Why Brand Salience Matters for Brand Loyalty and Customer Retention

Understanding brand salience

Brand salience is essentially the degree to which consumers think of or turn to your product when they're ready to make a purchase. Businesses with high brand salience are often the go-to when a customer is experiencing a problem or requires a particular product. Low brand salience equates to a brand that isn't considered part of the equation for resolving an issue or fulfilling a want.

A high-salience brand understands the power of an emotional connection in order to trigger specific responses, such as making a purchase. This requires a brand to genuinely connect with and provide for an audience in need. For those who want to improve client retention, focusing on boosting salience is a must.

Salience is linked to both the quantity of memories as well as the overall quality of the memories that an individual has, especially over time. For instance, you're likely extremely familiar with companies such as McDonald's, Nike, and Starbucks. These brands have used numerous advertisements and high-quality branding campaigns throughout the years to build brand recognition and salience.

Factors that influence brand salience

From building brand trust to proving authenticity, there are many factors that influence brand salience, such as:

• Brand awareness. How familiar your target market is with your brand plays a major role in brand salience.
• Product differentiation. How do your brand's products or services stand out from the rest? How do you outshine or outperform your competition? What sets you apart?
• Brand loyalty. The degree to which customers prefer your brand over others also plays a role in salience.
• Distribution. Are you an international brand, or are your products limited to a specific region? The accessibility of your brand and its products, services, or content will also play a role in how quickly you can improve brand salience over time.
• Consumer experiences. Consumer experiences and interactions with your business and brand are important for developing salience. A positive experience is much more likely to help spread the word about your brand.
• Cultural factors. How your brand is currently being perceived by society and through various cultural lenses can also have an impact on salience.
• Market share. How much of your particular market do you make up? If your brand has a major role in your market, it's much easier to boost brand salience in shorter periods. In saturated markets or red oceans, it's much more challenging to do so without stark competition.

It's important to note that methods to achieve high brand salience are also continuously changing. With the introduction of AI, various tools are now being released to assist with branding, marketing, and even SEO, or search engine optimization. As the evolution of technology forges on, the impact of brand salience is likely to grow, especially as new businesses begin to appear from all around the world.

How to measure brand salience

Measuring brand salience is more complex than reviewing analytics reports and website data. Collecting data and monitoring consumer behavior as individuals interact with your business is the best way to gauge brand salience.

Brand recognition

Brand recognition is imperative for any company to develop brand salience and gain customer loyalty. Determining consumers' ability to recognize your brand's logo and name can provide valuable insight into your place in the market.

Share of mind

Consider the percentage of target customers in your market who think of your brand in a particular product category or when recalling a specific attribute. This percentage will directly impact your brand salience, whether you're a local company or an international online business.

Brand associations

Measuring the favorability and strength of consumer associations with a brand is also extremely insightful. This will allow you to determine the sentiment analysis of your brand in the public eye.

Online sentiment analysis

Along with brand associations, evaluating online sentiment analysis includes measuring the sentiment and tone of online posts, conversations, and pages that mention your business and brand.

Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Evaluating the estimated NPS of a brand can help determine the likelihood of a consumer recommending your business to potential customers.

Customer surveys

In order to learn more about the perceptions and attitudes that consumers have towards your brand, consider using surveys. Customer surveys can be delivered via email, on your official website, within a blog, or through social media. You can also use local solutions to send surveys to your target audience and demographics in particular regions.

Sales data

Taking sales and revenue generation data into account is also essential to measure brand salience. It can be extremely useful when determining long-term retention rates, return customers, and referrals.

How to improve brand salience

Knowing how to increase brand salience with various customer retention strategies will come in handy as your business continues to grow and scale.

Advertising and sponsorships

Advertising and sponsorships play a key role in establishing brand salience. The quantity of advertisements you promote and the quality of the campaigns play a role in memory imprinting and brand salience.

When working with advertising, create memorable campaigns across various media channels, from your website and blog to multiple social media platforms. Feature your products on social media channels to boost visibility and brand awareness. Work with local event planners and organizations to engage in cross-promotion to improve brand awareness and salience.

Social media marketing

The use of social media marketing has come a long way since its inception. Today, social media marketing is one of the most popular tools used by marketers, both online and off. Leverage platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Snapchat, and TikTok to spread the word about your brand and maximize your reach. Increasing brand awareness with social media is also one of the most affordable methods available, regardless of the size of your brand.

Influencer marketing

Collaborating with influencers on social media can also help to spread the word about your brand while boosting awareness and salience. Seek out influencers who are relevant to your brand or the industry you represent. Work with influencers who have a positive reputation within similar communities as your own to make genuine connections with their followers.

Consistent branding

Visual elements and consistent messaging go a long way when it comes to brand salience. Using the same branding elements, logos, and color schemes helps to solidify a brand's image in a consumer's mind. Consistent branding is key whether you're printing a billboard or launching a brand-new newsletter from your official website. Always use high-quality graphics and files when promoting a business online, in printed flyers, or even when sharing a business card with a prospective customer or client.

Customer experience

If you want to monitor and minimize customer churn, providing top-notch customer care and service is a must. Customer service goes a long way in developing connections and trust with consumers. When a consumer feels you're trustworthy as a company and that you have their back if they experience issues with your products or services, they're much more likely to return in the future.

Consumers who think a company is trustworthy are also much more likely to recommend it to their family and friends. Demonstrating how much you care about consumers will also go a long way for business salience, especially through the years and decades when building a reputation.

Public relations

PR, or public relations, is also key in building and growing any business or brand today. It's imperative to manage your brand's reputation to ensure a positive stature over time. This plays a major role in brand salience, as salience isn't usually created overnight.

One way to help ensure that your brand remains in a positive light is to partake in social responsibility initiatives. Social responsibility initiatives may involve giving back to particular communities or investing in other projects that are relevant to your local community or to any cause you support. Engaging in these initiatives can also help you build stronger and longer-lasting connections with other brands and organizations that can further promote your brand to new potential consumers.

Grow brand salience

Creating brand salience is a long-term endeavor that requires you to be genuine with consumers while simultaneously boosting brand awareness. Regardless of the industry you serve or your company's size, improving brand salience is essential to staying top of mind.

With Mailchimp, hone in on your target audience with distinctive brand assets and authentic connections. Mailchimp can help to streamline your online marketing efforts to improve brand salience in any market or niche.