It’s that most desirable of marketing aspirations, when with just a glimpse of your brand, a person knows who you are and what you offer.
There’s a reason why kids smile when they see the Golden Arches and it has nothing to do with cheeseburgers. It’s the same reason why we feel confident and empowered when we see the Nike swoosh, and why we gasp when we see the duck egg blue of a Tiffany and Co box.
It’s called brand awareness, and it’s that most desirable of marketing aspirations, when with just a glimpse of your brand, a person knows who you are and what you offer.
Yet, brand awareness isn’t just name recognition. Your brand reflects your business’ values and goals, and when brand awareness is high, people recognise those too.
What is brand awareness?
Brand awareness refers to how familiar people are with your brand and how easily they recognise it.
Businesses with low brand awareness find that when people see their brand, they have low intellectual response (they may not know who you are or what you offer) and low emotional response (seeing your brand may not trigger desirable emotions such as trust or loyalty).
Businesses with high brand awareness are often described as ‘viral’ or ‘trending’. People have a strong understanding of your offering, and often desirable emotional responses.
Brand awareness shouldn’t be confused with brand positioning, another marketing term you hear often.
Think of it this way: brand awareness is the degree to which people know your brand while brand positioning is the process of placing the brand in different environments to grow brand identity.
Why is brand awareness important?
Brand awareness is the first stage of the buying cycle and that makes it essential to every other stage and to the final sales conversion.
Brand awareness means that people are comfortable with your business and have an understanding of its values and what products you sell or service you perform. That means that when it comes to purchasing what it is you sell, they are more likely to buy from you.
Brand awareness can also generate leads and expand your audience. The more people who know you and your offering, the more potential customers you have to market to.
How can you build brand awareness?
We know that brand awareness is essential to every business, but it doesn’t exist in a vacuum – it needs to be a part of an excellent marketing strategy.
It’s not much use everyone knowing who you are and what you sell if you don’t follow it up with a conversion strategy to turn that recognition into sales.
Every element of the marketing strategy will build your brand awareness, so it’s important to design a marketing strategy that best supports what it is you want your brand to be.
Start by setting tangible and measurable marketing goals. It may be to increase ticket sales or move products, for example.
Next, define your audience and research what marketing elements they respond to. The branding for a baby-wear store will be different to, say, a hardware store, not just because of the gender of the customers but also because of the stage of life they are at and what is important to them at that time.
Then you need to choose your marketing platform, and again, those decisions need to be made based on where your potential customers are. What social media platforms do they use? Do they read newspapers or magazines? Or do they work in an environment that has the radio on all day?
Creating memorable and effective content is a key part of every marketing strategy. Whether it’s social media posts, or email newsletters (EDMs), your content says everything about your company’s values, in addition to its unique selling proposition: why your product is the best to solve the consumer’s issue, and why they should buy from you rather than your competitor.
Storytelling is an important part of building brand awareness because people can engage in the narrative, and it lingers in their mind.
Tone and messaging are also key considerations. While, generally speaking, it’s considered advisable to be personable and relatable, this isn’t always the case. High-end fashion brands, for example, deliberately adopt a remote persona because they want to convey feelings of exclusivity and luxury, rather than the everyday.
Most importantly, content should be engaging and shareable.
Need to boost your brand awareness?
The best part of effective brand awareness is that it embeds in the minds of consumers lifestyles and purchase habits, which means they don’t have to think before becoming a customer – and this can lead to long-lasting bottom line results.
Assemblo is a full-service marketing agency based in Melbourne, and are experts in developing and growing brand awareness and marketing strategies.
To find out how we can help your business, give us a call on (03) 9079 2555 or send us a note via the contact form below.