Brand Image
Brand Image explained
You want to be seen as easy to work with. Customers talk about long waits. That gap creates a concrete brand task. A new line of copy alone is unlikely to address it usefully; first establish which experiences shape the perception.
Start by asking openly what people associate with the brand. Then add specific questions about characteristics relevant to its positioning. Separate existing customers, prospective customers and other groups where their experiences differ. A single aggregate can hide useful distinctions.
Reviews, comments and service feedback provide clues about those experiences. They do not automatically represent the market. Combine them with appropriate research and check the findings against the actual offer.
In Creative Engineering, we translate intended characteristics into decisions people can experience: what the campaign promises, how the website explains the offer and what happens after an enquiry. The creative expression should communicate something the product and service can support.
Examples
Hypothetical application
A service provider wants to appear approachable. Interviews reveal that unclear offer conditions cause frustration. The team simplifies the explanation and enquiry process. Later research checks whether perceptions change among the relevant groups.
Key Points
- Image concerns perception beyond the brand handbook.
- Different groups may hold different images of a brand.
- Open responses and specific attribute questions complement one another.
- Consider communication, product and service together.
Practical application
Select a few relevant characteristics and investigate experiences that support or contradict them. Translate the findings into specific communication and improvements. Then assess whether the intended perception reaches people.
Useful measures
Spontaneous associations
Ideas mentioned in open responses, analysed by topic and audience.
Attribute association
Percentage connecting a clearly defined characteristic to the brand; report competitor comparisons separately.
Promise–experience gap
Differences between a communicated promise and reported experience at specific touchpoints.
Common mistakes
- Describing the desired brand image as an established perception.
- Responding to criticism only with more advertising.
- Extrapolating individual comments to the whole audience.
Sources and context
- Kevin Lane Keller: Customer-Based Brand Equity (1993)
Research foundation distinguishing awareness, brand associations and customer-based brand equity.
Frequently Asked Questions about Brand Image
Identity concerns the intended identity and its expression. Image concerns what people actually associate with the brand. Comparing them shows which intentions land and where experience contradicts them.
There is no universal timeframe. The issue, previous experiences, events and contact with the brand all matter. Set research intervals that fit the actions and the change you can reasonably observe.
It can reveal topics and reactions. People who comment publicly are not a random sample of your audience. Claims about that audience’s perceptions require an appropriate research design.
Related links
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