BRAND AWARENESS NOT LONGER DEPENDS ON BRAND ITSELF

Social networks, messaging applications and blogs also put companies and customers on an equal footing in terms of content production and consumption.

That means that even if a brand does not start a conversation, it can be included in one and be passed on by the public.

That is, people can produce content about a company and spread an image that does not correspond to what the brand wanted.

However, this can be interesting to leverage the notoriety of a brand. But be careful! The way in which the brand is commented on can damage the perceptions of consumers.

In short, digital marketing has brought more opportunities for companies to work on their brand awareness. Therefore, it is necessary to double the efforts to take care of the image of the brand, since the public now influences it much more.

How to make and increase the Brand Awareness of a brand?

The objectives to increase that metric are: gain of notoriety, improvements in the perceptions and distinction of the brand, right?

Making a brand more known is possible through a series of dissemination and distribution actions oriented to its target audience.

Making a company unique and special in the thoughts of consumers requires a work of brand management, ie branding.

But as things are not as simple as they seem, we made a list with 7 practices to improve your brand awareness. Look!

1. Create indication programs

By investing in referral programs, your company rewards those customers who promote your brand and bring you new buyers. It's one of the main ways to maintain an engaged customer base and expand your reach into new target markets. An example of a program that has done this is Dropbox. When it started operations, the service offered more cloud storage space for each user who brought another user to the base.

2. Give it a unique personality for the brand

This is one of the main strategies for branding and brand awareness. It is very clear to us that it is very difficult to make a brand be remembered according to a certain characteristic. But when that happens, the reward for that is incredible. For example, the Brazilian network of gas stations, Ipiranga, extended its market share and its share of mind by betting strongly on the sense of humor present in its commercials. Pepsi, for example, has played a lot with being an alternative option to Coca-Cola.

Both promote values that distinguish them from the competition and that, even so, make the public's emotional memory of them stronger.

3. Differentiate your visual identity

In addition to personality, a brand's visual identity must also be unique. In fact, that point should be as different as possible. In the end, the values are shared by different brands in their campaigns. For example, if we talk about luxury, speed, technology, humor or taste, you will surely remember more than one brand for each of those characteristics. However, if someone shows you a bitten apple on a mobile phone, you will know that it is an Apple product, won't you? The same thing would happen if they wrote a yellow "M" as if they were two giant bows, you'd probably remember McDonald's.

We know that it's quite complicated to reach the level of visual recognition that brands like this have reached, but it's important, at least, to bet on a combination of colors, fonts and symbols that won't let them confuse your brand with another one.

4. Sponsor events, personalities and projects

Have you ever wondered why some brands invest millions in sponsoring big events and celebrities and others to support social projects? If you think the answer is to increase sales, you're not wrong. But that's not the main focus. When Heineken sponsors the European Champions League football, the brand doesn't expect only fans to consume its beers in the stadiums hosting the tournament's matches. The real intention is to make its brand known around the world, to mark its presence in the minds of consumers and to associate itself with the values that the Champions League spreads in the public, such as the spectacle, the emotion and the pleasure of watching a good football match. Your company may not have enough contributions to sponsor or support an event of this level, but it is worth studying which projects are within your reach. Closing a partnership that is well regarded by your audience and that has a positive influence on it can bring excellent results in terms of awareness.

5. Personalize gifts with your brand

Have you thought about creating personalized T-shirts, mugs, squeezers, key chains or pens with your company's visual identity?

These types of gifts are very useful for the public and make them carry your brand with them in their daily routine. You can even give them away at events sponsored by your company or in promotional actions at your brand's points of sale. The most important thing is that consumers always remember your brand.

6. Market your content

Did you know that brand awareness is one of the objectives of content marketing? And the most interesting thing about this strategy is that it can make a brand better known, better remembered and more differentiated.

This happens because the focus of this type of marketing is the production of valuable content for a specific target audience.

In other words, relevant content helps a company to create positive perceptions in readers. Besides, because they contain more useful and well presented information, they are more shared, which increases the scope of the posts.

In short, they can bring more credibility to a brand, making it a reference in its sector, which naturally distinguishes it from its competition.

7. Position your company well in Google

A very modern way to make your company better remembered by the public is to put it on the first page of Google. Many consumers acquired the perception that the companies that appear in the first positions of search are the main referents in those subjects.

This is true, since Google usually favours websites that offer the best user experience for its visitors. Therefore, consider implementing a SEO and sponsored links strategy to make your brand, little by little, well positioned in the search results for the keywords related to your business.

Brand Awareness evaluates people's recognition, perceptions, opinions and beliefs towards brands.

It matters because these intangible values can change a customer's buying decision. Furthermore, they function as a basis for structuring communication and marketing campaigns.

To improve your brand awareness, focus on actions that bring together large-scale dissemination, brand management and its presence in the target audience's routine - digital marketing can even be an excellent ally in that mission!