What Is Brand Equity and How Do You Build It On Amazon?

Your brand equity is the value of your company or product based on how the audience and customers perceive it. Brand value tends to go up as awareness increases, which requires you to develop a plan to increase brand awareness and value for the public and your customers, regardless of the platform.  Brand equity is defined as the commercial value that derives from consumer perception of the brand name of a particular product or service, rather than from the product or service itself.

A few things can be done to build brand equity in eCommerce, especially on Amazon. If your brand has recognition, your audience is aware of you, and you also have good customer experiences to share and lifetime customers who have become advocates, then the perceived quality will increase.  Amazon is actually customer-obsessed and a brand selling on Amazon may have a higher perceived value because of the trust and equity that the platform has.

Build Your Brand Identity and Awareness

The more you can work on your brand identity, the easier it will be to encourage brand awareness. Think about your customers in their buying cycle and try to create content that gets to them where they are so that they can learn about your offers.  You have to build a relationship with your customer on a regular basis and give them the information they need to make the decision to buy.  And once they purchase, you need to continue to interact with that customer so that you can continue to provide value.  

Doing this on Amazon can be tough because you don’t always get the name of the customer and you can’t market directly to customers unless they opt-in to receive your marketing.  Brands can connect with buyers through internal messages on Amazon – you are able to send one “marketing” type message after purchase.  But not all messages are allowed and buyers can opt-out of receiving messages.  

You do have the option of making packaging with easy to read information about your website and contact information for customers.  Making packaging that is memorable and interesting builds brand recognition and loyalty.  Another consideration on Amazon is that not all packaging needs to be “retail ready”.  You can use packaging with less color photos and wording because you are not trying to get someone to grab it off the shelf.  You can make that more memorable too because you have more room to wow your customer upon opening the package.

You can add an insert card to your product with some specific information, like a thank you message or instructions and warranty information.  You can also include social media or website links and ask for a review in a neutral tone.  You cannot incentivize reviews or try to use manipulative language to get better reviews.  Honestly, your product should be so great that if you ask for it, your customers are happy to review the product.  But you can give them ways to contact you outside of Amazon and stay connected to your brand.

Know Your Brand Mission Statement or Value Statement 

If you don’t have a value or mission statement worked out yet, developing it is going to help you create more brand equity. This statement will show not only your customers but also your contractors or employees what you stand for and will help inform your marketing and product development. 

When you have a mission statement, it shows customers where you are going with your brand and how they can be part of the journey.  Customers love to share in your adventure, so let them know what you stand for.

Provide an Amazing Customer Experience 

Focus on ensuring that every touchpoint with your customer is a good experience for them – from the time they click through to a landing page until they’re receiving emails from you, and including receiving and using the products or services you sell to them. 

This is where you can also learn from Amazon.  They focus on providing an excellent experience for their customers and it shows.  Think about how you can add value to the product you are selling – whether it’s an insert with excellent instructions and a link to the youtube channel to get more information or extended return policy for your customers. 

Improve Your Customer Care

Once you start having customers who need assistance, you need to set up some customer service automation with a help desk, an FAQ, email customer service options, and more. Whatever you need to answer your customers within 24 hours after their issue (regardless of the day of the week) is imperative today.  This is another place where selling on Amazon FBA can improve your brand experience.  Amazon does most of the customer interaction for you as well as shipping so you are able to work on the other details of your business.

Develop Positive Feelings Related to Your Brand 

Find different ways to help your audience and those who are following you to feel positive about your brand. For example, you can tie purchases to an ongoing service project or a charity that your community chooses to gain goodwill, but also to help the community.   What is the brand equity cause or topic that your customers will connect with the best?  Go forward with that and create a difference with that topic to help your customers see that you are a socially responsible business.

Build Deeper Relationships with Your Customers 

Once someone becomes your customer, find new ways to connect with them. Invite them to a buyer group on Facebook or another message board. Host Q & A webinars live for buyers to help them. Provide education and training on how to use your product to it’s fullest potential.  One great example is a grill company – Traeger.  You can purchase their grills at many places from home improvement stores to hardware stores and even shopping networks.  But they have lots of ways to connect and build a deeper relationship with your grill.  They have an app with recipes showing you how to cook in a “pellet grill”.  There are Facebook groups of people who ask questions and get answers all about how to make their meals turn out better.  

Improve Customer Retention 

Start recommending and developing products and services to current customers based on the information you know about them. Give them the first sneak peeks for sales or new products. Make them feel as if they’re part of your community.  This is a great way to use your email list and connect with customers.  Special events, sales, accessories, ways to connect, and more are all things that customers love.  And if they don’t love hearing from you they can unsubscribe.

What Is Brand Equity and How Do I Build It?

You can build your brand equity by focusing on one thing well, and that is your customers. The customers’ pain points, the customers’ perception, and how they think and feel makes all the difference in building your brand equity as high as you can. This in turn is naturally going to help you command brand loyalty for your services and products, while also ensuring every customer feels thrilled. 

You can achieve a lot of this when you sell on Amazon and connect with your customers through video and marketing about your products.  You can reach more people with the amount of traffic that is on Amazon and then wow your customers with the experience you shape for your buyers.

If you want to build brand equity and sell more products profitably, we can work together to create a great brand presence on Amazon that compliments your brand image.  Schedule a meeting with us to talk further about what we can do for your brand.