How to Build and Maintain Brand Equity
Building brand equity is not a one-time project but an ongoing strategy.
It involves consistently shaping how customers think and feel about your business.
The good news is, by focusing on a few key areas, you can steadily grow your brand’s equity. Here are some practical steps and tips for building and maintaining a strong brand:
Deliver a Consistent Brand Experience
Consistency is crucial in branding.
Make sure your brand presents the same values, tone, and look wherever a customer encounters it - be it on your website, in-store, on social media, or in an email. A cohesive brand experience builds recognition and trust. Customers should know what to expect from you each time.
Consistency also extends to customer service and product quality. When people get reliable experiences, their trust in your brand grows. Consistency has financial rewards: consistent brand presentation across all platforms can increase revenue by 10-20% (85+ Branding Statistics for 2025: Top Insights and Trends).
Think about iconic brands - whether you walk into a Starbucks in London or Los Angeles, it feels familiar. That’s intentional consistency reinforcing the brand. Strive for the same with your business: use your brand colors, voice, and values uniformly. Over time, this creates a recognisable identity that customers can depend on.
Focus on Quality and Value
Brand equity ultimately stems from delivering on your promises.
If your product or service fails to meet customer expectations, no amount of marketing can save your brand perception. On the other hand, if you consistently provide quality - a great product, excellent service, genuine value, you create positive experiences that bolster your equity.
Ensure your offerings are as good as (or better than) advertised.
Pay attention to customer feedback and address issues quickly; this shows you care about quality.
A brand is built by a thousand small gestures. Every interaction is an opportunity to impress.
For example, if you run a restaurant, every dish leaving the kitchen should reflect the quality you want your brand to stand for. If you’re a SaaS company, every support ticket resolved is a chance to strengthen a customer’s faith in you.
Implement strong quality control and customer service training - your brand’s reputation is only as good as the last customer’s experience.
Engage and Build Relationships with Your Audience
Form an emotional connection with your customers.
Engage with them authentically on social media, via email newsletters, and in person if applicable. Share your brand’s personality and values, let people see the humans and mission behind the business.
Encourage two-way communication: respond to comments, ask for feedback, and listen to what your customers have to say.
Building a community (whether around content, forums, or events) can turn customers into loyal fans. Consider implementing loyalty or referral programs to reward repeat customers - this not only incentivises loyalty but also shows you value them.
Brands that interact and build relationships tend to earn more trust.
For instance, if a customer has an issue and you quickly make it right, they might become more loyal after seeing how much you care.
Show empathy and authenticity: if your brand stands for something (family values, innovation, sustainability, etc.), weave that into your story and actions. Modern consumers, especially younger ones, often bond with brands that align with their personal values or that make them feel heard and appreciated. Engagement isn’t just feel-good social media posturing; it creates emotional resonance that translates to stronger brand equity and customer lifetime value.
Tell Your Brand’s Story and Differentiate
In a crowded marketplace, a compelling brand story can set you apart and stick in customers’ minds.
Why did you start this business? What mission drives you? How do your offerings make life better for your customers? Share that narrative consistently. Storytelling in branding isn’t about inventing a fiction, it’s about communicating your purpose and values in a relatable way.
A strong story gives customers a reason to care about your brand beyond the product itself. It also helps create those positive associations we discussed earlier. Make sure your branding highlights what makes you different (your USP) and speaks to the emotions of your target audience. If you don’t define your brand’s story, customers might form their own (possibly incorrect) idea of who you are.
Another one of our articles warns that “if you don't have a well-communicated purpose, you risk getting lost in a sea of competitors - or even worse, customers will create their own idea of who you are,” (Brand vs Performance Marketing: Why Emotional Resonance Drives Growth). So take control of your narrative.
For example, a local bakery might tell the story of how their recipes have been passed down through generations to bring families together. Suddenly buying a loaf of bread there feels like part of a cherished tradition, not just a transaction (the beer brand Stella Artois does this excellently).
Whether your story is about innovation, heritage, social impact, or personal passion, share it. Use your website, About Us page, social media, and marketing materials to consistently reinforce that story. Over time, this builds a rich, distinctive image of your brand in the customer’s mind.
Monitor Your Brand Equity and Adapt as Needed
You can’t manage what you don’t measure.
Regularly track how your brand is perceived. This can be through customer surveys (e.g. brand awareness or satisfaction studies), monitoring online reviews and social media sentiment, or more formally through brand equity research and metrics (like NPS, brand valuation studies, etc.). For a hands-on business owner, simply talking to your customers and getting honest feedback can reveal a lot about your brand’s strengths and weaknesses.
It’s also wise to conduct periodic brand audits - a thorough assessment of your brand’s positioning, messaging, and customer perception. A brand audit can uncover gaps between how you want to be seen and how you’re actually seen. Use that insight to adjust your branding strategy.
Example: A fintech company discovered through a brand audit that customers saw its brand as too “transactional” and impersonal, which was hurting loyalty. In response, the company launched easy-to-understand financial webinars, gave its app a friendlier look-and-feel, and showcased customer success stories - steps that rebuilt trust and engagement. This can lead to improved retention rates and higher customer lifetime value.
The lesson is to be proactive: keep an eye on your brand health and be willing to reposition or rebrand if the market evolves. Brands that stay static can fade over time. In contrast, if you maintain a finger on the pulse of customer sentiment, you can reinforce what’s working and fix what’s not, keeping your brand equity on an upward trajectory.
TL;DR
Building brand equity is a marathon, not a sprint - but every step yields benefits. Each of the actions above, from consistency to storytelling, adds layer upon layer of goodwill and recognition for your brand. And remember, you don’t have to do it all alone. Engage your team in the branding process, and consider tapping experts when needed.
Need help evaluating where your brand stands? We specialise in evaluating brand equity, providing actionable insights that align with your business goals.
Click here to learn about our brand audit can help you.
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