Brand equity is the golden egg of marketing. Good brand equity can convince customers to choose your brand, even when you make a mistake or mess a product or service up. The brand resonance pyramid is a framework describing six building blocks that together create four stages of brand development. These four stages are: Resonance, Judgements/Feeling, Performance/Imagery, and Salience (mindtools.com). Each of these stages will be discussed in detail.
Salience = Brand Recognition
Salience is the first stage of the pyramid and the building block that everything else sits on. Salience refers to how noticeable your brand is to consumers and how well they recognize it. In this stage, the objective of marketing and of building brand awareness, is to build deep broad brand awareness (mindtools.com). When Apple first started selling computers, they had to become recognizable to customers. It didn’t matter how good their product was if people didn’t know they existed. Companies want consumers to recognize who they are and what they are selling.
Performance + Imagery
Stage two has two building blocks, Performance and Imagery. Performance is how well your product or service is created, but most importantly, it’s how well it meets your customers needs (mindtools.com). The classic iPhone versus Android battle is one that is rooted in deep brand equity. Apple and Samsung both create great products, but which one will serve the needs of the customer better. To build brand equity, customers must need your product. Strictly speaking, Imagery refers to the needs of a customer on the social or psychological level. Customers may ask themselves, “Do I look cool in this?” or “What does this say about me?” Many people purchase Apple products because of the imagery associated with it. All my friends have iPhones and I think an iPhone is cool. This greatly influences my purchase decision. It also adds to the brand loyalty I have with Apple. Brand meaning is important and is a building block that the next two stages rely on.
Judgements and Feelings
The next stage of the pyramid includes two building blocks as well: Judgements and Feelings (mindtools.com). Consumers must decide how they feel about a brand. Customers make judgements about a brand based on things such as quality, credibility, and consideration of needs. I drive a Ford truck because I know that it is reliable, and it will get me where I need to go. Feelings are literally the way a brand makes a customer feel. Different products draw different emotions such as happiness, excitement, and security. At this stage, consumers need to know more about you and more about your brand in detail.
Resonance is the mastery of marketing
The final stage in the Brand Resonance Pyramid is Resonance. This stage sits on top of the other stages and can only be achieved if the other stages are acceptable to a consumer. The stronger the stages below resonance, the stronger the relationship at the top can be (mindtools.com). The best way to describe resonance is to define it as a relationship. What connection do you have with the customer and what relationship have you built up? As a consumer, I would be willing to pay more for a product or service if I knew I had a relationship with the business I was doing business with. This top stage is the most lucrative in the brand resonance pyramid because it can be leveraged to convince consumers to continue purchasing from your brand.
The Brand Resonance Pyramid is the most important part of marketing
The Brand Resonance Pyramid is an extremely important part of the marketing process. It can make or break and company so it must be given lots of attention. The four stages all build upon each other to produce brand loyalty. The stronger the brand loyalty, the more lucrative the customer. This pyramid can be related back to all chapter of the book we have studied so far but most importantly, it can be related back to purchase decisions consumers make in Chapter 5. The Brand Resonance Pyramid is an important part of business.
