Insight 81: The brand’s social role is often underestimated

A strong brand must be built on both hard and soft associations. Only then does your brand have the best chance of becoming more valuable than the competition – i.e. generating greater revenue and higher profits.

A particularly overlooked soft brand association is the social aspect of the brand. Simplified, a brand’s social role can be expressed in two ways.

First, it’s about how we buy, use or want to associate with a brand to signal identity or status to ourselves or others. Status is usually associated only with luxury brands, but the Brand Potential studies we have conducted show that social status has a significant impact in most industries.

Take grocery retail as an example. Several chains are perceived as almost identical and basically have the same product assortment. The one thing that differentiates them – and ultimately explains why a particular chain does not achieve the market share it should – is perceived social status. Or rather, the lack of it. The chain is viewed as slightly embarrassing to shop at.

The point is that status is not only important in positive terms. Lack of status can be a serious sales obstacle – a kind of “shame factor.” Brands with a shame stigma will struggle to attract new customers regardless of changes in their physical offering.

Status also plays a crucial role in B2B buyer decisions. For example, the Brand potential studies show that “prestige and status” is a very revenue-driving associations in B2B – more so than product quality or wide product range. One example from the industrial sector is how many CEOs that proudly state they developed their strategy together with McKinsey…

Second, the brand’s social role involves creating community. Apple, Jeep and Harley-Davidson are classic examples of brands around which clear “brand communities” have emerged. Members may meet in person or online, but the community can also be purely psychological. For example, SAS’s “We are travellers” concept made their gold members feel even more important. Unfortunately, SAS made the mistake to (again) change concept…

This psychological sense of community is just as important in B2B, where it can be created through golf tournaments, events, seminars or customer trainings. Caterpillar, for instance, has successfully built a brand community that both employees and customers want to be part of and everyone proudly wears their clothes, watches, etc.

Unfortunately, many business leaders, entrepreneurs, marketers, and salespeople underestimate the brand’s social role. This makes the brand’s social role a largely untapped revenue opportunity.