Imagine you are in the market looking for shoes. You enter a shop, where the shopkeeper shows you ten shoes from different manufacturers. You pick up the shoe from Nike rather than some local brand. The brand image, reputation, and perception of Nike made you pick it up, and these factors are what make up the brand equity of any brand. This brand equity allows companies to command a premium in their market, drive customer loyalty and garner higher profits.
When a brand is consistently top of the mind amongst its consumers, it is enjoying positive brand equity. Positive brand equity has several advantages such as an increase in market share, premium pricing and the like. The best example of positive brand equity is Apple, which has a higher loyalty, demand, and pricing than any other similar brands.
Today, due to the proliferation of social media, the relationship between the brands and the consumer has changed significantly. Several brands are now leveraging the power of social media to add value and significance to their consumer. Thus helping themselves in building up the brand equity. Take, for example, WeChat, which due to its cross-functional existence, from ride sharing to restaurant reviews, has 700 million active users today.
Brand Equity Simplified
Since brand equity is a perception built up in the minds of the consumer, it regularly varies. Brand equity is formed due to the experience a consumer gets when they use the products or services of a said brand or because of the interaction that the brand initiates.
David Aaker, the branding expert, defined brand equity as, ‘A set of assets and liabilities linked to a brand, its name, and symbol that adds to or subtracts from the value provided by a product or service to a firm and/or to that firm’s customers’.
This value translates into repeat sales for the brands at a high premium. This is why many brands, today, are engaging in tracking and quantifying their brand equity as part of their brand management.
Brand Equity is made up of 4 distinct brand pillars viz. Differentiation, Relevance, Esteem, and Knowledge. Let’s have a look at them one by one:
- Differentiation – This is measured by the ability a brand has to distinguish itself from competitive brands. More importantly, it’s the degree of uniqueness a consumer attributes to a specific brand based on its distinctive quality.
- Relevance – As the word suggests, it is measured by significance a brand has in a consumer’s life. If it’s a perfect fit with consumer’s needs. Awareness is a prerequisite for calculating relevance.
- Esteem – It is the amount of recognition and respect a brand enjoys. If that respect can motivate a consumer to promote the brand.
- Knowledge – The degree to which a consumer is influenced by the brand when it comes to their behavior, actions and lifestyle decisions.
Social Videos and Enhancing Brand Equity
There has been a steep rise in the quantum of online shopping. In the year 2018 47.3% of the total population, who had access to the internet, was engaged in online shopping. Out of this universe, approximately 25% shop at least once a week. Nowadays, a customer’s purchase cycle is being greatly affected by marketing communication.
Brands are rushing towards these social media platforms to make their presence felt and to develop better relationships with their consumer base. Increasingly the consumer is putting pressure on the brands to evolve and bring in the seamless integration of content and offer a much better-personalized experience.
This is where the implementation of rich media or video content is gaining popularization. Humans as a species have an inherent affinity to visual mediums. Videos are more engaging and leave a lasting impression.
Using video as a form of engagement tool has some key benefits:
- As a medium, video provides its producer with the flexibility to explore the world of creativity
- Using video content on your platform ensures more time spend by the consumers
83% of businesses now use video as a form of a marketing tool. More than 1 billion hours of video are viewed on YouTube every day. Facebook too is prioritizing video content over any other form.
Using video content on your social media page or your website increases brand awareness tremendously. Even Google ranks a web page, which has video content, higher by about 53 times, and video content can increase the traffic by 300% and help developing new leads. Videos help a consumer in getting a better understanding of the product/service of a Brand.
Let’s have a look at how some Brands used the power of video in building up their brand equity.
- Company Commercials
Coca Cola created a worldwide buzz with its ‘Happiness Machine’ campaign. The video garnered some 4.6 million views with a shoestring budget. The entire campaign was based on the insight that human connection is the biggest driver of happiness. This is what triggered a chain reaction in the masses who started sharing the video with their loved ones. Coca Cola leveraged the power of effective video content to successfully drive home the brand idea of creating happiness. It added value to its consumers’ life who in turn added value to the brand.
- Social Media Live Videos
Live videos are generally used for covering an event, Q&A session, product reveal or to telecast an interview. Starbucks used this tool to telecast the celebration of National Voter Registration Day in the US. In the video, one could see Starbucks’ employees standing in a queue to register themselves for voting while explaining the importance of the act. The video imparted Starbucks an imagery of being a socially active brand that is engaged in making a better society.
- Product Demos
These kinds of videos are used by marketers to showcase how to use a certain product or give some information on the new update features. Volvo used this medium to creatively put forth how it is different and better than other brands. In the video, the brand used actor Jean-Claude Van Damme, famous for his splits, to showcase the precision and directional stability of Volvo Dynamic Steering.
CSR Videos
CSR videos are used to put a human essence to the company or the brand. Through these videos, brands educate their consumers about the values they hold and their larger mission towards society.
Take for example Equinox, America’s top fitness chain, which through its Heroes project helped disabled war veterans in their rehabilitation. The video follows Tim Medvetz, founder of the project, going through his own journey and how Equinox played a vital role in it.
- Testimonials
Consumers today turn to social media and the internet overall to garner more knowledge about the product before investing in it. This is where testimonial videos play an important part. Testimonial videos are meant to showcase how the brand helped in alleviating customer problems. They also help in strengthening the brand image and build trust with the consumer. Amazon uses this tool to create an image of a trusted brand partner with the consumers.
Company Story Videos
Brands use storytelling to create awareness amongst their consumers about the nature of their business, work culture, social ethos, etc. This helps give the brand a human face. Gillette, in the thick of #metoo movement, released a video showcasing prevailing ideas about men in the society, films, etc. and how it is not what best men can be.
The company also changed its 30-year-old tagline to ‘The Best Men can be’. The campaign garnered a huge response from the audience and helped Gillette in sending out a positive message about men whilst building up brand esteem and creating a differentiation between them and the competitors.
- User-Generated Videos
Since a lot of consumers today possess a smartphone with a good quality camera, many brands now reach out to loyal customers or social media influencers to create content. This helps the brand by doing the following things:
- It increases the engagement rate between the brand and the consumer
- Helps build-up brand awareness and knowledge
GoPro consistently runs contests or asks its users to share with the brand the photos and videos of their amazing journey.
- Explainer Videos
Similar to the product demo videos, the explainer videos demonstrate a product or service in under 2 minutes. The video consists of 4 basic parts i.e. problem, solution, feature, benefits and a call to action. Used by every kind of business out there, explainer videos are usually of 2 types viz. animated and live-action. Dollar Shave Club used this tool to wittingly demonstrate why the consumer should invest in their product over any other. This clearly sets the brand’s tone and helps them stand apart from the crowd.
The Wrap Up
So, now you have a fair idea about how videos on social media platforms can help you build your brand equity. The good thing is you don’t have to constraint yourself to any particular format. Experiment with different formats but keep in mind that your videos must:
- Entertain, inspire or educate
- Grab the attention of the consumer
- Must be short and crisp
- Upload natively
- Be adaptive to demographic and market
Build your social media strategies keeping in mind the consumer you want to engage with and then work upon the content. The more you think about the consumer, the more your consumer will think about you.
