Abstract:
Brand Awareness is the popularity of a product in its category among the consumers. This article defines the concept in a lucid way and explains it with appropriate real life examples. It also emphasizes on the types and channels of Brand Awareness.
Brand Awareness is one of the main aspects in the process of brand building. It is nothing but the probability of a consumer to recognize a company's product among the wide array of similar products available in the market.
In this highly competitive market there are numerous companies producing and selling similar products. Hence it becomes more difficult for a consumer to identify or remember a specific product. Brand awareness is the tool through which the consumers come to know and remember about a certain brand. Enhanced awareness of the brand helps it to acquire more market share of that product category.
Brand Awareness Types
- Top of mind Awareness
When a person identifies a product category with the name(s) of certain brands then it is referred as Top of mind Awareness.
For example, whenever we talk about cold-drinks, the first two names that come into our mind are Coca Cola and Pepsi though there are other local brands available in the market.
- Aided awareness
When a person recalls a particular brand name only after seeing or hearing about the product then it is known as aided awareness.
Brand awareness consists of two sub-categories
- Brand Recognition
If a consumer is able to confirm that he/she has used a particular brand earlier then it is known as brand recognition.
- Brand Recall
If a consumer is able to recall the name of a particular brand whenever the product category is mentioned then it is known as Brand recalling.
Channels of Brand Awareness
Brand awareness could be generated in many ways. Some of the most popular channels among them are mentioned hereafter:-
- Advertisement
Advertisements through various media are the most common form adopted by the companies for generating brand awareness among the consumers. Ads of these types are aired through TV, internets, newspapers, billboards and many more.
- Product Placement
Product placement strategy is becoming more and more popular among the marketers. According to this strategy, the concerned brand is promoted in a positive way through a popular film, TV serial, books, music videos and many more.
- Guerilla Marketing
It is an off-beat way of marketing where low-cost channels are utilized to generate awareness of the product among the consumers. Utilization of personal contacts in this end is the most popular method of guerilla marketing.
- Social Media
Many companies are using the social media like Blogs and You-Tube for promoting their products which is generating brand awareness in a cost effective manner.
Brand awareness is a part-and-parcel of brand development which helps the brand to be differentiated from the others in this monopolistically competitive market. This increases the brand's probability of sale.