Customers are less likely to buy from unfamiliar brands. In short, it’s almost impossible for someone to buy from a brand unless they know they exist. Brand awareness is very common in newer brands, startups, highly competitive categories, or new categories.
Read more below or listen to Ben walk through No Brand Awareness or Demand and and its treatments:
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No Brand Awareness Symptoms
Brand awareness study demonstrating low awareness in target market
Low or no amount of revenue coming from direct, organic, or brand search
Low or no brand search demand (generally less than 5k searches per mo)
Below-vertical average conversion rates in demand capture initiatives
Small organic social community (sub 100k in general)
Low share of voice compared to competitors
Low amount of “natural” referrals, or word of mouth leads/sales
Treating No Brand Awareness
Public Relations (PR): working with publications and earned media can generate significant lift in brand exposure, establish credibility, and boost SEO. Discussing the brand mission, innovations in its product or operations, and more general purpose of the brand are likely to be most effective. Mass reach and appeal are more important here than highly targeted or curated coverage.
Mass reach traditional media: channels like television and radio are highly efficient at reaching a significant percentage of the population, but have limitations in creative, targeting, and reporting. This is most effective in short bursts with high-level brand creative.
Activations, events, and stunts: getting exposure through non-digital events, such as sponsoring a conference, hosting a party, or completing a marketing stunt can create potential virality and brand awareness. These are much riskier and harder to quantify than other methods, but can have huge returns if shared widely.
Out of home or other broad takeovers: similar to events, creating a major art installation, billboard, or outdoor space can reach tens of thousands of new people very affordably. Out of Home in particular has become cost efficient and can be bought programmatically, with specific geo-targeting and better measurement. These are most effective in highly trafficked areas that align with the brand (e.g. a health supplement ad near a gym).
Partnerships or co-marketing: leveraging another brand’s audience is a great way to establish credible exposure to that audience. Partnering and co-marketing can boost both parties’ impact, and has the added benefit of being “highly targeted” with a product that aligns well with yours.
Creative alignment and optimization: brand awareness is often not a function of just media or exposure, but also the way in which messaging and creative are deployed against an audience. The main purpose of brand awareness is to subconsciously familiarize the audience with your brand, and build subliminal favorability or association with it. This can be done through comprehensive creative across all mediums that heavily feature the logo and brand identity rather than attempting to “sell” a product.