Brand is the most valuable asset of a company, not only because it can win a good reputation and respect for the company, but more importantly, it can directly promote the continued growth of the business? I believe every business owner sincerely hopes that he A good brand can arouse market popularity and become the decisive force for customers to purchase the company's products and services. And this power is one of the three important links in the Interbrand brand value evaluation system: Role of Brand. To put it bluntly, it is the influence of the brand on customers’ purchasing decisions. In fact, when people say that a certain company's product is a brand, the meaning behind this comment often means that this brand has begun to have the power to influence purchasing decisions, and can even generate a premium, making consumers willing to buy it. Spend more money to buy.

Whether a brand can have the power to influence purchasing decisions cannot be explained simply by its popularity. Although many domestic companies are still obsessed with the myth that "famousness is brand", we can see the contradiction when we simply compare the brand power of "Chinese well-known trademarks" and international brands in the market. Through long-term research, Interbrand has found that the strength of a brand's influence depends to a greater extent on the business competition model adopted by a company, rather than entirely on the amount of investment in brand promotion. When a company's business model tends to treat its products and services as similar to those of its competitors (homogeneity) and chooses to compete on price, the brand's effect becomes insignificant; on the contrary, if the company's business model When you choose to put the brand first and manage unique emotional value and brand experience as the core competitive advantage, the power of the brand will be astonishingly powerful. This explains why, in general, the brand power of Chinese brands is always lower than that of international brands that are galloping around the world. This is because many Chinese brand owners and managers still do not have enough courage to completely abandon the price competition model, nor do they have enough Build brand intangible value with experience and confidence.

Of course, it cannot be denied that the power of brands does not have the same influence in every category. Generally speaking, the closer a product or service is to a commodity, such as rice or gold bars, the lower the brand power; and the closer a product or service is to a luxury product, such as perfume, the higher the power. However, this general rule is not unchallenged. We have many examples around the world of successfully breaking through the limits of category brand power through adjustments to our own business competition models. Among them, Intel is a case that is talked about in the industry. As a manufacturer of central processing units for computer-related products, Intel is not content with just being a supplier to branded computer manufacturers. Instead, it actively wants to break the constraints of the industry chain and directly influence the choices of end consumers. Through IntelInside's branding efforts, Intel has successfully convinced end users to accept the unique value of Intel processors, making them the inevitable choice for branded computers.

The Starbucks and 85C we are familiar with are another example. If you have tried 85C coffee, you will agree that the quality of the coffee they make is still good, but the price is only 1/4 of Starbucks coffee. However, this price advantage did not make Starbucks customers turn to 85C, and Starbucks' business is still booming. The secret is naturally that Starbucks has effectively activated its brand power, created extraordinary psychological value, and thus won an astonishing premium. Even at a certain level, what customers buy is not just a cup of coffee, but also the psychological satisfaction and self-image recognition brought by the brand. On the other hand, 85°C, although it can provide excellent coffee and bread and cakes, fails to activate the brand, so the brand power is not enough to compete with Starbucks.

Specifically, how can companies improve their brand power? According to Interbrand China research, the strength of brand power is directly related to brand authenticity (authenticity) and customer relevance (relevance).

These two core indicators of brand strength point to an important change in management mentality for enterprises: operators must change their thinking habits from the inside out (inside-outthinking). What should my brand do? , to "outside-inthinking" (outside-inthinking)? What do customers want from my brand? Observe all companies that can use their brand power to the extreme, they must have a unique psychology that attracts customers The promise of value. A brand promise that can highly attract customers must be highly relevant to customer needs. Although this sounds like a cliché, most companies are often unable to effectively define their own unique brand promises. In the end, they have to settle on some functional connotations, such as quality, innovation, customer satisfaction, etc., which are not differentiated and cannot create psychology. General talk about value capabilities. Authenticity is also a link that companies often overlook when improving their brand power. A brand must have an influence on customers' purchasing behavior, and it cannot be treated as propaganda without words or practice. The old thinking of equating branding with advertising does not work in the new digital world. Nowadays, consumers can easily research, understand and monitor whether the brands they care about are consistent with their words and deeds through digital media. Therefore, only brands that are committed to delivering on their promises can draw on the power of growth in today's digital world and influence customers' purchasing decisions.

Brand is an important asset of a company, but most domestic companies still fail to effectively activate brand assets, allowing brands to become mere trademarks rather than a driving force for business growth. Activating brand power does not mean investing a lot of advertising and resources. The key is whether the company is willing to change traditional thinking and think about whether its brand can bring benefits to customers based on the functional benefits of existing high-quality products and services. Distinctive psychological value. And when companies start to manage psychological value, the growth of brand power also starts at the same time.