens of Customer Experience
How you talk to your customers can significantly impact their experience of your brand. When you use language that focuses on customer emotions rather than technical specifications, your customers will respond more positively.
You can add more meaning to your brand by creating an image or visual symbol representing your company and your core beliefs. The logo for The North Face is based on a series of mountain ranges, symbolising the outdoors and the rugged lifestyle that the company promotes.
Why Is Brand Salience Important?
Think of a company like Apple. It’s a household name that represents a whole range of products. You’re probably familiar with the Apple logo and can recall some of the names associated with the products.
Similarly, consider the brand Google. You might be using it daily without realising it. You use it when you search the web, so it’s hard to miss. And many people know the Google logo by heart.
Many companies spend money to develop a brand. But in some cases, it’s not worth it. Take Apple, for example. The company spent a fortune to promote the “Apple” name, which it has owned for over 30 years. Yet, most of its products are commonly just called “iPhones.” So, why spend so much on a brand that’s already owned?
Of course, you don’t have to invest a lot to establish a brand. You don’t have to invest a penny because you already have one.
Ask any successful business owner, and they’ll tell you that their company’s name is their most valuable asset. That’s because the brand name can make or break the company. When people recognise your name, they start thinking of your brand.
But there’s more to branding than a company’s name. Your brand is also the identity your customers and employees carry around in their minds. They can identify your company and trust it if they know what you stand for.
If that’s true, it must follow that brand name is the most critical factor in your success. A brand is a perception that people have of your company. It’s the image that you want them to have of your company.
How You Measure It: Key Points to Remember
Measuring brand salience is an easy concept. You count the times the brand name is used on a product or in marketing materials and speeches.
The higher the number of times the brand is mentioned, the higher the brand’s salience is to your customers and other potential customers.
Brand salience is not necessarily an objective measurement. It can vary based on your time reading and watching your marketing materials. And it’s also dependent on how many competitors you face. For example, if a high-end luxury brand’s salience is measured at 1,000 mentions, it’s a much more valuable asset than measured at 100 mentions.
There are various ways brands can measure their brand salience, including:
- Marketing research: Marketers can use qualitative and quantitative research methods to determine how often the brand name is mentioned.
- Social media posts: Brands can monitor the frequency of their brand names on social media platforms and use that data to track their brand’s salience.
- Web analytics: Websites and blogs can be used to measure brand awareness, brand familiarity, and brand loyalty.
What Drives Brand Salience?
The strongest brand is the one that keeps you coming back for more. That’s the goal of any brand. So how do you keep people loyal to your brand? Here are some brand strategies to consider:
Build a Consistent Brand Experience
Your brand strategy should always emphasise consistency. To retain customers, you must keep and fulfil your promises. People may be willing to tolerate a few glitches in service or product performance, but they won’t tolerate a consistent lack of attention to detail.
For example, your website needs to work consistently, whether you are selling apparel or appliances.
Your products or services need to be designed to be usable and convenient in the real world. Consistency is vital when designing products. A great example is a company called Ziploc. They made the “Ziploc bags” and containers that sealed bags of food. And every day, people use the product in the same way.
Make it Easy to Understand
People understand brands through experience. Keeping them loyal is hard if you’re inconsistent in talking about your brand. For example, if you’re talking about your brand like it’s a person (e.g., “That’s my brand, it’s a cool guy!”) or an idea (e.g., “I’m the king of brand X”), you’re going to lose credibility very quickly.
If you’re talking about your brand in a way that makes people understand what you stand for and what you’re about, it will be easier for your customers to keep your brand as part of their daily lives.
Get to Know Your Customer
Knowing who your customer is and what your customer values are critical to creating a solid brand. Understanding your customer means knowing their age, location, income, and more. It’s also essential to determine their buying style, including their loyalty to your brand and how much they buy.
You can use surveys or other tools to learn more about your customers and what they expect from your brand. Once you understand who your customers are, you can begin building relationships with them and developing your brand.
Offer Incentives
Incentives are a powerful way to build customer loyalty. It is essential to understand your customers and what will motivate them to give you a chance. As a brand, you need to find out what motivates your customers to buy your product or use your service. Once you know that, you can find ways to reward them for it.
Here are some incentives that you might consider:
- Free trial
- Free samples
- Promotions
Rewards
Reward programs are a great way to build customer loyalty and foster ongoing engagement. The best reward programs have the following characteristics:
- They are simple and easy to use
- They can be customised
- They incentivise specific actions
- They are fun and rewarding
It’s important to reward customers for being loyal to your brand, which is why the loyalty program is a significant component of the World of Hyatt. The hotel rewards program, called World of Hyatt Gold Passport, is designed to help customers earn points and unlock rewards.
The Hyatt World of Hyatt Gold Passport program is a customer-centric loyalty program built around rewards and benefits. Members earn World of Hyatt Gold Passport points by making reservations at Hyatt properties, and booking stays at Hyatt hotels. Hyatt also offers additional rewards and benefits to members, including special rates on select rooms and upgrades.
In addition, Hyatt’s rewards program allows guests to earn and redeem reward points in various ways, such as by making reservations at Hyatt, staying at Hyatt, dining at Hyatt restaurants, shopping at Hyatt stores, and checking into Hyatt’s mobile app. Rewards can be redeemed for travel packages, discounts on services and merchandise, and free Hyatt Hotel stays.
How To Increase Your Brand Salience
Every business wants to increase its brand salience, the value of its product or service and the number of people aware of it. But how do you go about it?
Increasing brand awareness is a complex process that starts with identifying what makes your business unique and then aligning your marketing approach with the principles of the positioning statement. The positioning statement is the central message of your company, communicated through a few carefully selected words that describe your products or services.
A strong positioning statement can give your company a competitive advantage in any market. But the benefits of developing a solid positioning statement extend beyond simply making your company stand out.
It can also improve your marketing success by giving your company a standard set of talking points to use in communication, from advertising to social media.
And finally, your positioning statement helps you communicate your business’s purpose, the things you do, and the values that drive your company.
Wrapping Up
Brand Salience is the relationship between brand name and product. In other words, it’s the idea that a brand’s name is associated with its products.
The best way to determine whether your brand is associated with its product is to run a Google search for the product name. If your brand name is listed in the top 3-5 results, you can assume it is associated with the product.
It’s important to note that this doesn’t mean every brand name is associated with its product. You might have a brand that is so well known that it’s difficult not to find it when searching for its product.
For example, people might search for “Apple iPhone” and find Apple’s website at the top of the results. This means that Apple is associated with the iPhone, even though it’s not the only company that makes iPhones.
Check out the resources in my free newsletter below to learn more about Brand Salience!
FAQs
What is brand salience?
Brand salience is how well a company or product stands out in a competitive market. Brand salience is like a magnet or a beacon, attracting consumers. Brands that have a strong brand identity attract consumers.
How do I measure brand salience?
To measure brand salience, we use a multi-step process that includes measuring consumer awareness, consumer preference, and customer satisfaction.
How do I increase brand salience?
To increase brand salience, we recommend that companies or products have a clear vision of their brand, a unique selling proposition (USP), and an emotional connection with customers.
What is the best way to tell if a brand has a strong brand identity?
To tell if a brand has a strong brand identity, we recommend that companies or products have a clear vision of their brand, a unique selling proposition (USP), and an emotional connection with customers.
What is the difference between brand loyalty and brand advocacy?
Brand loyalty is when people buy a particular brand over another brand. Brand advocacy is when people talk about or support a particular brand.
