6 Reasons Brand Management Is Critical to Your E-Commerce Business
How can you cultivate customer loyalty for your brand? Understanding these six reasons to adopt a thorough brand management strategy can help you accomplish this goal.By ITSeptember 4, 2019
Stay on top of the latest e-commerce and marketplace trends.
In the age where shockwaves from Amazon’s industry disruption echo across a variety of touchpoints — e-commerce, grocery, healthcare, cloud computing, technological innovation, and more — brands, whether they have established a presence on the vast platform or have yet to get started, need to have a functional brand strategy in order to keep their equity and profit dollars intact.
Whether you are a manufacturer or a brand owner, a clearly outlined brand management plan is imperative. Without one, you will fall victim to eager competitors who have a firm understanding of their brand identity, be unable to keep pace with changing consumer behaviors and trends, and even potentially tarnish or erode your overall brand presence.
In this article, we have compiled six reasons that a precise, highly nurtured brand strategy can give your online business a competitive edge and maintain a stake in the game amidst today’s ever-savvy digital landscape.
1. Build Deep Customer Loyalty
A significant majority of U.S. consumers (89%) visit Amazon at least once a month and 66% go to the platform to start their search for new products. Customers are integrating Amazon into their entire purchase journey, so brands need to define their story and messaging, develop cohesive product detail pages, imagery, and landing pages, and meet customers where they are.
Your brand needs to become fluent in driving customer loyalty — understanding what plays into consumers’ decisions to purchase their products, participating in Amazon’s convenience offerings like Prime to increase customer satisfaction, and knowing how to retain customers after their initial transaction.
Figure out how your customers use Amazon, how frequently they buy, and what their preferences are. When you begin to gain loyal customers, social proof comes into play and you will be able to acquire additional customers as a result of positive reviews and ratings.
By putting the customer first and constantly making the end-to-end customer experience better with each sale, you can drive sales and traffic through both new customer acquisition and loyalty from customers you have successfully retained. By understanding the customer journey and how you influence each stage, you will be able to maximize the impact of your investments and get in front of customers when they are ready to convert.
2. More Easily Influence Buyer Perception
In an omnichannel world, consistent brand messaging can go a long way. The more streamlined your business’s image is, the less risk and confusion there will be surrounding what your brand is, what kinds of products you sell, what you stand for, and the value proposition your represent.
By doing the legwork upfront and investing in product design and branding, you are able to go to market with your brand perception already defined. Authenticity goes a long way for today’s brands and the truer you are to your brand image, the more credible your brand will become online.
3. Exploit Opportunities for Growth
Before you become a brand operating on Amazon, you need to be confident in your brand as a standalone, leveraging Amazon as an opportunity for enhanced distribution, a diversified revenue stream, and getting exposure to a larger audience.
Once you have experienced success on Amazon, you should continue to capitalize on the tools and offerings available to you to continue growing your brand — experimenting with different ad types and targeting opportunities, optimizing your fulfillment model to ensure your catalog is Prime-eligible, launching new products, understanding your performance metrics, and more.
4. Maintain Brand Value and a Positive Reputation
As you can tell, there are many factors to consider when attempting to build a reputable brand or store online, which are compounded even further on Amazon. Today’s e-commerce landscape is flooded with fake positive and negative reviews; reviews that are cloned from old to new listings; trademark and copyright infringement; counterfeit goods; and “black hat” listing manipulation.
As a brand on Amazon, you need to wade through this noise to establish, maintain, and protect your reputation. Part of a brand management strategy is monitoring your reviews and responding to them in a timely manner. Doing so shows that you value your customers’ feedback, as well as their experience with your products.
Additionally, you need to remain well-versed in Amazon’s policies and best practices and implement processes that put the customer first at all times. Putting in the time and energy to gain legitimate, helpful, and in-depth feedback and reviews will be essential to your online growth.
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5. Enable Increased Layers of Brand Protection
An essential element of a fleshed-out brand management strategy is a plan to protect your brand online. According to Feedvisor data, 95% of brands said that defending their brand against unauthorized sellers is a motivating factor behind their decision to sell on Amazon.
Brands on Amazon face a slew of challenges, like the aforementioned one, that stand to threaten their values and identities, so taking measures to prevent brand erosion and control rogue sellers will help reaffirm your brand’s credibility in the market.
Amazon provides you with a diverse range of brand opportunities you can take advantage of when you enroll your brand in Amazon’s Brand Registry. The offering, which can enable your brand to build and grow your business on Amazon, includes information on the following benefits: Brand Dashboard, Brand Analytics, Amazon Stores, Enhanced Brand Content, Sponsored Brands, and Amazon Live.
Amazon’s Brand Registry gives you an increased level of control over product detail pages that include your brand name, so consumers are more likely to see the correct information associated with your brand, establishing consistency every time they see your branded products.
With infringement and counterfeit protection services, the Brand Registry is a highly recommended choice for reducing intellectual property rights violations on Amazon. Feedvisor data cites that 46% of brands claim that not enough is being done to prevent the sale of counterfeit products on the platform, so enrolling in the Brand Registry is a great place to start in the battle against fraudulent or unauthorized listings.
In the Brand Benefits section of the Brand Dashboard, Amazon alludes to the notion that additional benefits will be forthcoming for brands that register themselves and prioritize building and protecting their brand presence on Amazon.
6. Enhanced Service Leads to Stronger Engagement Levels
When consumers are ready to buy a specific product, nearly three-fourths go to Amazon. The company’s ever-increasing audience — including more than 100 million Prime members in the U.S. alone — persuades more brands and sellers to operate on the platform. In turn, the more competition there is, the more diverse the product selection is for the customer.
As a result, the customer experience is optimized regularly, setting the flywheel in motion to drive growth and customer engagement. The faster you deliver your products and keep pace with demand and better understand consumer preferences, the more equipped you will be to win against the competition and continue to drive positive engagement levels throughout the sales funnel.
Final Thoughts
Online retail is a dominating force in today’s consumer culture and, as a result, your brand needs a robust plan to protect your equity and drive sales at the same time. While Amazon offers your brand a dynamic platform you can take advantage of to drive awareness and engagement, build influence, and understand real-time consumer behaviors and trends, it is your responsibility to ensure your reputation, integrity, and shopper perception all remain intact.
By taking a strategic approach to brand execution — both on and off Amazon — you will be able to increase your margins, solidify your brand value in the market, and generate incremental opportunities for growth.
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