Brand awareness is the way in which consumers recognize and remember your business. The greater the brand awareness you have, the more audiences will be familiar with your logo, messaging, and products.

For example, when you need a tissue, do you ask for a tissue, or for a Kleenex? When you’re ordering a drink at a fast-food restaurant, do you ask for a cola, or a Coke? What about when you cut yourself? Do you look for a plastic bandage, or a Band-Aid?

These terms are known as proprietary eponyms, and they’re the apex of brand awareness. These brands have become so well-known, they’ve replaced the generic terms for similar products in our language.

For a brand or product to become a proprietary eponym is pretty much the pinnacle of brand awareness (sorry, Pepsi). Although you might not achieve this with your small business, that doesn’t mean you can’t do a lot more to boost awareness of your brand.

So in this article, we’re going to equip you with all you need to be able to create a strong brand awareness.

• What is Brand Awareness?
• How do You Create a Brand Awareness?
• What Does Build Brand Awareness Mean?
• What Are the Benefits of Building Brand Awareness?
• What is Brand Awareness Example?
• What are the 4 Branding Strategies?
• What are the 5 Stages of Brand Recognition?
• How do you Increase Brand Awareness and Engagement?
• How do you Promote Your Brand?
• What is the Impact of Brand Awareness?
• What is the Value of Brand Awareness?
• What are the 3 Types of Brand Awareness?

What is Brand Awareness?

Brand awareness is the extent to which a brand is recognized by potential customers and correctly associated with its particular product or service. In the case of a small business, their level of brand awareness may not reach eponym status (e.g. asking for a Kleenex instead of a tissue), but simpler forms are counted as success. This could mean:

• Consumers having knowledge of what your business is known for.
• A social media user knowing your ad is going to be funny when they come across you in their feed.
• Customers choosing your brand specifically over others, even if there are cheaper options.
• Search engine users typing your business name or other branded terms into search.

When your consumers have brand awareness, they often learn more about your business because they know it exists and are actively seeking out information on it, rather than discovering it in a Google or Yelp search.

How do You Create a Brand Awareness?

There are many ways to build, create, and establish brand awareness, but here are a few you can start with today.

1. Guest blog for other sites

It’s important for brands to run their own blogs and build owned audiences, but they can only drive so much mileage from these assets.

Read Also: How to Reach Out to New Customers

This is where guest blogging comes in. This is the process of writing and pitching blog posts for another publication.

Here’s how you do it:

• Research blogs and publications in your industry–Search for industry keywords and guest posts via trusty old Google and social channels. For that client in education, for example, a quick search of ‘education guest blogging‘ brings you a list of education blogs that accept guest posts. As Neil Patel suggests, you can also Google ‘guest post guidelines’ and ‘guest post by’ in your industry to find sites that accept guest submissions. Or you can use platforms like MyBlogGuest and this collection of 500+ sites from BuzzBlogger to aid in your quest. You can find examples like this one from the Christensen Institute on GettingSmart.com:

• Make a list of the guest-post accepting sites that your brand is a good fit for–Check each site’s blog content, comments’ sections, and social channels to better understand who their audiences are and how they engage with the content. You’ll want to make sure that you can provide content that fits into their offerings, while also offering a fresh take.
• Brainstorm ideas for blog posts–This can include your unique and helpful insights. Make sure they haven’t been covered on the sites you reach out to.
• Email each site with your pitches according to their submission guidelines–You may even write an entire post and let editors know it’s ready to go.
• Use these ideas to gain access to an entirely new audience and let the publication you guest blog on benefit from free content from a new industry voice.

2. Create shareable infographics

Shares are crucial for reaching new audiences on social media. They ensure that your content gets seen by people beyond your follower base and they build organic reach in the wake of pesky algorithm changes. This is especially true on Facebook, where the algorithm favors shares from friends and family over posts from brands.

One of the most shareable content formats out there is the infographic. They’re visually engaging, easy to consume, and more fun to read than a regular article. Remember that the brain processes visuals 60,000 times faster than plain text and 94% of blog posts with visuals get more engagement.

3. Improve your SEO with user-intent related keywords

Search engine optimization (SEO) may seem intimidating, but it’s simple to implement — and it’s vital to a brand’s exposure online. It involves getting your content seen by search engines like Google and placed on search results pages.

Here’s how you can use keywords to improve your SEO today:

• Research keywords in your industry and content categories–These are the words that your target audiences are searching to find companies like yours. When optimizing for brand awareness, you want to focus on incorporating informational keywords into your content. These are keywords that match searches of people beginning their buyer journey and looking to learn more about which products are out there. Use tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush and Moz Keyword Explorer to find the most important keywords in your industry and among your competitors.
• Build content around these keywords–Say you’re a fashion retailer and you find that a lot of people are searching for ‘fall boots.’ You might create a post titled, ‘5 Fall Boots to Kick Off the New Season.’ A good way to go about this is to use a cluster model.
• Incorporate your keywords into the headline, body, and image titles of your post–he more mentions, the easier it is for Google to pick up your post.

Red flag: Don’t over stuff your posts with keywords, however, Google will penalize you for this. There’s a fine balance!

4. Start a Referral Program

One way to achieve brand awareness through the coveted word-of-mouth marketing is to help your loyal customers be your best advocates. 

49% of U.S. consumers say friends and family are their top sources of brand awareness. 

A referral program not only increases your reach and the amount of people who know your name, but it also brings that awareness from a source that people trust––their own friends and family. 

Many companies offer referral programs, and one example is activewear company Alala who offers their customers 20% off of a purchase when they refer a friend who also receives 20% off. For consumers and their friends, it’s a win-win.

5. Maximize your organic social media presence

We’ll get into paid social media a little later on, but an important stop on the brand awareness train comes from organic social media. 

Are you creating content that’s worthy of a follower sending to a friend? Or, maybe even tagging them? 

In the former, it all comes down to creating content that is high-quality, that triggers an emotional response, and that adds value to a follower’s life enough that they would want to share it with a friend. 

For the latter, a social media contest is the perfect way to get your followers tagging their own network, many of whom may not have even heard of you yet.

There isn’t just one way a social media contest can be done––in fact, there are many,––but the most important element they all share is that they ask your followers to tag, share, or re-post your content in exchange for a chance to win a prize, and in doing so, they gain you reach and brand awareness. 

6. Develop a voice for your brand

According to Adweek, developing a brand voice can help your brand be sticky in the minds of consumers. The voice your brand takes on can be funny, emotional, smart, sentimental––it just has to be true to the brand and the audience you serve.

Having a unique tone makes a brand memorable. Take Dollar Shave Club, Cards Against Humanity, and Slack. These are just three among many brands who’ve ensured their memorability (and shareability!) by creating strong brand voices. It can go a long way when it comes down to awareness in the market. 

7. Start a podcast

On the quest of achieving greater brand awareness, the more value you can add to consumers’ lives, the more likely they are to remember you, recommend you, and hopefully become customers. 

Creating a podcast doesn’t have to be as straightforward as just talking about your product or service, or commenting on the industry that you’re in––get creative. Are you a fitness company? Interview athletes making a difference in their communities. Are you a beauty brand? Dive into the science behind creating different serums, hair care items, or makeup. 

Consider which areas your team may be experts in, or outside experts you could leverage, and create a piece of content that not only adds value to listeners’ lives, but when branded correctly, can work wonders for your brand awareness.

8. Take part in brand partnerships

If you’re looking to increase your brand awareness, chances are other like-minded brands are looking to do the same, right? 

Linking up with another brand does more than just combine both companies’ reaches––it also builds trust among both audiences. If they like Brand A, and Brand A is partnering with Brand B, maybe Brand B is someone they should know about, too. 

A great example of a brand partnership is BuzzFeed and Best Friends Animal Society. Together, the two brands created a piece of content interviewing well-known actress Emma Watson while she played with adorable kittens. A smart article for many reasons (i.e. cute animals), the piece provided a great brand awareness moment for both partners.

9. Give something away for free

Looking to spread awareness for your brand is not the time to ask people to cough up cash. Instead, giving them a taste of what you have to offer without the commitment of payment can help you build brand and increase awareness. The use of branded merchandise with creative logo can amplify your brand’s awareness. Personalized merchandise is an effective form of passive advertisement that is often overlooked.

If you offer a subscription service, this could come in the form of a free trial. How can someone truly know who you are if they haven’t been able to try out your service? They may be aware of your name, but giving them access––even limited access––to your offerings can deepen that awareness.

If you offer a product, this could come in the form of free samples. You may remember in 2016 when Girlfriend Collective nearly broke the internet giving away free leggings. They went from a brand new, unknown brand to 10,000 orders on the day of their official launch. 

What Does Build Brand Awareness Mean?

Brand awareness is a general term that describes how familiar (aware) consumers are with a brand or its products. Put simply, brand awareness is the measure of how memorable and recognizable a brand is to its target audience.

Establishing brand awareness is a powerful marketing strategy that leads consumers to develop an instinctive preference towards a brand and its products. Making a brand recognizable and memorable is at the heart of most marketing strategies because it is a major force behind brand trust, and ultimately, sales generation.

What Are the Benefits of Building Brand Awareness?

Brand awareness is important because it is the very first step in the marketing funnel, and a crucial foundation to eventually acquire customers. Brand awareness refers to people’s ability to recall and recognize your business. There are several benefits that comes with building and increasing brand awareness. Below are some of them.

1. Top of Mind

You know? The highest level of brand awareness is top of mind awareness. This is when clients think of you first when they need to make a purchase within your product category.

Moreover, You might build top of mind awareness through repeated exposure and consistent delivery of a good product or service over time. This is a huge advantage in the market when clients enter a buying situation and your brand immediately comes to mind first.

2. Increased client loyalty

If a client sees your brand out in the marketplace, and recognizes it, that familiarity creates a sense of security that your client has chosen a well-established company. When a company that you have never heard of and never seen their logo calls you, do you feel secure initially in talking to that company?  Most likely not.

Since acquiring new clients is such a costly process, retaining clients and bringing them back again is critical to long-term business sustainability. Brand loyalty creates a certain level of security for businesses. Brand awareness plays a vital role in repeat client activity.

In addition, Once a client has purchased from you, do you utilize tools such as promotions, newsletters, and satisfaction surveys to stay in touch? These simple actions can sustain brand awareness among your pool of existing clients  

3. Tip the Scale

Many people are shopping around, it is a given, and should not be taken personally. What you should do is to tip the scale in your favor.  If everything else is comparable, your clients are more likely to choose a brand that they recognize a brand that they never heard of.  And in many cases, brand awareness can make up for other inequities, thus giving you an advantage that you did not have before.

4. Useful executive metric

Executives of marketing are consistently looking for metrics that they can report to the board, the shareholders, other stakeholders as evidence of a company’s success. Increased brand awareness can signal the yield on efforts to break into new markets and provide tangible evidence of a company’s potential for growth while financial results , sales data trump most other inputs.

This alone can be a successful argument for why this is vital to measure brand awareness and then track it over time.

5. Enhances Product Recognition

Brands provide multiple sensory stimuli to enhance client recognition. For example, a brand can be visually recognizable from its logo, packaging, shape, so on. It might also be recognizable via sound, such as hearing the name on a talking with someone who mentions the product or a radio advertisement.

6. Provide a foundation for expansion

Brand identity might help you to acquire investors. When investors understand the value of a good brand, and sometimes are willing to invest mainly due to the power of a brand.

7. Aids in Introduction of New Products

Firms that establish a successful brand can extend the brand by adding new products under the same “family” brand. Such branding may allow companies to introduce new products more easily since the brand is already recognized within the market.

Example:

Besides our greatest extensions for Magento, Magestore (Yeah, it’s our brand) has launched Retailer Kit (A.K.A “Magento Omnichannel Solution“).

8. Digital Impact

The importance of brand awareness has become increasingly significant with the evolution of the Internet and digital technology. The public is more equipped with mobile and social media tools to communicate quickly about your brand, good or bad. This means that establishing a strong reputation for good products or services, integrity in your business practices and community involvement are even more critical to long-term success.

The possibility of Premium prices for your products or services. Your clients are more likely to pay premium prices for brands that they recognize and associate with quality, dependability and security

9. Build Equity

Equity is the value of your brand beyond your physical assets like buildings and equipment. Developing a strong brand equity you have to develop a high level of brand awareness.

Besides, The more people are aware of you and the stronger your reputation, the greater your overall brand value and profit potential. Word of mouth in the market plays a strong role in helping your brand grow its client base and develop loyal relationships with top clients.

So what is a good way to improve your brand awareness?

Yeah, Gift Card is your answer

This powerful weapon may allow your customers to club together to buy gifts for family and friends, helping to increase your online store’s brand awareness. Moreover, this extension enables you to sell your items or gift cards on your online Store, as well gain insight into how people purchase gifts as groups.

All in all, because of its flexibility, gift card gives the great last-minute, most convenient gift solution to your customers. Yea, Gift card has helped conversion rates. Even when they’re not aware of particular tastes, more and more people are able to easily find something to buy online.

What is Brand Awareness Example?

When you buy a diaper, do you ask for a diaper or a Pampers? When you need a perfume, do you buy Fara, or Dolce & Gabbana?

The terms we mentioned are well-known brands, and they are on the top of brand awareness. For example, every time visit a restaurant, you ask for a soft drink, or Pepsi or Coke? Such brands have influenced the customer psyche, and they never ask for the generic term, but a specific brand.

We have already mentioned many brands like Pepsi, Coke, Apple, and Dell. Over the years these companies were able to increase brand awareness in the consumer minds.

There are other brands awareness examples include

• Amazon
• Microsoft
• Walmart
• Nike
• Facebook
• WeChat
• Youtube

People can easily identify these well-known brands by only spotting brands’ logos like Nike swoosh and audio Nike sound logo.

Every company is able to build brand awareness by using attractive visuals and voice content. This will be possible if you rightfully invest in advertising using different social media platforms and mass media channels. The key to success is to be consistent and try to increase your brand image in the mind of the target audience.

What are the 4 Branding Strategies?

Here are four common brand growth strategies for businesses looking to extend their services or product offerings. The four brand strategies are line extension, brand extension, new brand strategy, and flanker/fight brand strategy.

Line Extension Brand Strategy

The line extension brand growth strategy involves creating additional products in response to consumer needs. A closer look at line extension strategy would be easier to see from an example. Apple introduced the iPhone Plus for the first time, with the release of the 6. The iPhone Plus was born to satisfy consumers who are looking for a bigger screen.

Now, they can have their iPhone the way it suits them best. This growth strategy benefits Apple because it captures consumers who may have considered one of Apple’s competitors. Instead of losing those potential customers, Apple has found a profitable way to serve them. 

Brand Extension Brand Strategy

Brand extension strategy involves the introduction of a new brand, in a new market, after consolidating your brands’ name in a related field. This brand strategy can be seen in Hershey Foods Inc. They make Twizzlers, and since they have done well in satisfying the market for chewy candy snacks, perhaps Twizzler Bites might reach a new market.

In another example, Starbucks introduced their k-cups for coffee drinkers who are looking to enjoy the benefits of Starbucks’ gourmet coffee at home or at the office. Below is an image that showcases Starbucks’ strategic implementation of multiple brand strategies.

Not only have they used the brand extension strategy in order to serve customers at the convenience of their homes or offices, but they also introduced a line extension now known as, Blonde Roast. 

New Brand, Brand Strategy

The new brand strategy is when a firm creates a new brand to go along with a new product. The new brand strategy is the most costly, since starting a new brand includes costs such as advertising, sales personnel, manufacturing costs and more. Frito Lay has created many different salty snacks under different brand names including Doritos, and Cheetos.

Although this brand growth strategy is the most costly it can also reap the most benefits if done correctly. By introducing an entirely new product to the market you will be able to capture market share by serving different ends of the spectrum.

Flanker Brand Strategy

Flanker brand strategy is the placement of a new brand or sub-brand, at the high or lower ends of the spectrum in order to capture new market segments. For example, Apple released the iPhone 8 along with the iPhone X. You can state that the iPhone X was released for the sole purpose of being a 10-year anniversary special. The iPhone X also served as a Flanker product on the high end of the spectrum. It came with more features than the 8 at a price point above the 8.

Fitbit offers an array of different step trackers and at different prices. The Fitbit Flex is at the lower end of the spectrum with the lowest cost and as expected the least features. Additionally, The Flex doesn’t even have a screen. This item is used as a Flanker brand strategy in order to capture consumers who would like to have a Fitbit step tracker but at a reasonable cost. 

Fighter Brand Strategy

Fighter brand strategy occurs when a firm creates a new brand to wrest market share from another. Usually, fighter brands aren’t created to target consumers, instead, they are created to target competitors. For example, Squirt was a Grapefruit soft drink owned by Dr. Pepper and introduced in 1938 without competition.

Soon, Coca-Cola saw an opportunity to compete with the new fruity soft drink Squirt; and in order to gain market share, Coca-Cola decided to create Citra. 

What are the 5 Stages of Brand Recognition?

Here are the 5 levels of brand recognition and how you can build your business to improve it:

1. Brand rejection. If someone associates your brand with something negative, they will purposely avoid your product. Have you ever experienced bad service somewhere and swore you’d never return to that chain? Have any of your customers said that about your business? Create a logo and slogan that is filled with great benefits to your customer and put that on everything. If public opinion is turning against you or your product, launch a campaign to alter it.
2. Brand non-recognition. This is where your customers simply don’t recognize your brand, probably because it is not clearly differentiated from competitors. Boldly state your product or service’s benefits. Always include the full trademark name whenever you refer to your product. Be willing to create brand names for your products or services, just like you’ve done for your own business. Find the differences in value between your product and your competitors and highlight that difference mercilessly.
3. Brand recognition. This is a good stage to aim for if you don’t have any recognition at all. Brand recognition will help people lean toward your product when given the choice between your product and one they have never heard of. At the same time, though remember that your competitors are also working on brand recognition, which means their brand could be more recognizable. Continue to differentiate yourself and be sure to add value to your product in order to get to the next stage.
4. Brand preference. This is where customers – given a choice between two brands – will choose yours over someone else’s. It often is the result of a sense of differentiation and that your product or service uniquely serves their needs. As well, you can be sure that any value-added products or services you include help them to choose yours over your competitors. Even though this is a great stage to be in, it’s not the final stage. The stage you absolutely want to be in with your brand is!
5. Brand loyalty. This is where customers will choose your brand time and time again, even if they experience the occasional poor service or if another product comes along that seems to be better suited to their needs. To achieve brand loyalty, you need to provide a product that is highly differentiated, with plenty of value added, but also you need to offer them remarkable service at a level they will not get anywhere else. Providing this level of service will ensure that they will never switch.

Make it a point to start branding right away. Your new business should be branded from Day One, and the products or services you offer can be branded as well. If you have a few services, consider packaging them together as one package and branding that package.

How do you Increase Brand Awareness and Engagement?

Along with improving your brand awareness, you’ll want to fully engage your customers. This means you want them to not only know who you are, but to have first-hand experience interacting with you.

You can achieve this by increasing your brand’s customer engagement. Here are three ways to do just that.

Step 1: Humanize Your Brand

To the outside world, your brand is just that – an inhuman and unknowable brand that is only looking to make a profit from its customers. This is why one of the greatest ways to increase customer engagement is by humanizing your brand.

You can do this by creating a brand personality. It will be an ambassador for your brand, much like Progressive’s Flo or the Pillsbury Doughboy. This individual will personify your brand, which should make it easier for your customer base to connect to your business.

Step 2: Create a Personalized Customer Communications Experience

One of the easiest ways to connect with your customers is during the customer service experience. Whether by email, phone, or another digital means of communication, your customers should feel engaged and taken care of throughout the entire process.

This is where creating a personalized customer communications experience is important. Fortunately, there are many ways to do so. One method is to use the information you’ve collected on your customers – such as names and birthdays – as a way to connect with them. For example, you can send each person an email on their birthday.

You can even add such personalization to your website, via quizzes and questionnaires. These will help to offer more customized recommendations, which can further improve the overall experience for your customers.

Step 3: Listen to Your Audience

As a brand, you want your audience to listen to you. You can achieve this by creating useful content, and even establishing strong social media campaigns. However, you should also consider the fact that your audience wants you to listen to them.

By listening to your audience, you show them that you take their concerns seriously. It also helps you to engage on a more personal level, which will earn your brand respect.

Fortunately, listening is easy. Keep an eye on your social media profiles, and take into account what your followers are saying. Answer their questions and concerns directly, even if just to acknowledge that they’ve been heard, and implement changes based off what you’re hearing whenever feasible.

How do you Promote Your Brand?

Branding is all about fostering an identity for your company. That won’t happen overnight, but you can take careful steps to devise a strategy that will help you create an image for your enterprise in the long run.

Here are a few tips on how to promote your brand.

Have a powerful brand presence physically

If you want to build up your reputation in the world, the first step is to make sure people see you. Have a location that’s prominent and easy to find. Advertise in places people will see. Make sure that your company and your employees are present at important events where there are opportunities to promote your enterprise.

No one can promote a brand by being invisible, so make sure to get out there and let yourself and your business be seen and heard.

Your brand must appeal to people intellectually

Entrepreneur Magazine notes that if you want to broaden your appeal as a small business, it’s best to appeal to people on an intellectual level. Think about specific questions people might have about your business and how you can provide logical honest answers. Ask yourself questions like the following:

• What sets you apart from your competitors?
• How does the community perceive you
• Do you have unique opinions and ideas to share with the world?

Consumers today are smart, and they want to be treated with respect. Win people’s brains in addition to their hearts.

Promote your brand content on social media

Social media is obviously a great tool for branding your business. In addition to using the sites for straightforward promotional messages, you can also utilize social media for promoting interesting content that might not have a hard sell, but still has something interesting to say about your industry.

If your social media accounts share information that’s relevant and compelling, people will follow you, and in turn, more people will become loyal to your business. This is a very slow process, but over time, it works.

Don’t Over-Promote

While it’s important to be active on social media to establish your brand, there is such a thing as being too involved. First of all, you don’t want to spam people by promoting too much content. Being overwhelmed with information will turn people off, and you don’t want to be known for promoting yourself too much.

Secondly, while you personally want to be very active as the leader of your small business, you might also want to let the marketing wing of your company handle the job for themselves. You might be in charge, but you are only one person, and it’s good to share the spotlight when possible.

Prove that your brand is here to stay

In order to brand your business effectively, you want to prove that you have staying power. Think about your business and where it’s headed in the future. What are you doing to embrace future trends in the business world? Will people still identify with your brand in five years? What about in 10, or 20?

Your promotional message should be one of the long-term potentials. Your goal is not only to service customers’ needs now but also to earn their loyalty for the long haul.

What is the Impact of Brand Awareness?

Multiple studies have looked at the relationship between brand awareness and customer decision making, and they consistently demonstrate that brand awareness is an important factor when making a decision. Studies also show consumers who are aware of a particular brand tend to sample fewer products.

What does this mean for you? By generating brand recognition, you can increase new sales, foster brand loyalty and keep retention levels low.

Let’s look at some of the reasons why brand awareness has such an impact on consumer decision making.

Your Brand Stands Out from the Crowd

Studies show that consumers are able to choose a product more quickly when presented with a number of options that includes a brand they know, as opposed to a number of options with only unfamiliar brands.

In other words, if a customer is given five shirts to choose from, and one is from a brand she knows, she’s more likely to make a quick decision in favor of the branded shirt. If she is presented with five shirts from brands she doesn’t know, it takes her longer to decide.

Your Brand is Approved by Others

There are many ways to build brand awareness, and one of them is through social media. Consumers trust reviews and testimonials from real people more than messages that come from the brand itself. Therefore, social proof is good for business and can weigh heavily on purchase decisions.

In one study, it was found that 38% of moms are more likely to buy products from brands that other women “like” on Facebook. Additionally, 77% of brand conversations on social media are people looking for information, advice or help. This means that people turn to social media for recommendations and trust brands that other people like.

Tying Your Marketing to Brand Awareness

Brand awareness is an important part of the decision making process, which is why your marketing efforts should be tied to improving this presence. The benefits of improved brand recognition are increased sales, enhanced trust and credibility and boosted loyalty. Some of the best ways to build brand awareness are by having an identifiable logo, distinct brand message and a combination of offline and online marketing.

What is the Value of Brand Awareness?

Brand awareness is important when launching new products and services, and it drives consumers’ decisions when differentiating between competing companies. It encourages repeat purchases and leads to an increase in market share and incremental sales. Brand awareness is also very important to businesses that are marketing proactively through social media sites.

Being Proactive Through Technology and Social Media

Because we are in an era of constant advancements in technology, brand awareness is especially important for every business. This is because people always have some type of computer in their hand, whether it’s a smartphone, a tablet, or an actual laptop/desktop, which means they are able to quickly communicate with others in a matter of seconds.

This could either work in favor of, or against your business. It all comes down to how you go about using it and adapting to these many technological advances. Being proactive in brand building through social media will lead to a better brand experience for existing customers while turning prospective customers into loyal brand followers.

The Drive For Repeat Purchases

According to ISPO news, “90 percent of all purchasing decisions are made subconsciously. We use mental shortcuts to skip the process and avoid being overwhelmed by the number of available options from competitors.”

With a good marketing campaign focused on your brand and business model, you will more effectively narrow in on your target audience and encourage them to feel connected to and empowered by your brand.  Brand awareness affects perceptions and attitudes, which drive brand choice and even brand loyalty. This means that without brand awareness, repeat purchases are less likely.

Increased Market Share and Sales

By building brand awareness, you can also increase your market share. If you are the first to the punch in getting your brand fused into customers’ minds, you will raise the barrier to other companies that are trying to enter the market.

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According to the Strategic Planning Institute,  “Aggressive marketing and advertising, are the key factors in increasing brand awareness and converting awareness into market share.” Brand awareness does not have a financial value on its own, but it is part of the collective marketing effort that drives incremental sales.

There are many ways you can go about boosting brand awareness amongst consumers, and making a brand mean something to consumers when they look at it is just as important as a sales pitch. Your marketing strategies may vary year-to-year, but a consistent brand message will help make your business top-of-mind when your target market is comparison shopping.

What are the 3 Types of Brand Awareness?

1. Brand Recall

Brand recall is what establishes a relation between product category and brand. Most people can name three labels in a product category. Some can recall five, and some only one. This feedback shows the level of consumer interest in the product category.

For example, in the non-alcoholic beverage category, three likely brand recalls would be Coke, Pepsi, and Sprite. The effectiveness of branding depends on marketing strategy, advertisements, the catchiness of phrases, product visibility and brand ambassadors.

2. Brand Recognition

While walking around in the supermarket, consumers immediately distinguish between products and choose the one they want to buy; that is brand recognition.

Sometimes, consumers are unable to recall the exact name of the product. But, even then, they distinguish it from other substitutes based on taglines, colors, packaging, logos or advertisement. 

3. Brand Dominance

When consumers can recall only one trademark in any product category, It is called the top of the mind awareness. With such market dominance, consumers associate the entire product category with the brand, and the brand becomes the product.

For example, when it comes to Jeans, the only brand most people can recall is Levis. Most would know its brand ambassador, the advertisements, and even the song played in the ad. It indicates that consumers trust that brand. That is brand dominance.

Bottomline

Brand Awareness is a measure of consumer’s brand recall and brand recognition. Evaluating and predicting consumer behavior is required for brand management. Therefore, brand awareness is the much-needed feedback for the existing advertising and marketing campaigns.