Branding is a complete effort towards establishing trust in the market. It not only requires meaningful logo but also commendable service at the backend to reach the customer. The value of a company majorly depends on branding. It is an external as well as an internal factor for a business.
While external connect more with the customers, internal aspects connect with employee motivation and sustainability. A brand can be looked as a factor of recognition by the people. It is indeed a collective effort right from the product ideation until the sale conversion.
Establishing a brand name and sustaining the same is a crucial criterion for any business to progress. In that context, two important jargons come into the picture, Brand Identity and Brand Equity. Brand Identity delivers a message to the customers while brand equity sends a message to the business owners.
Brand Identity vs Brand Equity
The main difference between Brand Identity and Branch Equity is about Brand establishment and management. Brand Identity is the marketing perception of introducing the product in the market to the public whereas Brand Equity is the perception of the customers about the brand and the product.
Comparison Table Between Brand Identity and Brand Equity (in Tabular Form)
| Parameter of Comparison | Brand Identity | Brand Equity |
|---|---|---|
| Perception | Companies focus on the target audience to understand the brand through Brand Identity | It is the value of the product perceived by the customer. |
| Owner | It is developed from the company | Customers are the stakeholders |
| Vision | It looks for the future growth of the company | It gives appropriate feedback on the reach level of the product in the market |
| Strategy | It flows from top to bottom from the corporate strategy | It flows from bottom to top from the customer review and works out the negatives to convert the same to positives. |
| Elements | Color, Design and Prototype | The customer mindset and product Market |
What is Brand Identity?
Brand identity refers to the factor of how a corporation desires the buyer to understand the complete details of a product or a brand. The identity represents the outward expression of a ‘complete’ entity and is thus elementary to consumers’ recognition and differentiation from competitors.
The identity includes the visible parts of a complete design, like colours, logotype, name, and image. These parts establish and distinguish the ‘complete’ within the mind of consumers’. Additionally, complete identity cares for the brand’s vision, mission, culture, positioning, temperament, and relationships.
Thus, complete identity is a corporation or a company’s desire to be perceived by the market, not essential however it’s perceived. It is a name or a design or a value that is expected to be imbibed in the minds of the public. In different words, it’s some way of outwardly expressing the vision to the people. A well-developed brand and transparent communication can lead to an increase in brand value.
There are many models out there for researchers to assess a brand’s identity e.g., the B2B complete leadership model.
What is Brand Equity?
Brand Equity is the assimilation of the brand in people’s minds. This is a pivotal parameter which aides the development of any company. Brand Equity talks about people’s take on a particular brand. It may result from the product or the brand by itself.
In simple words, people voicing out good or bad reflects on the brand directly. The remark or the feedback may be for a product under the brand, but what does it impact? It is brand value.
Brand Equity revolves around 3 main aspects.
- Client mind-set
- Product-market
- Money market.
Understanding Brand Equity from a client’s mindset is as follows. Brand equity depends on the client’s or the customer’s
- Brand awareness
- Brand image
- Perceived quality
- Brand loyalty
Analysis of Brand Equity is carried out to understand the reach. This becomes vital for any organisation to make informed decisions about their next product. The client customer relations in a B2B sector is not different from B2C, except that brand loyalty is not taken into account during the analysis.
However, whole equity will be measured by taking the client market perspective and in most cases, it offers the corporate broader and additional objective image of however their customers/buyers understand the whole.
Main Differences Between Brand Identity and Brand Equity
- The main difference between Brand Identity and Brand Equity is the former focusses mainly on the idea of the product, design and launch whereas the latter focusses on the quality of the product received by customer reviews.
- Brand Identity focusses on highlighting the product features but Brand Equity focusses on highlighting the brand value in the market.
- Brand Identity helps to build customers loyalty across the product business but Equity charges more on products and services.
- Brand identity is for audience knowledge and passion but brand Equity is for building relationships with customer
- Brand Identity is independent and Brand Equity depends on Brand Identity
Conclusion
Both, the theoretical and Practical inquiries on a product usually bestows fascinating insights within the complete identity and equity of the product using these two concepts of Identity and Equity.
The variations between equity and identity area are all favourable for the corporate although the corporate ought to work on communication a bit stronger to build even prouder complete identity.
However, the gaps mentioned may not even result from actual variations in quality.
Both Brand Identity and Equity have to work side by side. It will help the company that manufactures the product and launches it, the same will also have to get the feedback from the customers and feed-back obtained should be looked upon and worked so that the company grows organically well.
References
- https://journals.humankinetics.com/view/journals/jsm/21/4/article-p497.xml
- https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=52290
- https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01803752/file/viot_2011_JP%26BM.pdf