Ecom Access

Take a minute and ask yourself a question. Do you always buy the same kind of soap, pain killer, kitchen spray or shampoo? I’ll bet you said yes to at least one of those items. Few of us realize how affected we are by brands and brand awareness. We are constantly making, consciously or unconsciously, brand-driven decisions in our daily mundane activities. How many times have you asked someone to pass the “Kleenex”? In fact, the term “Kleenex” is a brand name and not an actual item. Examples like this one come from years of exposure to a brand, alongside an intelligent and well-deployed marketing plan on the part of the brand itself.

In fact, many companies eagerly vie to be the first brand you reach for when looking to fulfill your basic daily needs. Companies want to capture your attention from an early age in order to ensure your brand loyalty, and consequential consistent purchasing habit, for a lifetime.

As an affiliate, you can benefit from these corporate branding strategies by pushing products with strong market brand power. Strong branding increases conversions in the following ways:

Familiarity

Consumers are historically only driven to make a purchase after multiple exposures to a brand or product. If they are seeing a brand for the first time, chances are, that won’t be the time they decide to buy that brand’s product.

Trust

Part of a strategic branding campaign involves building a consumer’s trust and emotional connection to the brand. The top-selling brand in any range of products won’t necessarily be the one with the highest quality and best value; often, in fact, the top-performing brands have simply developed a trusting relationship with their consumers. You’ll often hear consumer purchase decisions are based on trusting, emotion-driven contexts; “My mother always used Dove soap,” “My friend Joe swears by Valvoline to keep his truck running.”

Loyalty

Once trust has been established, a company needs to ensure that their brand delivers consistency in the quality of their product. Once trust in a brand has been introduced and established in the market place, the brand needs to ensure that their product always delivers on its trust-based promises in order to remain a constant in their consumers’ lives.

Considering Branding When Selecting an Affiliate Program

Alongside basic things like creative offerings, affiliate support and statistical reporting, one of the key considerations when selecting programs is to promote brand strength. By promoting trusted brands, you’ll be reinforcing your own brand’s strength, thereby creating a winning association.

Tags: Affiliate Marketing

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