For those of us in the business and marketing worlds, there is a lot of chatter about building successful brands. In our view, building brands comes through increasing your brand’s awareness. Makes sense? But how?!
We believe that building brand awareness is about reaching as many people as possible. You can’t buy a brand that you don’t know about, right?
For us, brand awareness is about focusing on increasing your brand’s likelihood of being thought of in a buying situation . And to build think likelihood, it takes discipline, commitment and time, and all marketing activities must be well-branded and… planned.
Use Branding Elements
It’s crucial that all marketing activities are well-branded as there is no point advertising if your audience doesn’t know it’s you – or even worse, they think it’s one of your competitors!
Naturally, your brand name is a strong brand asset, however your logo, packaging, tagline, colour palate, typography and iconography are other branding elements that help consumers recognise your business – it just depends on the ‘famousness’ {include link to explanation} and ‘uniqueness’ {include link to explanation} of your brand elements.
A good example of this is print and digital ads using recognised brand assets, helping to establish which brand the ad is for at a glance, and to reinforce your offer.
Build Relevant Links
It goes without saying that the vast majority of business owners want their brand to be the first that pops into consumers minds when shopping. Why else are we in the business of building brands?! If this is your dream too, then it’s important to develop brand messaging {link to explanation} to create links between your brand and as many relevant buying situations as possible!
Ultimately, brands with multiple, relevant category entry points (CEPs) {link to explanation} are most likely to be thought of first in buying situations. If a brand doesn’t come to mind when a shopper is shopping, then it’s chance of being purchased is pretty slim! Let us give you an example. It’s lunchtime and you’re craving a hamburger, and you’re thinking Hungry Jacks or McDonalds… you’re not then going to go and seek out an Oporto burger to satisfy your hunger!
Achieve High Reach
To reach as many people as possible, you should aim to target all potential category buyers as part of your marketing plan. This means you shouldn’t JUST target heavy buyers (and those that are already highly engaged) – you should look to target non and light category buyers, as these shoppers are essential for brand growth.
We know what you’re thinking… you’re worried about your advertising budget! While a lack of budget might limit your opportunity for growth, think of it as staged growth and plan accordingly. And do the best you can with the budget you have, but always with the aim to achieve the highest possible reach.
And our advice on reaching as many people as possible with your budget? Plan for an integrated marketing program and advertise across various media and communication platforms. There isn’t one single platform that is capable of targeting everyone, despite wishing there was! We recommend maintaining a presence across as many different touchpoints as your budget will allow.
So, to recap our learnings and key takeaways in achieving brand awareness are;
· Ensure all marketing activities are well-branded by using your brand assets (don’t get distracted by pretty colours and design!)
· Create links between your brand and buyers. The more links people associate with your brand, the more likely it is to be considered when purchasing.
· Advertise, promote and communicate across multiple platforms and plan to reach as many people as possible!
Need help strategising and building brand awareness into your business? Get in contact to see how we can assist and help build your brand!
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