In this article, I will discuss Brand Management, which is the eighth dimension of the CX Omnichannel Management Maturity Model.
Let's start by clarifying that people interact with brands, not with channels or touchpoints. The very concept of "channel" is a creation of professionals and managers, not of people (prospects, users, customers).
Given this, companies must ensure brand consistency and seek customer loyalty beyond a single channel or touchpoint. Or can you imagine your customers, desperate for an email response, writing to you on social media thinking it's a different channel?
Frankly, what customer keeps channels separate in their mind?
Returning to omnichannel, a fundamental aspect to consider when prioritizing improvements and developments in products, services, or the experience, is understanding how involved the customer is with the brand; that is, if the brand has little or no impact on their life, in order to build value in the future.
In this sense, not all types of products and services have the same impact on people's lives.
Furthermore, when estimating how well we are doing in terms of brand management, we need to understand if the brand is a benchmark for customers (their preferred brand) and the market in general.
When you evaluate your company with our CX Omnichannel Management Maturity Model, you will see that the Brand Management dimension is operationalized as follows:
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Brand consistency: Our brand identity, trademark, slogan, colors, images, typography, and brand information are consistent across all channels.
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Loyalty program: Our brand has a great integrated loyalty program.
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Preferred brand: Customers tend to choose our brand as their preferred brand for future purchases in our category.
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Benchmark: We are one of the benchmark brands among customers in our market, beyond our product or service category.
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Brand involvement: We understand the level of involvement the customer has with our brand; that is, we know if the customer is highly involved with the brand or if the brand has little or no impact on their life.
We incorporated this concept based on previous research according to which brand involvement is defined as:
“whether an individual is highly involved with a brand in most or all aspects of their life; or somewhat involved where the brand has little or no impact on their life” (Pascoe and Wright, 2016).
According to the same authors, brand involvement has three components that were adapted by O’Cass (2000) and Keller (1993):
- Significance
- Relevance
- Interest
How is this measured? In Pascoe and Wright's (2017) research, the study instrument includes three statements that participants must rate and that are formulated with retailers in mind, but each can express them according to their brand:
- "This retailer is significant to me."
- "I consider this retailer to be a relevant part of my life."
- "I am interested in this retailer."
Brand involvement is relevant within the context of the maturity model because many correlations between satisfaction and experience variables depend on the type of product or service we are evaluating.
I leave you with the following question:
Do you know the level of involvement your customer has with your brand?
Finally, you may have noticed that in this article I did not comment on branding; branding is a component of marketing that many people mistakenly confuse or reduce to brand identity issues. This is not a coincidence.
It is true that branding is a component of marketing (anyone who has studied its fundamentals knows this), but brand management is not an exclusive task of the marketing department: brand management is a cross-functional responsibility.
Or do you think a brand becomes a mental benchmark for the market solely through the work of the marketing department? Another topic for debate in a future article.
The original version of this article was published on LinkedIn for the Omnichannel Newsletter in Spanish. You can follow me on that platform as well.
- Keller, K. L. (1993). Conceptualizing, Measuring, and Managing Customer-Based Brand Equity. Journal of Marketing, 57(1), 1.
- O’Cass, A. (2000). An assessment of consumers product, purchase decision, advertising and consumption involvement in fashion clothing. Journal of Economic Psychology, 21(5), 545-576.
- Pascoe, M., Wright, O. & Winzar, H. (2017). Using best-worst scaling to reveal perceived relative importance of website attributes. Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, 29(2), 393-408.
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