Brand awareness involves a consumer’s ability to recognize a brand name or logo, but it also includes their familiarity with the distinctive qualities of the brand, as well as their goods and services. It is an important way for businesses to build a reputation, differentiate themselves from competitors, and retain loyal customers. There are many ways to build awareness that include participating in the community, maintaining uniformity on all online platforms, and more.
Brand awareness is how familiar people are with a brand. It is different than brand recognition.
Brand recognition involves a consumer’s ability to recognize a logo. Brand awareness includes being able to recognize a logo, but it also involves the ability to recognize characteristics that make a particular brand different from others. For example, brand recognition means being able to recognize Apple’s logo. Awareness means knowing they offer stylish, innovative technology, like the iPhone.
Building awareness is important. It can do many things for a business including:
Consumers have to know a brand exists in order to consider purchasing goods or services from that business. By building brand awareness, a company can ensure they are known for something unique in their industry. Businesses that engage in awareness strategies can increase the perceived value of their brand, which provides the company with the ability to increase prices and increase demand.
There are many ways to build brand awareness. A few actionable steps include:
The brands with the most recognition and awareness among consumers are the ones that position themselves more like a person than a company. They show customers they care about their daily lives, and they make the company more approachable by telling personal stories.
In addition, building brand awareness includes repetition. At least five touch points are needed to make an impression on a consumer. That might include being active on social media accounts, email newsletters, face-to-face interactions, or phone calls– the more, the better. Brands that are best remembered are the ones consumers see and hear about on an almost daily basis.
Measuring brand awareness is important, even though it can be difficult. Instead of getting a single piece of data that shows how effective an awareness strategy has been, multiple metrics must be considered in order to paint a broader picture of success.
A few things to measure and consider include:
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Information from just one of these sources is not enough to tell a business about how aware consumers are about their brand. Information must be combined among all these sources to determine a brand’s popularity.
Brand awareness is something that must be built over time. Businesses that have been around for decades have more recognizable brands than businesses that have only been around for a few years. In addition, national brands get more recognition than small, local stores.
Band-Aid is a good example. Not only can people quickly and easily recognize this brand, it has become so well-known that people refer to all bandages as Band-Aids, even though many different brands make them.
Nike has a logo that is instantly recognizable by people around the globe. Beyond logo recognition, Nike demonstrates exceptional brand awareness because most consumers know that this brand produces top-quality tennis shoes and supports athletes in nearly any sport.