What Is Brand Value, Why Is It Important and How Can You Increase It?

There are countless brands in the business world, and brand value is a particularly important factor in sales and marketing. Brand value is not built through commercial activities alone; it requires a strategy that is thought through in detail, from product quality to customer relationships. For example, growing sales in e-commerce depends heavily on brand value. So how is brand value built?

What Is Brand Value?

At its core, brand value refers to a brand’s financial value, such as sales figures and revenue. Of course, financial performance isn’t the only factor that makes up a company’s brand value. Details such as communication with customers, customer loyalty and user experience also determine it. So, to secure your place in the e-commerce market, you should pay attention to these details. Brand value is also an indicator of a company’s credibility and its ability to attract investment.

What Makes Up Brand Value?

The elements that make up brand value could be discussed at length, because almost every action a brand takes affects it. Beyond providing quality services or products, the experience a customer has can have a big impact on your brand. The factors affecting brand value can be listed under three headings.

Brand Knowledge

This means more than the basic facts about a brand. It can be described as the value assigned to the brand by the customer, not the value the brand assigns to itself. Brand knowledge can be examined under two subheadings: brand image and brand awareness.

Brand Image

Brand image represents how consumers see a brand. In other words, you should ask where the brand sits in the consumer’s mind — positively or negatively. What a customer feels and remembers when they see the brand’s logo, ads or products determines how positive the brand image is. Some factors that affect brand image are:

• Consumers recalling qualities of the brand’s products such as durability and price
• Consumers remembering the benefits the brand’s products provide
• The brand being associated with human characteristics, shaping how consumers relate to it and describe it

These elements all influence brand image.

Brand Awareness

This refers to how well a brand stays in the customer’s memory. Knowing the brand’s logo, slogan and product range, and being able to compare it with competitors using this knowledge, is a sign of awareness. If consumers can remember the brand’s advertising, their shopping experiences and similar elements, brand awareness is high.

Consumer Attitude Toward the Brand

How existing and potential customers feel about a brand is one of the elements that affects brand value. The general attitude of the customer base toward the brand is very important. Even if the brand is profitable, its brand value won’t increase unless the value customers place on it increases.

How your brand is etched into people’s memories matters a great deal. Even PR through advertising and participation in social responsibility projects will improve attitudes toward the brand. This positive development will, in turn, directly increase the likelihood of customers buying products or services.

Brand loyalty can be defined as consumers regularly buying a service or product. In some markets, consumers embrace certain brands more and are more inclined to buy their products. This is an important sign of loyalty. Factors such as communication with consumers, the tone used in the market and the quality of products or services build customer loyalty. That’s why brands with a large loyal customer base don’t struggle with sales even when they price above the market.

Market Share

Technically, market share is the portion of a product’s total sales or revenue in a market that belongs to a company. It also includes the brand’s potential future financial value. This is why market share ranks first among the elements used to calculate brand value. Brands with a strong share in their market will see their brand value increase. A brand’s market and share value is also influenced by its market share.

Why Is Brand Value Important?

As mentioned earlier, brand value affects a company’s overall value. It is associated with financial income, but the intangible gains on the consumer side should also be considered. We need to be aware of how important this concept is. With developing technology, information and capital have become global, accelerating and simplifying the production and sale of goods and services. This has allowed small-scale entrepreneurial brands to produce as well. E-commerce has helped every brand, regardless of size, reach its customers and even go global.

Given all this, creating a brand doesn’t seem very difficult. But remember, not every brand has the same value… Especially in e-commerce, consumers can easily find a product that fits their budget and the quality they want. When choosing among so many options, consumers prioritize not only budget or quality but also brand value. Being preferred by consumers gives you a big advantage in market share against your competitors. That’s why increasing brand value is so important.

How to Increase Brand Value in 5 Steps

Increasing a brand’s value requires applying the right strategies. Ideally, the brand management team should include people with experience and expertise in brand value. If your team doesn’t have this knowledge, here’s how to increase brand value in 5 steps.

Target Audience Analysis

Analyzing your target audience with brand value in mind will put you well ahead of your competitors. Your customers’ loyalty, their positive or negative attitudes toward you and their purchase behavior are things you need to know to drive sales. Target audience analysis allows you to build more accurate sales strategies for products and services.

Building a Corporate Brand Identity

Simply founding a brand and having a logo is not a brand identity. Building an identity involves many areas, from advertising to customer communication. Of course, even if you are a friendly brand in customer relations, you shouldn’t compromise on your corporate identity. Together with your corporate identity, your logo, memorable slogan and all similar details will remind consumers of you.

Prioritizing Customer Service

This is one of the most important elements that directly affects the brand’s value in the eyes of consumers — and that perceived value directly affects brand value. It always pays for customer service to be easy to reach. It’s also important to stay in touch with customers at all times, not just before and after a sale. Remember, customers being able to communicate easily and efficiently with the brand about the products or services they bought will positively affect brand value.

Advertising and Marketing Activities

Advertising and marketing activities are very important for increasing brand value and keeping that growth stable. The main goal of advertising is always to sell and to stay in customers’ minds. Special days can also be used for promotion. For example, brands publish ads on national holidays (in Turkey, days like April 23 or religious holidays), whether or not they are related to the brand, to attract customers and stay memorable. This way, brands always remain somewhere in potential customers’ minds. Assessing brand value is very important for advertising and marketing work, and the current value should always be increased.