How to build and measure brand affinity

It’s important that your customers do have an affinity for your brand, so let’s talk about building and measuring it.

Brand affinity goes way beyond the products and services you offer. It is the emotional connection that customers have with a brand based on experience, shared values, brand personality and offerings. It is the customer’s brand preference within a particular product category, e.g. Pepsi vs. Coca-Cola for cola beverages. 

Identify the dimensions of an individual’s brand affinity by asking questions and studying online engagement. We’re looking for the following:

Brand equity is the added value that a brand gives to a product compared with a competing alternative. 

By way of an example, let’s suppose we’re shopping for laundry detergent. We see Ariel and a generic laundry detergent sitting side by side on the shelf. We know that there are some tough stains waiting to be cleaned at home and, even though the generic detergent says it works on stains and is less expensive, we reach for the Ariel. We put our trust in it over the generic choice solely because of our belief in the brand. 

Brand equity encompasses the whole brand, justifies its value and is measured based on perceived quality, associations, loyalty and awareness. Brand affinity is about the positive relationship between the customer and the brand. You need brand equity to achieve brand loyalty and affinity.

Brand loyalty is when a customer prefers your brand over your competitors. They believe that your brand fully meets their needs and there is no reason to even try anything else in your product category. 

Apple is a good example of brand loyalty. In fact, Apple brand loyalty is at an all-time high of nearly 92%, according to a recent survey. In other words, when 91.9% of iPhone users need or want a new phone, they will buy another iPhone.

Brand loyalty is based on product performance. If your products work for the customer, then they will come back for more. Brand affinity prompts customers to make purchases based on emotional connections.

Brand awareness covers how many people are aware of your brand, products, values and vision. This is measured by asking people to recall your business name, their perception of your business and information about its products and services, plus other details. Brand affinity, on the other hand, relates to how much a customer (who will already have brand awareness) likes your brand.

If people believe in your brand, they will feel connected, pay attention to your communications and trust what you say. This results in some important benefits, including increasing the lifetime value and sales volume.

When you build brand affinity, you humanise your brand. It’s much easier for people to love a brand that is personable rather than robotic. Brand affinity is the most important level of a customer relationship.

Your brand personality has a direct impact on your brand affinity. People want to engage with a brand that is distinctive and has a memorable, recognisable voice. Spend some time developing your brand personality and ensure that you use the same tone of voice throughout all of your content, from social media to advertisements to your website. 

If you want to build a strong relationship with your customers, they need to have some level of trust in your brand. Trust and affinity go hand in hand. According to The Kearney Consumer Institute, consumers expect honesty and authenticity if you want their trust, so you should bear that in mind when creating content across all channels.

Brand affinity can boost customer satisfaction levels thanks to a strong emotional connection between customers and your brand. When customers are satisfied, they tend to share their experiences with others, thus leading to increased brand awareness.

There is no single way to measure brand affinity, but there are certain metrics you can use to create a picture of your performance.

Your Net Promoter Score is an indication of customer loyalty. It’s a standardised measure that provides you with a quantifiable way to track your brand’s performance.

This metric measures the amount of money your client could potentially spend on your products during your relationship. The customer lifetime value metric reflects your customer retention and loyalty.

Check your social media analytics to track brand mentions. When customers tag you with @yourcompanyname or a hashtag related to your brand or product, you gain a unique insight into what they think about your brand.

Put your brand mentions into context with sentiment analysis. Your results should primarily consist of positive words; that means you’re on the right track. Sentiment analysis can also be performed on text survey responses with SurveyMonkey.

Use Facebook Insights, and YouTube, X (Twitter) and TikTok analytics, to understand how much time people spend watching your content. Remember that Instagram Insights are only available via the mobile app, Facebook Business Manager or some third-party social media tools (not via Instagram on your computer). 

Now you know what brand affinity is and how important it is for your brand, let’s talk about building it. These building blocks are probably things you already have or are working on, so you’re already well on your way.

Excellent customer service has a huge impact on how customers view your brand. In fact, according to Nextiva, 52% of consumers in the US say they have made an additional purchase from a company after a positive customer service experience. And Americans will pay 17% more to do business with firms with great reputations when it comes to customer service.

SurveyMonkey market research solutions can help you evaluate and monitor your customer service in order to identify areas for improvement. Start with our customer service survey template.

You should already be monitoring your brand awareness, equity and engagement. If you’re not, get started with our brand tracker. It manages these metrics and more so you can stay on top of your brand goals.

Affinity is built with a focus on individual customers, but you need to bear in mind how they act and think as a community. Provide a place for like-minded customers to connect, such as a dedicated Facebook page or forum. 

Some communities will even create a special name for their members. For example, fans of Fiskars, a Finnish housewares company, call themselves Fiskateers and fans of TK Maxx discount designer clothing stores call themselves Maxxinistas.

Within the community that you create, customers can form connections with others who have a shared interest in your business. The connection should strengthen their bond with the brand, which should, in turn, build strong brand affinity.

Pro tip: Post followers-only content and discounts to encourage people to experience the benefits of being part of your community.

Once you’ve created a space for your community, you need to give them a reason to want to be a part of it and return to it regularly. Create regular posts that encourage engagement. 

On Facebook and Instagram, the Stories feature makes 57% of Americans feel like part of a community. And more than 1.8 billion people use Facebook Groups every month.

Pro tip: Use captions to optimise your video posts. 85% are viewed without sound and Facebook found that adding captions increases watch time by 12% on average.

Interesting Fact: Videos on Instagram get 49% more engagement than static images.

Types of posts to encourage engagement:

Interesting Fact: Weekend posts on Instagram receive 27.3% more interaction.

Pro tip: Don’t create your content and then forget about it. Respond to comments (both positive and negative) to connect with your customers.

Use your social analytics to find mentions of your brand. Look for common themes in topic clouds created with the most commonly used terms. You can use tools such as Social Mention to help you perform this analysis. You can also track hashtags that relate to your brand or products and monitor their use. 

Pro tip: While you’re looking for brand mentions, look at your competitors as well. See what words are associated with their brands to see how you stack up against them.

There are many companies that have achieved great levels of brand affinity. Let’s look at a couple of examples.

Apple

Although we discussed Apple as an example of brand loyalty, it’s also a very good example of brand affinity. You don’t become No. 1 on the Forbes list of The World’s Most Valuable Brands, boasting a brand value of $241.2 billion (approx. £189 billion), without some major brand affinity.

Apple has come up with some very clever ways to build brand affinity. Each product that they have introduced has revolutionised the market. The iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch are all examples of products that have changed the way we look at smartphones, tablets and smartwatches.

The lead-up to Apple’s annual announcement of new products, updates and features is shrouded in mystery and promotes a lot of discussion among fans. This excitement is contagious and results in people pre-ordering new products weeks or even months before they are ready for release.

A sticker featuring the iconic Apple logo is included with each product. Fans with brand affinity use these to display their relationship with the brand. This inexpensive graphic sticker is a great way for those with brand affinity to demonstrate their emotional attachment to the brand and bring brand awareness to others.

Apple’s customer service is excellent throughout the customer journey, which boosts customer satisfaction. Its employees in the US are kept happy with perks such as discounts on products, events with live entertainment, enhanced maternity and paternity leave as well as membership for an online gym, according to Glassdoor. It stands to reason that happy employees generally provide great customer service.

Starbucks

In most cities, it’s more difficult to avoid a Starbucks than find one. According to Statista, the Starbucks brand is valued at approximately $13.01 billion (approx.£10.21 billion).

People are drawn to coffee shop chains such as Starbucks because they can choose from the same menu of innovative speciality drinks and enjoy the same ambience regardless of which of its UK branches they visit. 

Fans who use the Starbucks app have the option to order online and collect stars that they can redeem for free drinks. These perks, coupled with great customer service, build up Starbucks’ brand affinity.

Now that you understand what brand affinity is, its importance for your brand and how to measure it, let’s get started. 

Step one is checking out the SurveyMonkey Brand Tracker to find out where your brand currently stands and start monitoring the metrics that matter most. 

Do you need help with other brand-related issues? Check out our full range of market research solutions for your business.

Net Promoter, Net Promoter Score and NPS are trademarks of Satmetrix Systems, Inc., Bain & Company, Inc. and Fred Reichheld. 

“100 Essential Customer Service Statistics and Trends for 2022” - Nextiva Blog, 3 June 2021