Brand affinity and the new rules of positioning
Brand awareness, how important is it really? It has always been the primary indicator of marketing success, but there are also companies with high brand awareness that struggle. Nowadays, we increasingly 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 your brand affinity.
Old marketing focuses on brand awareness. When you stand in front of the shelf in the supermarket, you prefer to choose the brand you know rather than the unknown product next to it. But what if you can think longer about your choice, what goes through your mind then?
Loyalty or convenience
Brand loyalty has been a concept for years. Loyalty cards, reward programs, and membership campaigns have only one goal: to encourage 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 instead of out of ingrained routine.
Brand affinity
With the conscious choice for a brand comes an advanced form of loyalty: 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 (militant) fan base.
What do these brands do differently to evoke such a high degree of loyalty?
In the old world, you simply had to make sure everyone knew your brand; sales almost followed automatically. Nowadays, positioning is much more important, the way people place your brand against the competition. That positioning is now mainly influenced by recommendations from friends, online reviews, things like sustainability policies, and the role a brand plays in society. How have these companies taken such a strong positioning?
Jiwa Bernadette answers this in her book ‘Meaningful: The Story of Ideas That Fly’. She states that many companies stick to the old rules for brand awareness:
- Make something for everyone
- Tell our story
- Attract customers
- Build brand awareness
We don’t need to explain to you that if a brand has to appeal to everyone, it is probably not very unique. Our story then becomes just as general, and we have to work very hard to convince people to buy our product. If people are then ‘quite satisfied,’ your brand awareness will probably rise a little. So much for the old way of marketing and positioning.
Positioning and brand affinity
If you compete with a brand like Rolex or BMW, you won’t win that way. These brands are so intertwined with their ‘fans’ that story and offer closely match what customers want, and after 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 you do make contact:
- Understand what moves the customer, her story
- Create something the customer truly needs
- Give them a story to tell
- Build brand affinity
Because you understand what moves your customer and what her story is, you can create something the customer truly needs. Subsequently, your brand is no longer central in the story you tell but the place your brand occupies in her life. Your customers can tell that story with passion.
Tesla was able to quickly earn a place among BMW, Mercedes, and Audi in this way, something Lexus and Infiniti have been working on for years. Tesla knew exactly what a small group of people was waiting for; an electric car that was actually usable in practice. Tesla’s story is about technical ingenuity and a better world that removes all objections to electric driving. The positioning is clear, and people like to pass that story on.
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 do not write positioning from yourself but precisely 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.
What do you think about brand affinity and the role of positioning? Let us know via LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter!
A good story sells itself. De Merkelijkheid writes that story and then helps you realize tools to make that story known in the market. Even if your brand’s positioning is already clear.
