What is the Purpose of Brand Awareness?

If you have a for-profit business, sales are what keep your physical or virtual doors open. But what you may not realize is that sales are also what cements the relationship you have with your customers. You are, after all, fulfilling their needs with your products or services. However, it takes a lot of work to get to that point. 

You’ve lined up suppliers, stocked your inventory, and established a way for customers to not only access your goods but pay for them. Now it is time to get the traffic to your store. Making sales that sustain or grow your business depends on consumers’ knowledge about your brand, what you offer, and why they buy from you. That takes getting the attention of your target audience. 

Brand awareness is a crucial function of advertising. Focusing your campaigns on brand awareness increases the odds of being top-of-mind. It also serves to set you apart from the competition. While everyone in Chicago loves a deep-dish pizza or Chicago-style hotdog, if you want to convince people why they should not only notice you but choose you over the competition, you need a strong brand.  

What Is Brand Awareness? 

Brand awareness is the term for measuring consumers’ recognition of and familiarity with a business’s name, products, or services. As customers learn more about your brand and have a positive experience, that knowledge contributes to your credibility. Brand awareness goes much further than recognizing your logo or products, as it is the connection between your business and consumers that sets you apart from others in the market. It is a critical factor in a company’s long-term viability and future scalability.  

A radio campaign effectively reaches out to customers and makes them aware of your brand. Most consumers want to know about others’ experiences with a new business before they try it. Using a popular radio host for endorsements is ideal, as they have a loyal audience that trusts their recommendations. Let’s say you have a new restaurant in the Chicago area; a host endorsement could cause residents to say, “Why don’t we try The Cafe, where Eric in the Morning said he ate the best steak he’d ever had?”   

How Does Brand Awareness Convert Customers? 

Brand awareness keeps your business top of mind for customers, making it more likely that they will think of and buy your products when it is time to make a decision. It increases your credibility, making it easier and less expensive to acquire new customers or expand into new markets. When customers recognize and know your brand, it automatically increases the efficacy of your other advertising. For instance, how many people interested in accessible fashion trends don’t open an email or click on a social media ad featuring H&M? 

When consumers want to purchase, the brands they recognize and are most familiar with are most likely to be the ones that make the shortlist for consideration. The brands with the strongest identity and digital presence are the ones that are top of mind for customers. That’s why engaging your customers through email, text, or social media is vital since digital interaction influences 70% of purchases.  

How Can You Improve Brand Awareness? 

The type of campaign you engage in can have a significant impact on brand awareness. For instance, one that informs your target audience about your brand consistently over time increases awareness more effectively than one with a call to action that promotes sales. A brand awareness campaign is ongoing and builds strong, lasting connections with customers, whereas direct marketing is a shorter-term advertising effort meant to spur action by a finite deadline. While both are essential strategies you can combine, they serve different goals.  

Tracking the performance of brand awareness campaigns can be more difficult. However, several methods give you insight. You can set up proxy metrics to measure increased web traffic or use a keyword tool to see how often your brand and your competitors’ brands appear in searches. Customer surveys, increases in your social media following, or tracking earned media are also highly effective ways to measure the efficacy of a brand awareness campaign. 

Brand Awareness Makes Your Business the Obvious Choice in Purchasing Decisions 

Brand awareness is about creating familiarity, differentiation, connection, and confidence for customers in your brand, products, and services. When you want athletic wear, you may not know if Nike or Adidas have the style you want, but you do know that they will provide quality and a consistent product whether you purchase online or in a store. Chances are, you have purchased products from them before and put them higher in possible options than their competitors or other, less well-known brands. That’s the impact and influence of brand awareness and precisely the outcome you want when your customers think about your brand. 

Building a strong brand and creating a loyal customer group is a significant effort for businesses, but it is well worth it. It opens the door to welcoming new customers, expanding into new markets, or gaining a competitive advantage. Using a longer-term, consistent ad campaign has a more significant impact on awareness than a direct marketing campaign designed with a call to action that promotes sales. Though brand awareness is somewhat more nebulous than other goals, it is crucial for a comprehensive marketing strategy.