The Strategic Guide to Building & Measuring Brand Awareness

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ARTICLE AD BOX

Jun 21, 2022|Read time: 15 min.

Caroline Withers Digital Outreach Specialist

Key Points

  • A beardown marque has precocious marque consciousness and differentiates itself from the competition.
  • High marque designation makes it easier to adjacent income and turn the brand.
  • There are a assortment of ways to summation marque awareness, including SEO, contented marketing, nationalist relations (PR), referrals, advertising, influencer marketing, and strategical partnerships with different brands.

Brand consciousness isn’t conscionable for tiny businesses and startups, but besides large brands. No substance however large your institution is, consumers should cognize who you are and what you merchantability erstwhile they brushwood your brand.

So, what’s the archetypal happening you request to bash arsenic a marketer? Make your people assemblage alert that the marque exists!

Brand consciousness is the archetypal measurement toward getting your marque recognized by caller customers. Once consumers cognize astir your brand, they tin instrumentality an interest, prosecute with it, and acquisition from you.This usher explains however to make an effectual marque consciousness strategy for expanded scope and marketplace share.

What is brand awareness?

Brand consciousness describes the grade to which your people assemblage knows and recognizes your brand.

If a precocious percent of your people assemblage is alert of your brand, you’re much apt to marque the sale. Apple, Coca-Cola, Nike, Microsoft, Toyota, Disney….these are each examples of brands with precocious marque awareness.

If nary 1 knows you exist, however tin they bargain from you? How tin your marque succeed?

A beardown marque differentiates itself from competitors. Your selling efforts, PR initiatives, referrals, word-of-mouth, and strategical partnerships with influencers and concern partners each thrust marque consciousness and support you apical of mind.

When processing your marque consciousness strategy, inquire yourself these questions:

  • Where does your people assemblage walk clip online?
  • What problems are they trying to solve?
  • What bash they attraction about?
  • Which societal media platforms bash they prefer?
  • What brands bash they love?
  • What worth tin you supply to them?

The answers to these questions volition usher however to presumption your marque successful the market. As a result, you tin yet go well-known successful your niche.

Brand awareness vs. brand recognition

Many radical usage marque consciousness and marque designation interchangeably, but determination is simply a difference. Brand consciousness is the enactment of your assemblage simply being alert your marque exists.

Brand designation takes this consciousness to different level. New audiences are nary longer simply alert you exist. They besides admit your brand’s identifying characteristics. This whitethorn beryllium designation done ocular oregon audio signals specified arsenic logos, marque images, oregon merchandise packaging. Or, they admit the celebrities associated with your brand, your tagline, oregon the jingles you usage successful your advertising.

In different words, they admit your marque adjacent without seeing your marque name. For example, successful the pursuing six-minute Nike video the marque sanction is ne'er mentioned oregon shown connected the screen. 

Instead, a spectator recognizes the Nike marque simply done the marque logo (the iconic swoosh) towards the extremity of the video. That’s a objection of beardown marque designation by Nike’s people audience.

With marque awareness, your selling becomes easier arsenic they already cognize astir your brand. Once you’ve achieved marque recognition, you tin summation their trust, which successful crook often translates into pricing power. And if your marque is accordant with branding, each this leads to imaginable gross growth. A survey of 400 organizations by LucidPress showed that accordant presumption of a marque accrued gross by 33%.

Why is brand awareness important?

Brand consciousness is the archetypal measurement successful marque building. It is easier to tally palmy selling campaigns with an established brand.

It’s a lawsuit of a rising tide lifting each boats. When you execute precocious marque awareness, each your branding, marketing, and selling becomes much effective.

Here are immoderate of the cardinal benefits of marque awareness:

  • The gathering blocks to marque recognition: If you privation beardown marque recognition, you’ll request to marque them alert of your marque first.
  • More effortless selling success:  It’s easier to power the determination making process erstwhile your assemblage is acquainted with your brand. Plus, you tin absorption connected positioning, differentiation, engagement, and different high-value areas of marketing.
  • Deeper trust: Higher marque consciousness leads to greater marque trust. A 2022 Salsify survey showed 46% of consumers would wage much to acquisition from a marque they trust.
  • Greater marque equity: Higher marque consciousness increases the perceived worth of the brand. This, successful turn, enhances the monetary marque worth itself.

46%

46% of consumers volition wage much to bargain from brands they trust.

Salsify

For example, the banal terms whitethorn transportation a higher aggregate than competitors. Or, the marque whitethorn beryllium capable to motorboat merchandise extensions profitably.

  • Word-of-mouth marketing: A word-of-mouth merchantability means ZERO dollars spent connected acquiring that customer. Word of mouth, oregon referrals, increases the instrumentality connected concern (ROI) you person made successful your brand.
  • Simplified brand messaging: If you perceive “Red Bull gives you wings,” you instantly deliberation of everything Red Bull. From vigor drinks to adrenaline-filled utmost sports media and events, Red Bull streamlines its messaging. Red Bull present “owns” the connection “wings” successful the consumer’s mind, and truthful applies it passim its marketing, from its ads to the Wings for Life World Run.

Types of brand awareness

There are 2 main types of marque awareness, arsenic outlined below.

Aided brand awareness

Aided marque consciousness is the percent of your people assemblage who, erstwhile prompted, are alert of your merchandise oregon brand.

For example, if you were Nike and a researcher gave a absorption radical a database of footwear names and asked them to enactment an “X” adjacent to immoderate they recognized, this aided marque consciousness due to the fact that the database reminded the assemblage of Nike.

Unaided brand awareness

Unaided marque consciousness is the beatified grail of marque identity. If consumers tin sanction your institution erstwhile asked to database circumstantial brands that merchantability a benignant of product, past you’ve achieved greatness.

For example, if the researcher asked, “What footwear brands tin you name?” and the participants named Nike, this is unaided marque awareness.

What institution names travel to caput if I inquire you to database each the insubstantial brands you know?

If I were to springiness you the database below, however galore would you people with an “X” identifying that you cognize the brand?

  • Puffs
  • Kleenex
  • Up & Up
  • Scotties
  • Seventh Generation

Once prompted, you astir apt recognized overmuch much than you could deliberation of with an unaided recall. That’s the quality betwixt aided and unaided marque awareness.

How to summation marque awareness

Brand consciousness strategies are rooted successful marketing.

First, get successful beforehand of your people assemblage and marque them alert you exist. Then, marque them alert of your positioning and differentiation. In addition, your selling and marque experiences should marque them retrieve you and deliberation positively astir you.

To amended guarantee success, papers a marque consciousness improvement strategy. Here are immoderate of the keys:

Follow a unified marketing strategy

Building a unified selling strategy starts with goals. Measure your marque consciousness baseline, portion besides documenting your consciousness goals and cardinal show indicators (KPI).

Then, find the circumstantial selling initiatives and tactics you’ll usage to make much attention. Ensure your messaging resonates. And spell transverse channel, integrating your selling and messaging wherever possible.

Be accordant with your assorted customer interaction points. While you physique awareness, marque consistency is captious for your success. Disjointed oregon inconsistent messaging, packaging, style, oregon marque associations lone confuse prospective customers. As consumers are already overwhelmed with marque messaging (consumers brushwood implicit 5,000 selling messages a time successful the U.S.), support it simple. The much enactment your assemblage members request to bash to simply retrieve you, the little apt they will.

To guarantee a unified selling strategy that produces beardown marque awareness:

  • Brand guide: Use a marque guide. This ensures you’re “on brand” careless of selling transmission oregon tactic. The usher should see your logo, tagline, and colors, but it should besides specify your marque voice, personality, associations, and values.
  • Brand assets: Keep your marque assets accessible and organized. This whitethorn see your logo files, marque guide, merchandise images, and different imagery.
  • Marketing tactics: Determine the selling channels, platforms, tactics, approaches, and vehicles you’ll usage to marque your assemblage alert of your brand. Be accordant crossed each of these components of your selling infrastructure.
  • Marketing calendar: Use a selling calendar to guarantee you execute an integrated selling program. Make definite you’re getting the connection retired determination often.
  • Repetition: As a marketer, you whitethorn consciousness the originative compulsion to ever travel up with thing new. But erstwhile it comes to creating marque awareness, purpose to repetition your messaging. Repetition helps your assemblage to admit and retrieve your brand.

Additional Resources

Increase marque exposure

If you privation to make marque awareness, past purpose to summation your marque exposure. What this means is getting your marque successful beforehand of your people assemblage arsenic overmuch arsenic possible.

You tin bash this successful aggregate ways.

Digital selling is an effectual mode to grow your reach, adjacent globally. With integrated marketing, you tin get successful beforehand of galore much assemblage members cost-effectively, without paying for a click. And don’t hide astir offline marketing. TV advertising, for example, is simply a almighty mode to scope millions of assemblage members quickly.

The constituent is, the greater your marque exposure, the greater the probability of achieving broader marque awareness.

SEO

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) positively impacts website traffic, but did you cognize it besides helps found marque awareness? When your people assemblage has a question oregon is looking for a product, they crook to Google and different hunt engines. When they hunt for your types of products, services, and solutions, the higher you rank, the much visibility your marque receives.

68% of online experiences statesman with a hunt motor and 66% of radical execute online probe earlier purchasing. The much they spot you ranking precocious successful the hunt engines, the much they volition comprehend you arsenic a superior marque to consider. So, integrated hunt is almighty not lone arsenic a brand awareness builder, but besides arsenic a brand perception builder.

Content marketing

Content selling increases your marque vulnerability successful a multitude of ways. You go known arsenic an adept successful your niche, and you physique spot by educating oregon delighting your people audience.

Content selling feeds each marketing, truthful with a large contented strategy, you besides provender your website, email marketing, societal media, and SEO. And retrieve that high-quality contented tin see galore antithetic formats, from blog posts to lookbooks, whitepapers, videos, podcasts, infographics, information visualizations, reports, and more.

PR

PR is an effectual mode to summation media attraction and visibility. If you unafraid media attraction successful a newspaper, website, oregon connected TV, you’ll get successful beforehand of a wide audience. However, the downside to PR is that it’s unpredictable and unreliable. With PR, you are placing your selling destiny successful the hands of reporters and editors.

There are different forms of PR, specified arsenic events, awards, expert relations, etc. However, they are not highly applicable to marque consciousness building.

Advertising

Advertising is the fastest mode to grow your marque awareness. Simply wage to get successful beforehand of them.

This could beryllium online oregon offline. It could beryllium display, native, oregon TV advertising. The payment of advertizing is its immediacy. The drawbacks are that it’s costly and its effectiveness goes to zero arsenic soon arsenic you halt paying.

Partnerships

Strategically spouse with complementary brands that people your aforesaid audience. In this way, you tin piggyback disconnected their anterior audience-building efforts to assistance you get successful beforehand of qualified individuals. Or, you tin usage partnerships to efficiently get successful beforehand of caller assemblage segments.

An illustration of expanding marque consciousness done co-branding is JBL and 100 Thieves. JBL makes audio technology, including headphones. They wanted to participate the red-hot gaming headphones market. So, they partnered with 100 Thieves, a starring esports and gaming manner brand. The concern progressive JBL’s instauration of a gaming headset with the 100 Thieves branding and geo-print design. The motorboat lawsuit delivered a VIP acquisition featuring a show by Grammy-nominated creator Gunna.

Through the partnership, JBL wins arsenic they summation entree to a caller marketplace segment. 100 Thieves wins due to the fact that they bring innovative tech and a amended gaming acquisition to their audience. It’s a win-win.

JBL illustration  marque  awareness

Influencer Marketing

Partner with influencers to get successful beforehand of their respective communities. A large influencer concern volition enactment your marque successful beforehand of the close assemblage that you mightiness not person reached without them. Plus, influencers (especially micro-influencers) thin to person loyal audiences who spot a batch of spot successful the influencer. This enables you to summation spot with your people assemblage overmuch faster than otherwise.

Engage connected societal networks with your assemblage to link with them one-on-one. Here’s the thing, though. If your marque is caller oregon comparatively unknown, past focusing connected your ain societal accounts won’t assistance you summation marque awareness. Instead, the cardinal is to behaviour societal listening. Then leap into applicable conversations successful other accounts oregon wherever hashtags are being used.

Brand activations / launches

If you are launching a caller product, make a marque activation oregon run to physique consciousness astir the product. Activate your marque done experiences oregon engagements that marque radical retrieve who you are.

Use the assorted selling methods described supra to fto arsenic galore of your imaginable customers cognize astir the launch.

To differentiate yourself from the contention and get your caller merchandise noticed, effort these marque activation methods:

  • First, invitation your people assemblage to a motorboat event.
  • Let the satellite cognize done a almighty PR campaign.
  • Create contented your assemblage volition love. Deploy aggregate types of contented to support them progressing done the lawsuit journey.
  • Use societal media channels to activate your marque done influencer selling campaigns, societal media posts, and paid media.

Brand consciousness examples

Let’s look astatine immoderate examples of marque consciousness campaigns from good known brands.

IHOP

Founded successful 1958, IHOP is an aged brand. Boomers and Gen X surely cognize the brand. But younger generations? Not arsenic much.

It’s with this successful caput that IHOP created buzz by renaming itself IHOb (International House of Burgers) arsenic portion of an inaugural to reinvigorate the marque and to present the marque to caller audiences. The timing was orchestrated to align with the instauration of a caller enactment of steakburgers.

The PR went viral and generated over 20,000 caller articles and 36 cardinal societal media impressions. Additionally, their hamburger income quadrupled. And, no, they were ne'er really readying connected changing the sanction permanently to IHOb. Roughly 1 period pursuing the sanction change, they changed the sanction backmost to IHOP.

Dropbox

Dropbox efficaciously accrued its marque consciousness done a referral program. It empowered users by offering them an inducement to notation friends and colleagues. The referral programme offered existing users an other 500MB of retention for each person they referred (up to 16GB). When Dropbox launched, the programme introduced the record retention level to galore radical who had ne'er heard of the merchandise before. It successfully brought successful a sizeable fig of caller users. As a result, the institution grew quickly, with much than 700 cardinal registered users today.

Drop container  illustration  marque  awareness

Slack

When the Slack founding squad was acceptable to spell nationalist with their “preview release,” they offered entree by invitation only. This stirred beardown FOMO, particularly among those successful exertion circles.


“We begged and cajoled our friends astatine different companies to effort it retired and springiness america feedback. We had possibly six to 10 companies to commencement with that we recovered this way.” – Stewart Butterfield, CEO and Co-Founder, Slack


TERAKEET

On the archetypal time of the release, 8,000 radical requested an invitation. The adjacent week, that fig jumped to much than 15,000.

Word of rima and a flood of media sum accelerated demand. Slack grew astatine a complaint of 5–10% per week successful the archetypal year. As much and much employees were utilizing Slack arsenic a preferred enactment implicit email, firm IT departments had nary prime but to enactment the platform. This aboriginal marketplace acceptance made it easier for others, arsenic well, to follow the software. As a result, 10,000 caller regular progressive users were signing up each week aft simply 1 and a fractional years of launch.

How tin you measure marque awareness?

Even if you recognize the value of marque awareness, you should cognize however to measurement it. Luckily, determination are a assortment of information points to assistance you way and measurement your marque consciousness implicit time.

Brand awareness metrics

The pursuing are marque consciousness metrics to assistance you way your show successful expanding consciousness among your people audience.

  • Media coverage: How galore media mentions are you receiving? You tin way this done lawsuit quality tools similar Brand Metrics, Brandwatch, oregon Semrush Brand Monitoring. These tools assistance you show and respond to what’s being said astir your marque crossed a wide scope of media, news, and societal platforms.
  • Branded hunt volume: Use this KPI geographically to recognize however galore radical cognize your marque successful each city, state, oregon portion you’re targeting. You tin usage Google Ad’s Keyword Planner instrumentality to measurement this.
  • Share of voice: What percent of sum and online conversations are astir your marque versus your competitors?
  • Message pull-through: Measure however galore of your media pitches are getting coverage.
  • Social shares: When your contented is shared regularly, it’s an indicator that you person precocious (and rising) marque awareness. You tin way this with a instrumentality similar BuzzSumo.
  • Backlinks: Backlinks bespeak that others spot your brand. They beryllium your tract provides invaluable information. Measure your backlinks done SEO tools similar Ahrefs, Semrush, oregon Majestic.
  • Website traffic: Web postulation shows america that you are a assets for your people audience. Use Adobe Analytics oregon Google Analytics to way your website postulation and however you’re acquiring tract visitors.

Social media, arsenic well, provides penetration into your marque awareness. Track these metrics connected societal media to get a amended representation of however your marque is being talked about. Social media measurement tools see Hootsuite, Mention, and Talkwalker.

  • Impressions: Impressions archer america however galore times radical viewed your content.
  • Reach: How galore unsocial individuals spot your content?
  • Mentions: How galore radical are penning astir you online? What is the sentiment of those mentions?
  • Engagement: Are you seeing much radical engaging with your contented connected societal media? Measure societal media likes, comments, questions, shares, and saves. If relevant, you tin besides measurement the measurement of user-generated contented (UGC).

If you are utilizing advertising, you tin usage advertisement callback to measurement your marque awareness.

Ad callback measures however memorable the advertisement is to an audience. Advertising callback is measured by asking questions. The purpose is to measure the magnitude of representation of the advertisement beyond the clip of viewing.

Some societal media platforms tin measurement advertisement callback assistance done their ain platform. For example, Facebook and YouTube person their ain advertisement callback capabilities, respectively.

Facebook has an “estimated advertisement recall” metric that measures however good idiosyncratic volition retrieve your advertisement aft 2 days.

YouTube tin find the constituent successful the income rhythm the idiosyncratic is at. But, being a Google company, they spell 1 measurement further. They measurement however your advertisement run affected hunt behavior. They randomly take a radical that saw your advertisement and a radical that did not spot your advertisement and past measurement however galore radical from each radical searched for your marque online.