Your audience’s perception of your brand influences their interactions with you. 

For example, a study conducted among 2,000 respondents concluded that 79% of consumers support brands they perceive to care about and understand them. 

But how do you get there? How do you shape how your audience feels and thinks about your brand?

The secret is in the messaging. As salesman and author Elmer Wheeler said, 

“You must know how to sell the sizzle, not the steak.” 

I’m Nora Sudduth, a business coach and marketing expert, and I can help you design a messaging strategy that positions your brand as the choice for your target market. Book a discovery call with me today!

What is Brand Perception, and Why is it Important?

Brand perception is the collection of opinions and feelings that people have about your brand based on key messaging that defines its value, purpose, and impact on its audience. 

It matters because it means the difference between a customer who supports you and one who chooses your competitor.

Further, the way you shape your brand identity affects your:

• Pricing power: This refers to how much you can reasonably charge for your products or services. 

Notice how brands that convey a “premium” image can charge higher because their audience expects a hefty price tag for the quality they get.

• Brand equity: When people hear of your brand, do they think it’s a reputable business and a trustworthy enterprise? 

The more respected your brand is, the higher is its perceived value. 

One study shows that 81% of consumers need to trust your brand to do the right thing before buying your products or signing up for your services.

• Growth: A positive brand image can open doors to new markets and business opportunities. 

The more consistently you provide positive experiences to your clients, the more likely they are to support new ventures.

Plus, repeat customers who trust your brand not only spend more but also refer more people to your business.

Brand Perception Examples

Let’s examine three of the fastest-growing brands today:

1. Adobe Creative Cloud

Adobe Creative Cloud is a collection of software, including Acrobat Pro, Photoshop, and InDesign, that is widely popular for creating visual content.

With so many tools, Adobe has successfully built itself as the creative hub for all, making aesthetically pleasing content possible whether you’re a tech-savvy graphic designer, beginner artist, or go-getting business owner.

2. Workday

Human resources and finance are two of the most complex aspects of business operations. Workday is a platform that offers a wide range of finance and HR software. 

Designed to make work faster, more efficient, and more flexible, Workday has positioned itself as the ideal tool for businesses that demand agility in their processes.

3. Grammarly

Grammarly helps polish your writing by spotting grammar and spelling errors, suggesting better sentence construction, and checking for plagiarism.

This AI tool is one of the most widely used software today, successfully establishing itself as a necessity not just for writers but also for business owners, students, and teachers — just about anyone who needs error-free written content.

Feeling inspired by these examples? It’s your turn to shape your brand’s narrative in your favor. 

To do that, you need to consult with a messaging expert who has the experience and expertise to map out a strategy that works for you.

What is a Brand Perception Map?

Also known as a perceptual map, a brand perception map is a chart that presents your brand’s position in relation to your competitors. 

This visual representation typically charts two main attributes on the X and Y axes and will help you better understand your:

• Market position: A perceptual map makes it easier to determine your market fit and identify direct competitors. 
• Potential differentiators: By plotting brands on the map, you will be able to spot opportunities that your competitors haven’t explored. 

For example, you might see that most brands lean toward being high-quality and expensive, which means you can explore ways to bring down costs without sacrificing quality to appeal to a wider audience.

Key Components of Brand Perception

These are the elements that influence brand perception:

• External identity: Also known as the visual identity of your brand, this encompasses elements like your logo, design, typography, photography, color palette, and style.
• Messaging: How do you articulate your brand’s value to your audience? That’s your brand messaging strategy. It’s a key component of brand perception because it’s what actively tells your audience why they need you, and influences how they feel about your brand.
• Personality: Your personality is the collection of brand attributes that humanize your brand and create an emotional connection between you and your audience. For example, whether you’re tongue-in-cheek, irreverent, or authoritative affects how people feel about your brand.
• Associations: When people come across your brand, what comes into their minds? Do those associations reinforce your brand story or take away from it? 
• Reputation: How do people know you in the marketplace? For example, the automotive brand Toyota is widely known for reliable, durable, and affordable cars. What are you known for? Does it foster trust and loyalty?
• Customer experience: Another important factor that affects brand perception is the quality of your customer touchpoints. Evaluate your customer service, post-sales support, social media engagement, and even response to negative feedback to gauge how your audience feels about you.

How to Measure Brand Perception

Measuring brand perception is crucial for determining your strengths and weaknesses, as well as fine-tuning your brand strategy.

The following are methods you can explore to assess your market’s perception of your brand:

• Conducting surveys and interviews: The fastest way to determine customer sentiment is through surveys and interviews. You can run questionnaires on social media, email, or your website. 

To get qualitative feedback, include open-ended questions or conduct interviews among focus groups or in forums and online communities that you manage.

• Social listening: Regularly check audience engagement on various platforms to identify behavior patterns and gather customer feedback. This includes reviews, social media posts, and online discussions. 

You may also identify relevant keywords or topics and listen in on conversations around those.

• Gauging brand performance: Select key performance metrics that directly impact brand perception, such as brand awareness, market share, and customer satisfaction.
• Analyzing owned media interactions: You can understand a lot about your audience by how they interact with your website and email campaigns. 

The more positive the customer sentiment is, the more time they will willingly spend navigating your website or reading your newsletters. That shows they value what you have to say and like what you offer.

How to Influence Brand Perception

You can take control of how your audience perceives your brand using these strategies:

Establish a Strong Brand Identity

Help your audience understand who you are in a way that aligns with your desired narrative. To do this, ensure consistency in articulating your brand core (purpose, mission, vision, and values) across channels.

Invest in Quality

Good brand perception requires quality products and services. That also means you need to constantly innovate, keep abreast of industry trends, and adapt to changing market demands.

Improve Customer Experience

Make every customer touchpoint meaningful. In many cases, that means being more personal in your interactions to let your clients know you see them as more than just sales figures. It also pays to actively engage with your audience by responding promptly to inquiries and resolving customer complaints.

Use Social Proof

Leverage the positive word of mouth to shape brand perception. Feature user-generated content, like reviews, success stories, expert recommendations, case studies, and testimonials.

Brand Perception Metrics Worth Tracking

Here are some metrics that impact brand perception and you should be paying attention to:

• Brand awareness: Evaluate how well people recognize and recall your brand by tracking indicators like direct traffic (website visitors that reach your website without following a different link), backlink profile, and earned media coverage.
• Brand loyalty: Marks of brand loyalty are high customer satisfaction, high repeat customer volume, and increased customer lifetime value (CLV).
• Brand authority: Measure the level of confidence your audience has in your brand by using qualitative methods like surveys and questionnaires. 

You can also measure the share of voice (SOV) or the percentage with which your brand commands industry conversations. For example, you can compare how many people mention your brand on Facebook compared to your competitors.

• Market share: This refers to the percentage of your brand’s revenue compared to your competitors in the same industry. A higher market share is a good indicator of brand equity and a greater competitive edge.

How to Improve Brand Perception

As your brand and market evolve, it’s important to improve brand perception to maintain a high level of trust among your audience and command a larger share of the market.

You can do that by:

• Monitoring metrics and adapt accordingly: Track metrics, analyze results, and adapt your strategies to fill gaps.
• Gathering and responding to feedback: Encourage your customers to give honest feedback. Even scathing reviews can be an asset as long as you’re willing to listen and are open to addressing weaknesses in your brand. 
• Telling a compelling brand story: Use storytelling techniques to craft messaging that sparks an emotional connection with your audience. This ensures that your brand value doesn’t get lost amid the thousands of messages competing for your audience’s attention.

I can help you design a messaging strategy that’s uniquely yours, attracts the right audience, and ensures your message is poised for the best possible audience reception. Connect with me today to get started.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Learn more about brand perception here:

How Do You Create a Brand Perception from Scratch?

To build a brand image from the ground up, you need the following:

• Market research: Understand your audience, competition, and market fit.
• Recognizable brand identity: Start with your brand core and reinforce that with visual branding elements like a brand name, logo, and tagline.
• Unique value proposition: This will differentiate you from your competitors and help influence your audience’s decisions in your favor.
• Messaging strategy: Your messaging framework dictates how you communicate your brand story, value, and benefits in a way that connects with your audience and inspires a desired action.

What is the Difference Between Brand Perception and Brand Equity?

Brand perception is what your audience believes your brand stands for and represents, while brand equity is the perceived market value of your business.

What Factors Influence Brand Perception?

These elements help shape brand perception:

• Brand reputation
• Visual identity
• Personality
• Associations
• Customer experience

Conclusion

To remain competitive as a business, you can’t leave brand perception to chance.

Provide a pleasant customer experience, leverage social proof, invest in the quality of your products and services, and establish a solid and recognizable brand identity.

Central to that is a messaging strategy that shapes a compelling brand story, adapts it for various channels and stages of the marketing funnel, and reinforces positive audience sentiment.

Let’s get on a discovery call, and I’ll show you how personal, impactful messaging can improve your brand’s image and boost your bottom line.