What's up brand builder https://youtu.be/lKt_xI7bQwI
here at BrandMasterAcademy.com and in this video you're going to learn what brand
association is and how it creates memories and perceptions that are influential in the buying
decision
now if you're new to the channel and you want to build brands that go beyond the visuals and the
logo using strategy psychology and creative thinking then you're in the right place hit
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make sure you grab the pro brand strategy blueprint it's a free download and the link
is in the description now brands are absolutely fascinating entities in my slightly nerdy and
obsessive opinion on one hand you have distinctive brand assets that are designed to be memorable
and on the other hand you have a collection of memories that form perceptions so what is
a brand is a brand a collection of assets or is it a collection of memories well they're actually
both they're both memories and they're both assets and associations are the bridge between the two
that turn distinctive assets into memories and perceptions and that's what this video is all
about so what are brand associations well they're just neural connections made by the consumer that
aligns a brand with an idea or a place or an emotion and these neural connections actually
provide the audience with some meaning about the brand as to who the brand is what it's all
about what it means and why that should matter to the audience so why are brand associations
so important well it's these associations that form the memory of a brand a brand doesn't
live in a physical world it doesn't live in times square it doesn't live in a digital world
either it doesn't live on a website or live on a social page it lives in the mind of the audience
as a perception and it's the associations that a brand has with its consumer the associations
that the consumer alliance with the brand through the brand experience that forms the meaning
that forms the reputation of that brand and what that should mean to the audience why they should
remember it and why they should consider it in the buying decision so how are brand associations
formed well as i mentioned before they're formed through experiences so you can probably relate to
this let me give you a bit of an example let's say there's a new restaurant that's just opened up in
town and you decide to go with your significant other and you book a table for eight o'clock
and you show up a little bit earlier let's say at 7 45 now the host shows you inside and because
you're earlier they show you to the bar and they give you a glass of champagne on the house to get
you going for the evening then they lead you down to the table and they provide you with the menu
the menu looks great the staff are really friendly really professional they help you with your order
and then the food arrives and it is absolutely delicious the wine is great the chef then comes
out and asks you how your meal is everything about the place is great it's cozy the interior decor is
really nice the other patrons there seem to be really nice they're smart they're well dressed
and you just have an absolutely great experience now at the end of the evening you're going to
leave with a belly full of food probably a belly full of wine but you're also going to leave with a
handful of associations that are really important in where you store that restaurant in your mind
in the position that you store that restaurant in your mind based on the experience that you had so
what is a brand association what is an example of a brand association well i could talk about nike
and their association with winning but let's stick with this practical example of the restaurant here
again so after such a great night out there are many positive associations that you will have
with that brand with that restaurant you could be thinking of how cozy and warm the restaurant was
how stylish the interior decor and the rest of the patrons were how professional the staff where
had they looked after their customer how they put their customer first had the chef took the time to
come out and they made sure that the customer felt like they were being taken care of or
you could have an association with just a great night out if you want to have a great night out
you now associate this brand and this business with a great night out so these are all examples
of positive associations that you had with this brand now this will influence a couple of things
it'll influence whether or not you go back and it will influence how you speak to other people about
this business now when you do go back you may not have the exact same experience you may have
only three or four of the positive experiences that you previously had and maybe three or four
of those previous positive experiences will drop off but it is the positive experiences that you
experience again and again and again that become the bedrock of the reputation of that brand and
that is what the brand wants to become known for and the position that it wants to own in the mind
of the audience so what are the different types of associations that a consumer can have with a brand
well there are many different types you can have an association with a brand based on its location
if you know that that brand is based in new york then new york can become an association with
that brand you can have an association based on attributes depending on how the brand behaves the
personality characteristics it displays you might align that brand with a certain type of
attribute or you might align it with a benefit or an outcome that you have achieved from this brand
or some kind of emotion that you felt through the experience if you think about nike nike owns the
idea of just do it and that just do it idea it's a tagline that is a call to action that you can
do anything that you put your mind to or coke owns the emotion of happiness every single touch point
that they're at they're drilling home that idea of happiness they're they're present at every
summer event or every christmas event and they have cornered that idea of happiness and that is
part of their brand associations but the more effort you put into owning an association the
more times it shows up again and again and again through your brand experience the more likely
your customer is going to associate your brand with that experience and the more likely you
are going to start to own that position in the mind of your audience now not all associations
are positive you have positive associations and negative associations it takes a long time and
a lot of effort to build a positive association to align a brand with a positive association that
builds brand equity and all of that can be torn down in just a second with a negative association
now volkswagen is a perfect example of this back in 2015 they had that emissions scandal now up
until that point they had an absolutely stellar reputation but it turned out that when it came to
the emissions in their car they had intentionally programmed their emissions to only produce these
reduced emissions during the testing phase meaning that it went ahead into the real world it produced
40 times the emissions and that scandal absolutely decimated the reputation of volkswagen and
they ended up paying out billions of dollars in remuneration and in expenses and legal fees and
the damage that it did to its reputation long term is going to be going on for
years and years there are consumers out there who just won't buy volkswagen anymore because
of that damage trust and that loss of trust through that scandal so it just goes to show that
positive associations take a long time to build up and it does build that brand equity up over
time but a negative association can tear that down in a second so as you map out your brand
strategy identify the associations that you want aligned with your brand and then design a brand
experience to give your audience as many of those associations as possible the more you have those
associations throughout your brand experience and the more consistently you do this the more they
they become part of the fabric of the reputation of your brand and the position that you own in the
mind of your audience so identify the associations you want aligned with your brand and embed them
into your brand experience now as your reputation grows so does your brand equity and your ability
to charge premium fees if you want to know what brand equity is and how to build it then this
video will help you out until next time brand like a master and i'll see you in the next video