How to Increase Brand Equity in Today's Digital World

I was recently interviewed about the importance of building brand equity by Kenny Au for Forbes China. This article is an interesting deep dive into the considerations entrepreneurs and brand marketers need to make when building brands. It also features insights on personal brand building from William Arruda. The original article is linked here, and the english translation is linked here. Be sure to check out what Kenny is up to, and enjoy the article below! 

How to Increase Brand Equity in Today's Digital World

By Kenny Au

Today’s digital world opens up so many opportunities for growth and branding but it can also make it harder for brands to stand out online. Building up a positive brand equity can help brands gain traffic to their content, have more successful launches, gain press attention, and be able to charge more premium prices. But how do you build it?

Brand equity is built on brand awareness, trust, and the brand’s digital footprint. It is the perception of a brand and can have a positive or negative perceived value. Perhaps a better way to think about brand equity is the value a brand gives. 

How can a brand stand out and offer more value especially in this competitive digital age?

Focus On Individuality And Bring The Whole Person To Work 

Author and Keynote speaker William Arruda says the main problem he solves when helping someone build a personal brand is conformity. We are taught to conform but he says that success in branding comes from individuality. 

“I say personal branding is diversity down to the level of the individual where everyone has a unique ingredient to offer. And, when they offer that ingredient, they make the organization more successful. We know that innovation comes from creativity and creativity comes from diverse thought, diverse opinion, diverse experience, background, and so forth.”

Building positive brand equity in today’s digital world is about a brand coming into alignment with purpose. Everything about a person’s individuality can influence the brand. Think about today’s most successful though often controversial founders and CEOs that have an online presence. They are very strong personalities who are not afraid to bring themselves into their work. 

That is why Arruda is on a mission to “abolish conformity.”

Many executives have achieved their positions by conforming so we have to ask ourselves, How much fulfillment are we experiencing, and how much more could I contribute to the success of this brand by bringing more of myself into it?  

Learn To Share Your Value In A Way That Captures

“Your brand is actually held in the hearts and minds of those who know you. So, that equity is not determined by you. It's determined by those people that you're seeking to influence and impact. How do you get them to appreciate your value more? A lot of that is by demonstrating what makes you great. By being the person you say you are and using that as a way to deliver exceptional value.” 

It is a combination of the digital and human sides coming together in beautiful harmony to create a digital footprint that will leave a positive impact. 

Arruda says, “Clearly, if you don’t show up in Google, you don’t exist; but just being visible is not enough. You must align your bits-and-bytes brand with the flesh-and-bones you.” 

One of the best ways to show the human side is with video. Video shows so much more than just writing out a bio or brand statement can. “Words are 7% of communication. The rest is tone of voice, intonation, body language, and with video, even what's behind you on the video screen.”

Balance Out Performance Marketing With Brand Marketing

Digital Content creator Reese Hopper says one of the biggest challenges facing new entrepreneurs and personal brands is finding the right split between performance marketing and brand marketing. 

What’s the difference?

“Performance marketing is trackable ad spend that brings a definite ROI, and brand marketing is the flashy stuff that endears your brand to a community and builds a life-long fanbase. Too much performance marketing and you'll never grow a community. But too much brand marketing and you'll never be profitable. Beyond all the nuts and bolts of profitable business growth, finding the right split between these two will determine short-term viability and long-term success.” 

Brand marketing is a huge part of building a brand’s equity. Hopper suggests investing a set percentage of revenue every single month back into brand marketing. Hopper said that he learned a lesson doing a lot of brand work with Red Bull. None of the content producers there knew a single thing about Red Bull’s beverage formula. Or even their wholesale accounts, shipping, or other aspects of the company. They focus on action sports. And that is what has made the brand. 

Hopper also worked with direct-to-consumer darling MVMT Watches that sold to Movado for $100M after only five years in business. They invested heavily into influencer collaborations throughout their entire existence, capitalizing on the early wave of Instagram influencer marketing. It works. 

“I've worked with other DTC brands who can't be bothered to spend on brand marketing at all. If Red Bull and MVMT are any examples, investing into brand marketing grows essential brand equity over the long-term.”

Know How Important Brand Equity Is In This Digital World?

We alluded to this in the beginning but brand equity is more important now because technology has made it so much easier to start a brand. A smaller barrier means more competition and certainly does not mean everyone will be successful at branding. There are so many resources, many of which are free, to create a website or landing page online and start a brand. Often this leads to more noise and less quality. 

“With this decreased friction, there are more mediocre brands than ever before. Brand equity is what separates a great brand from all the others. Showing up is no longer enough. Brands need to bring real value and connection to niche communities in order to last in the digital age.”

Know that building brand equity is important and put effort into it. 

Go Where Your People Are And Show Up Consistently 

You don’t have to put focus on every single platform that comes along but you do have to show up where your potential audience is. 

“When I first started my career in marketing, brands that got on Instagram first were the cool ones. They got a larger share of the attention because they were doing something cool. Now, every brand is on Instagram, expecting a larger-than-proportional share of the attention available. The Instagram wave has faded, but the principle is still true: brands that meet consumers where they organically spend time already will gain a larger share of the attention. I advise every brand I work with to really consider where their customers spend time now, and then go meet them there.“ 

Follow these steps and you can build brand equity over time, stand out from all the mediocre brands online, and build trust with your audience. 

This is a translated version of the story on Forbes China