Today’s businesses have to establish and maintain brand value and awareness in the consumers’ mind to be successful in the market place.

Brand Value was developed in the U.S. and Great Britain in the late 1800s as a result of the Industrial Revolution.

Some of the earliest strong brands are American Express and Coke, and many companies today are associated with their brand values.

Volvo is associated with safety and quality; Toyota is associated with efficiency. Some brands have an association with the locations they are founded in. For example, IKEA has a strong association with Sweden, while BMW has a strong association with Germany.

Brand value is the value consumers associate with your company. Building a strong brand value means the company has created a strong identity in the marketplace.

Why are consumers prepared to pay double the price for a product even though they can find one that has the same function for cheaper? The answer is within the values and emotions we associate with different brands.

Why building your brand is important for your business

Companies are struggling to find a competitive edge as technology is making everything more of an equal playing field. As a business, you want to avoid competing in price, as the margins would go down. This leaves brand equity as one of the more important opportunities to differentiate your product from your competitors.

Another factor increasing the importance of having a recognizable brand is that our society is becoming more selective. Consumers can today easily analyze and compare products without leaving their homes.

Factors that determine which product the consumer chooses include price, quality, and brand value.

A competitor can copy a product; a brand is unique. A product can be quickly outdated; a successful brand is timeless.

So how does a manager achieve a brand value of specific products? What are the different ways to enrich your perceived brand value and what strategy should a manager pursue?

What to consider when developing your brand

The foundation in building a strong brand is to communicate a consistent and clear message to your consumers. The brand is more than just a logo although a strong graphical representation is important.

A brand identity can be built up by seven different functions:
• Product
• Brand Name
• Character
• Visual symbols and logos
• Geography and historical roots
• Founder
• Advertising

A good start is identifying the objective of the business. It is important to think long term for all communication externally toward the market as well as internally toward employees.

For a larger company, it is important that the employees know the core values of the company and to behave after those values.

A well-produced brand can work as an information carrier of the product’s price, contents, and quality, and can be used as an efficient competitive tool. A strong brand makes the customer willing to pay for something more than just the product.

Product development is another factor you can integrate into your brand values so the consumers can associate the desired attribute toward the brand.

This also applies to the packaging of the product, which is the public face for the consumers when they are about to decide whether not or to buy the specific product.

The logo has a big impact and it is part of the message the company wants to deliver to the consumers.

Avoid overpromising what your product can do. There is nothing worse as a consumer than to feel that you have been misled. We have all been in that position and will most likely not buy another product from that company again.

Make sure your brand isn´t making promises it can´t keep.

Bad experiences from consumers will also discourage referrals. This can potentially harm the business by unsatisfied customers who publicly vent their frustrations online or within their community. Referrals are one of the most important factors in creating brand value.

There is no stronger endorsement than one coming from a friend.

It is difficult to build a strong brand without a good product. The quality needs to be at a level where it is equal to or better than the competitors. These are some of the factors to consider when building your brand.