Branding

Brand Awareness: Connecting with Real People

PrintThe brand name and reputation of every organization, product or service influences its customers. These days, the majority of people go for branded items instead of cheap low quality alternatives. The reason behind it is largely about ‘Trust’. If you have developed a new product or recently incorporated firm selling goods and services, brand image and brand awareness measurement will be an important key performance indicator (KPI) you need to measure. Traders face tough competition in the market due to involvement of multiple businesses often trading at a very low price margin.

Brand Awareness is the first step in grabbing more customers for business gain. If you want to do fair and profitable businesses then study the mindset of your customers. What they want is an important fact to consider. The combination of the factors like Brand Equity and your Brand Proposition are vital to understand. If you are serious about your business, then you need to consider brand tracking – this involved keeping a regular (monthly or annual) eye on your customers and your brand health.

Brand Research Services

Many marketing campaigns are focused simply on promoting awareness of a brand. Spreading brand awareness is especially important during a company’s early years, when they are trying to make a name for themselves. Unless you are very lucky, you will not get the brand recognition you need so understanding how this grows and evolves is essential.

Some of you may think that potential customers will automatically understand and accept your brand. Unfortunately this is not the case and most brands need careful managing and investment. Expert market research companies will kick start the process by gaining a deep understanding of what your brand is about, once armed with this knowledge it is possible to start the brand tracking research process. Research experts like Vision One have worked with many B2B and consumer brands helping them from brand name development, logo and packaging design, brand proposition and positioning.

Ad hoc and continuous brand research includes the following:

  • Brand tracking surveys
  • Brand awareness measurement
  • Brand positioning development
  • Brand proposition
  • Brand name testing
  • Media evaluation
  • Brand advertising testing
  • Types Of Brand Awareness

Brand awareness is basically divided into two categories. These are:

  1. Prompted brand awareness
  2. Spontaneous band awareness

Every organization has a logo which will help define its brand name and identity. People will often recall a brand name once they can hear or see the logo. This is known as Prompted brand awareness and is important when a brand is starting out.

However, Spontaneous awareness on the other hand, is top of mind awareness and is often a good indicator of brand usage and identifying the category leaders. It is often recorded against a category, such as “What makes of car can you recall”.

Creating Brand Awareness

There are many ways of creating brand awareness, these include:

  • On shelf presence in-store
  • In-store marketing and point of sale or on-pack promotions
  • Outdoor, Radio and TV advertising
  • Word of mouth – getting your customer to talk or recommend your product
  • Sales teams
  • PR and Social Media
  • Web advertising (e.g. Pay per click and SEO)

All the above can influence your brand awareness and brand tracking surveys are essential if you want to evaluate how your marketing is performing.

Benefits Of Brand Awareness

It is very important for businessmen to check whether and to what extent the customers are aware of your goods and services. This is only possible through effective, ‘brand awareness’. Let’s find out some more benefits:

Competitive edge in marketIt is well understood that, competition of goods and service selling companies are increasing in the market. There are several companies that operate within the market atmosphere. Now, how would the consumer know your company? It is through brand name and its awareness.
Customer loyaltyThe brand name gets recognition with its quality service. This will build customer loyalty. The consumers would purchase the goods or avail the same service if they are satisfied with the service quality or product quality. This establishes an emotional connection with customer. As a result, the company wins.
Ease in product introductionNo company wish to stay stagnant. They want growth. Thus, the research and development team go ahead with manufacturing of new products. As a result, those need an introduction in the market. But, if you have proper branding or brand awareness, introduction of new product will be much easier. People will buy it due to the goodwill of the company.

Brand awareness is an important part of every business. Every businessman must expose themselves to public.

Contributed byhttp://visionone.co.uk/

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