[Brand] Awareness
Many a time we come across questions like, why choose a brand marketing agency for branding? What is a brand? What is the difference between a brand and branding? And what is brand awareness?
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Well, let’s clear your questions one by one…
David Ogilvy, the “Father of Advertising,” defined a brand as “the intangible sum of a product’s attributes.” The Dictionary of Brand defines a brand as “a person’s perception of a product, service, experience, or organization.”
Branding is all about creating a vibe of a brand!
A vibe is all about setting a tone for the brand, right from the colours used, to the logo created, to the collaterals created to the marketing strategies used as per the key performance indicators of the brand and its target audience. With branding, a brand marketing agency, creates recognition for the brand, setting up a relatability context for the brand by designing its logo, and deciding upon the brand language as in how the brand will be represented digitally as well as offline with a particular style of font, logo placement, colours used, and likewise.
All of this is only decided and is possible concerning the brand’s target audience’s preferences and perseverance. It’s highly important to understand the tastes and preferences of the target audience and walk into the market accordingly, especially when your brand is new. It’s highly important to imprint your brand into the minds and hearts of the target audience. It is all about creating a connection and an attachment with the target audience, and this can be done only via branding.
So, branding basically as we discussed is all about developing a logo, setting a brand language, developing websites, other marketing collaterals, and social media presence according to the brand language. On the other hand, brand awareness is all about reaching the audience, and educating them in creative ways that are via various marketing techniques. It’s about making the target audience more familiar with the brand.
Once the brand language is decided as in the logo, the colours, and the font, to be used for the brand, it becomes very easy to create and develop relevancy in the minds of the audience. This process of building and creating relevancy is called brand awareness.
For example: Now Levi’s Jeans are quite famous… Many know that Levi’s is a brand that comes in all shapes and sizes, plus it can also be styled as party wear jeans as well as formal jeans, hence its logo is not that funked up like Pepe Jeans if you will closely observe. Thus, to create their relevancy in all plus size people’s minds Levi’s came up with the marketing strategy of #IShapeMyWorld during Women’s Day, and this campaign not only educated the millennials and teens, it also made a place in the hearts and minds of the adults. They called upon certain influential personalities of all shapes and sizes to tell their stories, and how they made a place for themselves. The hit story was of Sumukhi Suresh, a comedian and she is a plus-sized woman she explained her struggle wearing Levi’s Jeans and that was it, such types of stories touched many hearts and it impacted the sales of the brand in a very positive way.
That’s how Levi’s developed its brand awareness of its products by maintaining a similar tone of brand language.
According to leading marketers of India in 2020, online marketing is a blooming one and truly an effective one when it comes to branding! Thus, brand awareness via investment in online marketing channels like Website, Social-Media, and Email-Marketing, proves to set a context and tone for the brand.
As you all know the online market is booming, anything that humans need is accessible with just a few clicks. So, your necessities are right at your doorstep with just a few clicks.
Here are a few points that we, as a brand marketing agency, consider while developing a brand:
Target [Audience]
Knowing your brand’s audience is of utmost importance. Branding is all about understanding the product segmentation of the brand, and market segmentation as the segmented products and services. Imagine if Chumbak starts following IKEA brand guidelines, will Chumbak do justice to its colourful products, which add colours and spunk to a space? No right! Those colourful rugs, doodled cups, and chairs with cold colours do not deserve a formal modular guideline as of IKEA.
IKEA is more into subtle products, which add easiness to the day-to-day lifestyle, and hence following Chumbak’s brand guidelines wouldn’t help them reach out to their Corporate
specifically IT employee clientele.
IKEA has mall-type stores, catering to a huge base of audience types, on the other hand, Chumbak has small retail stores inside the malls or individual retail stores that cater to a regular audience mostly teens, and millennials, who like colourful homes.
Thus, it is highly important to not focus on reaching the largest audience possible, instead, find your niche by finding the right audience for your business and trying to capture their attention.
Like they always say, “You do you.”
USP Promotion / [Education-Based] Marketing
Why do brands get their branding done from a brand marketing agency? Well, the main reason to do branding is to stand out from the rest of the products and services out there, it’s about advertising the key element of the brand out there in the market.
For example, five-star hotel brands like Marriot, and Hyatt, all cater to similar services however every hotel speaks a different brand language, Marriot has a similar straight building pattern that it follows on the other hand Hyatt plays around with its architect, that’s what the audience enjoy about these five stars, it’s, in general, an exploration journey.
These key elements these hotels highlight as much as possible educating their audience out there and attracting them towards them.
Thus, when a product or service finds its key element or USP which makes it different from the market it’s important to highlight it to the crowd or the target audience.
When a brand stands out from the crowd, with the help of a brand marketing agency, it will be easier for the target audience to remember them. Every brand must differentiate itself from its competitors, by becoming known for that particular key element they inherit — meaning there is something to remember for their people like by creating a unique website, or by promoting products on social media with a campaign that touches the audience’s hearts and likewise.
[Consistency] Is the Key
Branding is all about being consistent! It’s all about maintaining the relationship with the target audience with a set tone and relatability. It’s about reaching out audience with new marketing techniques and ideas. It’s about educating the audience now and then. Why do you think, Nike or all these fashion and other lifestyle brands come up with different ideas during Women’s day to promote their products? Why do you think brands did the situational segmentation during a pandemic and made #WorkFromHome, #DalgonaCoffee, and likewise their way of promoting products and services?
These actions were taken to stay relevant in the minds of the audience, and hence Levi’s came up with jogger jeans for comfortable work from home, Chumbak went for fancy coffee cups for Dalgona coffee, Jaquar made it clear that a fancy basin can help you wash hands now and then during pandemic…and the list can go on and on.
Looking at our current screen timings, brands like One-Plus have come up with fast wasp-charging smartphones and have created a Red-Wire community, educating their audience now and then.
Thus, always remember any time you’re building a brand, consistency is the key, you cannot stop branding it just because the situation or condition is not right, you need to create space in every situation and condition, for your product and service, that’s what is branding all about.
Also, consistency doesn’t mean switching up your logo, changing your website aesthetics, changing your brand language on social media, or changing your colours, now and then. All of this is going to be hard for someone in your target audience to get familiar with your brand. Beyond the visual aspects of your brand, consistency lies in being in touch with the audience, it’s about making sure your messaging and content are consistent as well. Your audience should know what to expect every time they connect with you on any virtual or non-virtual platform.
Brand Awareness is all about gaining customers’ loyalty, it’s about making them believe in the brand. Through building your brand success, you can develop loyal customers who help you grow time and time again.