When someone mentions PR, what is the first thing that comes to your mind?
Many consider PR a segment where their company has to invest money for press releases. As a matter of fact, though, the right kind of PR can bring tremendous returns on investment. Do you know how? By improving your brand’s equity, of course!
The value of your brand, or brand equity, heavily depends on PR. The stronger your public relations are, the better customer loyalty your company will enjoy. But achieving unshakeable brand equity is no easy feat: it takes years of work to build impressive brand equity.
Along with marketing tactics and good products, you need to accelerate and improve your PR efforts to take your brand equity to the level you desire.
PR- Why is it Important for Brand Equity?
You can rightfully question the need for public relations to build brand equity when you’re already investing significantly in marketing strategies and good products. The fact is that public relations play an active role in brand equity-building because:
- – It’s cost-effective
- – It complements other techniques of marketing very well
- – Even small business owners can incorporate PR
- – It is a great approach for helping small and big businesses organize their business goals for the long term.
Another advantage of public relations for brand equity is that businesses of every size can incorporate it easily. This is mainly because PR does not necessarily require a lot of money or a professional team to improve brand equity. Those who don’t have the budget for it can manage PR on their own for their startup, while others with financial flexibility can always use a PR agency.
All a business needs are to get in touch with relevant media authorities, utilize the virtual avenues and social media and host a couple of events to boost their public value.
Brand Equity- Earning it Through Public Relations
No one can deny the fact that taking the public relations route for building brand equity is time-consuming. However, many companies still take the PR approach for brand equity because they know it is worth the resources, time, and effort.
Businesses need to realize that brand equity is a crucial contributor to a company’s reputation and image in the market. Moreover, the brand equity is also indicative of the company’s success in the long run.
Therefore, it is in the business’s best interest to take the initiative and invest in a well-planned PR strategy. You will realize how worthwhile it is to give due consideration, time, and investment to your PR campaign when your brand will be an easily recognizable name in the global market.
Most importantly, strong brand equity will yield greater returns on investment in the long term.
Positive PR = Strong Brand Equity = Great ROI in the Long-Term
Here are some of how positive PR can build strong brand equity, which will result in a positive impact on the ROI.
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Impressive Reputation with Lesser Spending
When your company’s products earn a good reputation, the leads quickly turn into potential customers, adopting your brand as the go-to solution. When this happens, your budget spending on advertisements will significantly reduce while your sales will increase significantly.
This is the power of trust, which PR helps you establish with customers.
– Stock prices tend to improve by a great degree, too, when you have solid brand equity. The process of stock markets improves drastically for companies who have established a trustworthy relationship with the public through PR. Hence, their stock price keeps improving, resulting from the expectation of continued good performance from the brand.
– Customer loyalty improves as well, as research tells us that customers are seven times more forgiving towards brands they are loyal to. Moreover, customers not only easy to forgive but can also try new products of their favourite brand.
– If your company has high brand equity, it will enjoy a higher lifetime value of customers. This means that your loyal customers will only buy products from you rather than the alternate options of other brands.
Brand Equity- Using PR to maintain it
Public Relations is a strong tool for brand equity maintenance. While running a business, it is inevitable to experience highs and lows for their success, due to which the brand equity is sure to suffer. But you can use public relations to correct your business reputation quickly in times like these.
Regardless of how an unfortunate situation unfolds, you can use your PR to curtail the situation to maintain your brand equity. One of the greatest advantages of PR is the level of flexibility it allows. You can twist and mould your PR campaign in any way you wish to. PR will also successfully monitor your business situation while ensuring a steady flow of communication with the public.
Whether your new product’s launch failed to achieve the hype, a scandal broke out regarding a product, or your business plan was a flop, you can count on your public relations. Positive PR in these situations will help cast a positive light on your company in the present dilemma and save the brand’s name from disgrace.
Final Thoughts
Industry experts claim that good public relations can help a company build strong brand equity. In the absence of the latter, your company wouldn’t have a face and a name in the market, and no one would recognize it.
But when you use public relations to steadily build impressive brand equity, the crowds will recognize your brand in a sea of others. This is the power of public relations, which ensures no matter what good or bad situation unfolds in business, the brand always remains in customers’ good books.
Moreover, it is through public relations that a brand can develop trust and lifetime value with customers. In the end, a solid PR strategy helps build brand equity that promises to yield greater returns on investment for the company in the long term.
