It’s easy to give your full attention to lead generation, conversions, and making revenue. It’s what moves the needle for your business and has a real impact metrics tied to it.
That said, this often causes brand awareness to seem insignificant and “soft.”
The reality couldn’t be further from the truth.
Brand awareness lets people not only know that you exists but also lets you shape the narrative and story around your industry and product.
Case in point: there are startling statistics about life that get little attention because businesses have been able to shape the narrative in their favor.
For example, do you know that:
- You have a 1 in 11 million chance of being attacked by a shark, but 1 in 175 million chance of winning Powerball (yet plenty of people still play Powerball)?
- There is a 1 in 4 chance that the President of The US attended Harvard?
- You have a 1 in 36 chance of being on The Price Is Right?
The point being there have been countless companies, marketers, and PR experts that have bent the statistical narrative to drive hope (or fear) and “what if” thinking.
Who’s to credit for this? Brand marketing.
Think of what Shark Week has done for swimmers, the infamy of Ivy League schools breeding the brightest movers & thinkers, or 8,000+ episodes of the longest running game show ever for a word of mouth marketing strategy.
Besides allowing companies to raise their hand and say “hey, we exist,” brand awareness provides other powerful benefits:
- A way to express how the company is unique and different
- A way to lower average customer acquisition costs
- A way to test entering new markets (i.e. what organic traffic we get from brand awareness tactics?)
So why not run a billboard, TV spot, or fly a gigantic banner from a plane?
Brand awareness drives greater recall, has the ability to be highly creative, and bolsters an omnipresent feel.
As Leo Burnett says, “good advertising doesn’t just circulate info. It penetrates the public mind with desires and belief.”
~JK