Do You Know How Your Company's Brand is Perceived in the Marketplace?

Your brand defines who you are and what kind of experience you want to deliver to your clients. It can also be what sets you apart from your competition.

By Karen Edwards, RCS Editor

You probably know a lot of popular brands and have varying opinions about them based on your personal experience or perception of the brand.

Since you are at the Coffee Shop right now, let’s take a look at coffee as an example of two brands that provide the same product but are very different. Two famous coffee brands are Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks (listed alphabetically and not necessarily in order of the writer’s preference). These two brands have very loyal followers who rarely stray from their preferred taste - Dunkin Donuts’ coffee is perceived as milder and more mainstream than Starbucks.

But it’s about more than preferred taste. It’s also about the customer experience. The experience that these two brands provide for their customers is very different. “America Runs on Dunkin’” has set the stage for a place where you can stop at a shop, grab some coffee and donuts and be on the go. The Starbucks experience is about interacting with baristas and relaxing on casual furniture with soft lighting while reading or chatting with friends. These are two very different experiences and brands, yet both provide the same deliverable – coffee.

You have competitors in your market that are providing the same roofing services as you, but you can set yourself apart from your competitor through your brand experience. Just as you have perceptions about brands, your customers have perceptions of your roofing business. So how do you want to be perceived in the markets that you serve? What kind of experience do you want your customers to have? How is your brand currently perceived in your service area?

Answering the question of how your brand is currently perceived can be difficult. When you live your brand every day, you often don’t see it the same way as your customers and potential customers might see it. The best way to find out is to consider conducting a brand survey. The results can help you fine tune your brand and turn it into your point of differentiation.

In fact, that’s exactly what RoofersCoffeeShop.com partner, Acme Cone Company is currently doing. They are conducting a brand survey.  Answer 12 quick questions about them and they’ll give you a $5 gift card for your time. That will buy you at least one cup of coffee! You’ll also get an idea of the kinds of questions you can ask about your brand at the same time.

Take the survey.