A few traditional methods used by brands even today to understand the identity-image gap. 

 

The brand GAP that we are talking about is the gap between communicated brand identity and perceived brand image by channel members and the consumers. It is the question of Who You Are Vs How You are seen?

Let’s take a look at how you can measure this gap.

What is Brand Image?  

Brand image is the perception of customers for a particular brand. The image of any brand tends to develop over time.  It is formed in the minds of customers based upon the experience and interaction with the brand, interactions can be in different ways and not necessarily only the buying or using of the product or service. The major concept behind the brand image is that the consumer isn’t just buying the product or service but also the image which is associated with that product or service.

What is Brand Identity?

A brand identity is a collection of tools or elements used by a company to build a brand image. Brand identity and its components arise from a company’s mission, brand value proposition, competitive position on the market, long-term goals, and importance to the values and concerns of the target audience. These components have a foundational nature and, in the branding process, describe what a company wants to communicate with its target audience. Meanwhile, a brand identity defines how these foundational elements are communicated. The most common elements of a brand identity usually include:

➤ A brand name

➤ A tagline or a slogan

➤ A voice and a tone

➤ Colors and graphic styles

➤ A style and a typeface

➤ A logo and a wordmark and their variations.

Traditional ways to capture the image identity gap  

A lot of companies perform a preliminary image identity gap analysis by capturing the brand associations from these two perspectives (internal + external). Traditional ways to capture them include:

1. Perception surveys: This FUNNEL Model answers the questions like have we created awareness of our brand? Are people considering it? A subset of those are actually buying us, and a subset of those will buy nothing else. They’re very, very loyal to our brand.

Alternatively, on the other hand from these we can also answer – What is the strategic health of our brand? How they’re looking at you and your competition because it’s not just about how well you’re doing, but how well you’re doing compared to others.

2. Customer experiences forms: Brand marketers communicate with their target consumers to make them aware of brand identity and communicate the same way to the channel members directly. Channel members, in turn, convey the same to the end-users. Thus, a proper alignment of these three crucial nodes, namely, brand marketers, channel members and consumers, is inevitable for the efficient transfer of brand identity. However, in reality, not all are successful in synchronizing communicated brand identity and image perception. So, the identification and measurement of the identity-image gap are essential.

3. Non-Traditional Method: Structuration theory proves to be a solid theory which links the elements of the branding process (culture, identity, image, and influence) to empirical efforts grounded on this theory.

Structuration theory can acknowledge the interaction of dynamic relationships between these different facets of branding.

Opt our Brand Strategy Services which helps you create your Brand Identity and build upon the image.

Conclusion

Once a gap is identified through traditional or non-traditional, it will be easy for marketers to adopt possible measures to bridge the gap. This helps brand marketers to understand the branding process more objectively. Technology is providing you with a better analysis that will help you improve your operations, strategies, and customer experience.

TIQ forms a perfect alternative to solve all your queries and provide you the proper Brand Strategy. For questions or to share your project details with us, drop us an email at info@technocratiq.com.