Changes will always be adopted slowly by consumers, because there is already a solid brand structure in the brain. It takes time, energy, perseverance and a lot of repetition to change a brand image. Brand maintenance means permanently building your assortment and positioning, without impulsively jumping from pillar to post.
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Repositioning is also a great opportunity to invest in a developed and validated association network. In this case, you have a clear goal in mind. For example, a new mission statement and vision that indicate the changed ambition of the brand. Before you can determine how to get to that point on the horizon, it is at least as important to know where your brand is at that moment. If the starting point is clear, you can make clear which buttons need to be turned to bring about change.
A look into the consumer's mind
Mapping brand association networks is an intensive process, ideally involving information from three different sources.
The most important part is the actual, mental representation of your brand in the minds of consumers. To tap into that information, you want access to the subconscious of consumers. us phone number list Just like many choices and purchase decisions, the mental image that a consumer forms about a brand is stored in the subconscious. I'll briefly dust off Thinking, fast and slow by Kahneman & Tversky (aff.) here.
System 1
The vast majority of our choices and behavior are determined by the fast, automatic, intuitive, and unconscious system 1. When you rush through the supermarket to collect your groceries, you always take the same brand of toothpaste, for example. It has become automatic. You know what you get from the toothpaste, what it tastes like, and it saves you the trouble of weighing all the options until you have found the ultimate variant.
System 2
When we encounter a complex situation, the counterpart, system 2, comes into play. System 2 follows a slower, deliberate, analytical and conscious process. For example, when you are in the same supermarket to do your shopping for a dinner with friends, one of whom is vegetarian and one diabetic, while you yourself are neither. So you are consciously weighing up which products you should and should not put in your shopping cart.