Brand affinity and the new rules of positioning

What about brand awareness? How important is it really? It used to be the primary indicator of marketing success, but there are also companies with high brand awareness that struggle. Nowadays, we often talk about loyalty or even affinity as determining factors for a brand’s success. We discuss the difference between brand awareness and affinity and how positioning helps you build brand affinity.

Old marketing focused on brand awareness. When you’re in the supermarket, you’re more likely to choose a brand you know than an unfamiliar product next to it. But what if you can take more time to make your choice? What goes through your mind then?

Loyalty or Convenience

Brand loyalty has been a concept for years. Customer cards, loyalty programs, and membership campaigns all have one goal: to stimulate repeat visits. You are probably a “loyal” customer of your nearest supermarket, but is this out of habit or preference? Ideally, you want people to consciously choose your brand rather than out of ingrained habit.

Brand Affinity

When making a conscious choice for a brand, an advanced form of loyalty comes into play: brand affinity. Brand affinity is what happens when you feel emotionally connected to a brand and have a pronounced (often literal) preference for it. We only need to mention Apple, and you understand what brand affinity is, but brands like Rolex, Nike, BMW, and Mercedes also have a loyal (sometimes militant) fan base.

What do these brands do differently that elicits such a high level of loyalty?

In the old world, you simply had to ensure that everyone knew your brand, and sales almost followed automatically. Nowadays, positioning is much more important, how people perceive your brand compared to the competition. This positioning is now mainly influenced by recommendations from friends, online reviews, factors like sustainability policies, and the role a brand plays in society. How have these companies established such a strong positioning?

Bernadette Jiwa provides an answer in her book “Meaningful: The Story of Ideas That Fly.” She suggests that many companies adhere to the old rules for brand awareness:

1. Make something for everyone.
2. Tell us our story.
3. Attract customers.
4. Build brand awareness.

We don’t need to explain to you that if a brand has to be attractive to everyone, it’s probably not very unique. Our story then becomes generic, and we have to work very hard to convince people to buy our product. If people are then “reasonably satisfied,” your brand awareness will probably increase a bit. That’s the old way of marketing and positioning.

Positioning and Brand Affinity

If you’re competing with a brand like Rolex or BMW, you won’t win. These brands are so intertwined with their “fans” that their story and offerings closely align with what customers want, and through years of use, there are thousands of stories to tell. They have such a clear positioning that you can never compete with a one-sided story. Fortunately, there are new rules for brand affinity that explain how to make contact:

1. Understand what motivates the customer, her story.
2. Create something the customer truly needs.
3. Give them a story to tell.
4. Build brand affinity.

By understanding what moves your customer and what her story is, you can create something she truly needs. Your brand no longer takes center stage in the story you tell; instead, it’s about the place your brand occupies in her life. Your customers can passionately tell that story.

Tesla, for example, managed to quickly establish itself among BMW, Mercedes, and Audi by following these principles. Tesla understood what a small group of people was waiting for: an electric car that was practical to use. Tesla’s story is about technical innovation and a better world where it eliminates all objections to electric driving. The positioning is clear, and people love to share that story.

Positioning is the foundation of every brand, the way you build brand affinity and give your target audience or fans a story they want to share. You don’t write a positioning from your perspective but from the perspective of your customers: why is your brand the best for them? Answering that question is our favorite challenge, and hopefully, your own answer has become much clearer through this article.

How do you feel about brand affinity and the role of positioning? Let us know via LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter!

A good story sells itself. The Merkelijkheid writes that story and then helps you create the means to make that story known in the market, even if your brand’s positioning is already clear.