Have you ever listened to people calling themselves, for instance, ‘Samsung fans’ or ‘frequent Nando’s users’? This is the power of brand awareness: making a brand an almost incidental part of consumer's daily lives and purchasing processes. Brand awareness also means that consumers know your brand and can confidently make a choice in its favor.
This guide will explain brand awareness, how to introduce it to your audience, how to create campaigns to help it increase your brand, and how it will change your business in the long run. Let's dive in.
Table of Contents
- Introduction to Brand Awareness
- The Importance of Brand Awareness
- Establishing Brand Awareness
- Strategies for Building Brand Awareness
- Measuring Brand Awareness
- Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Brand Awareness Campaign Examples
Introduction to Brand Awareness
What is Brand Awareness?
Brand familiarity refers to how well people can identify brands or products associated with your business. It reveals the extent of recognition of your target public with your brand name, logo, and other defining features. High brand awareness implies that the target population can quickly identify and remember your brand with ease about competitors. For instance, when people glimpse those two circles, McDonald’s first comes to mind.
Why is Brand Awareness Important?
Brand awareness is essential since consumers are likely to engage with a product or service they have heard of before. If people can relate to a particular brand or are familiar with it, then it is easier for them to opt for it than a brand they are unfamiliar with. A high brand awareness helps brands realize higher sales levels and greater customer loyalty and establishes the brands in the market. It also makes your marketing efforts more effective, as a business that has developed a brand is likely to attract attention compared to a company that has not. For instance, a person will purchase a Samsung smartphone because the individual is familiar with the brand and has confidence in it.
The Concept of Brand Awareness
Earning Trust
Establishing brand equity helps to gain customers’ trust in your company. Through the branding process, the public can trust the products or services you are offering. Trust should also play a significant role in decision-making, as it is valuable in samples. For instance, when two brands of shoes are being compared, and one is familiar to the individual, the familiar brand will automatically be trusted and selected.
Growing Your Market Share
Another advantage is the ability to attract more customers to your brand and, therefore, a larger piece of the market share. This makes sense because when people are familiar with your brand, they are more likely to take your products. This, in effect, translates to higher volume and, hence, a larger market share than your rivals. For instance, when buying phones, many companies, such as Samsung, will always be popular because of the brand.
Building Customer Loyalty
Customers are more likely to remain loyal to a brand they are familiar with. Once the customers identify with the brand and build an association with it, they are likely to continue doing business with you. Apart from directly spending more money on your products, these customers also encourage others to buy your products. For instance, friends who go to Nando’s frequently more often invite friends in the process.
Standing Out from Competitors
It also makes your product easily recognizable in the market because it means brand recognition against the competitors. Recognizing a brand and staying tuned to its products is also important to ensure their sustainability. It is particularly relevant when companies introduce new products or decide to expand into a new geographic market. For example, in the aviation service market, many customers are familiar with Turkish Airlines and prefer it over other airlines.
Establishing Brand Awareness
Develop a Great Brand Image
To have a good brand that people will consider, one has to develop a good brand image. These are the graphic elements, such as your logo, colors, general layout, language, and principles of your brand. They ensure that your brand has a familiar look and feel, which will ensure that your brand stands out. For instance, the green color and general appearance of the logo and stores of the Saudi Arabian-based supermarket chain, Panda.
Know Your Audience
It is nearly impossible to overemphasize the importance of audience analysis. This means understanding their characteristics, such as age, gender, location, and income level, as well as their psychographics, which include their interests and buying patterns. For instance, if your target consumers prefer environmentally friendly products, then do not hesitate to highlight your environmental standpoint. Promoting its natural and healthy products, Almarai, a well-known dairy brand in the Middle East, focuses on health-conscious consumers.
Ways of Enhancing Brand Recognition
Share Your Posts More Often
Marketing your brand on social media such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter can help you get discovered more easily. Be active by posting new content often, commenting on your followers’ posts, and posting advertisements to reach as many people as possible. For example, on Instagram, Samsung shares product and innovation content with millions of users.
Create Valuable Content
Content marketing includes creating blogs, videos, Infographics, and many other types of useful content for customers. This can assist you in getting customer attention and loyalty. For instance, a business selling exercise equipment can develop exercise videos or write articles and blogs on exercising correctly.
Start a Podcast
Podcasts are beneficial for reaching out to your audience. They let you relay information, pass time, and build an audience. For instance, the “Inside Emirates” podcast, available on Emirates Airlines, gives information on travel and unearths the inner side of the airline industry.
Partner with Other Brands
Working with other brands can be quite advantageous in reaching out to customers. Choose companies with which potential customers can identify themselves and have similar views and ideals. For instance, a coffee brand could cooperate with a company dealing in breakfast products to jointly organize or run promotional events.
Take Advantage of SEO
Promotion Techniques include Search Engine Optimization (SEO), which aims to improve the website's visibility in search engine results. This can enhance the overall impression of the website and attract more visitors to the site. The best ways to improve your SEO are to incorporate keywords, use the correct keywords in your content, and format your website in the best way possible. For instance, a travel blog can incorporate keywords such as ‘best travel destinations’ to capture the attention of many people.
Measuring Brand Awareness
Track Website Traffic
Keep track of the visitors that you are receiving on your website. Direct access, where people type your address directly in the browser, suggests your brand is already well established. For instance, if people access your website without clicking links or advertising, they already know your brand.
Check Social Media Engagement
Check the number of your followers on different social media platforms and the likes, shares, and comments on your posts. High engagement ensures that people know and even engage with your brand. Tools like Sprout Social can be used to track such factors.
Monitor Brand Mentions
This lets you know when and where your brand is mentioned on the web, and several helpful tools for doing that exist, including Google Alerts. This assists you in working out how frequently a particular brand is being discussed. For instance, you could set up alerts for your eponymous brand or leading products.
Listen to Customer Feedback
Monitor what your customers are saying about your brand. This may be through social media, review sites, or surveys, among other methods. It can give Branding Advertisers qualitative data about how people perceive their brands.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Be Consistent
Make sure that your branding message is uniform and standardized throughout your products. One disadvantage of not having a clear focus or strategy is that it will confuse your clients, thus diluting your brand. For instance, your logo, colors, and the message you intend to convey must be consistent on your website, social media, and the packaging of the end product.
Address Negative Feedback
Do not outright dismiss negative feedback or comments. Tackle them as soon as you can and politely to ensure the clientele feel valued. This can help portray an image of trust and, therefore, ensure that your brand is well known.
Expand Your Vision Beyond Sales
But establishing brand equity does not just occur through direct sales efforts and increasing sales. Rather, continue to focus your efforts on developing quality content for your followers and nurturing your connections. For instance, ensure your audience receives helpful content and responds to their posts.
Brand Awareness Campaign Examples
Oppo’s Mobile Photography Campaign
Oppo also utilized the high-quality camera in its smartphones to sell them. Some activities included asking users to post their best photographs clicked through Oppo phones to generate more traffic and get people to know more about the product.
Emirates' "Hello Tomorrow"
As part of its marketing efforts, Emirates devised a campaign that would touch the hearts of travelers by making their dream of the ‘World is your Oyster’. The campaign captured the attention of its viewers and potential customers through captivating pictures and moving tales that created powerful brand associations.
Conclusion
Key Takeaways
Brand awareness is a long-term process through which a particular brand establishes its presence, recognizes its target groups, and inserts them into an identity to which it adapts its communication strategies. To create a long-lasting business, keep track of your performance and avoid making some of the most frequent errors.
Keep Growing Your Brand
Remember that building brand awareness takes time. So, keep up the same frequency, listen to your customers, and keep trying other methods of reaching out to your audiences. This implies that the more hardworking you are, the more you will be rewarded with customer loyalty and a competitive market share.
