Brand Awareness Measurement

This post focuses on measuring brand awareness is an extension of the discussion on brand awareness and brand awareness strategy. Measurements of brand awareness include the following. Perform this form of research at regular intervals while maintaining as many variables the same like the target respondents, location and so on. Although this type of research is the most costly, it produces the most internally valid form of data.

• Brand Recognition / Aided-Awareness checkbox survey. Provide a list of brands to customers and ask something along the lines of, "Which of these brands do you recognize as offering product X?". This is an internally valid way of measuring recognition through aided-awareness.
• Recall , unaided awareness, open-ended survey. This involves asking an open ended question for the brands that people know offer product X. Example, you leave a blank space to allow respondents to respond to the question; "When it comes to brands in this market, what brands have you heard of that offer product X?"

The following methods of measurement are common but arguably not as internally valid as the first two.

• Direct traffic. Direct traffic refers to situations in which someone types in your brand's web address in order to find information, ie as opposed to writing generic text in order to find options. For instance, compare traffic periods 1 against 2. If direct traffic is growing over time, it means that brand awareness is growing.
• Search volume. How often do people search for your particular product by name? Of course, this also depends on the uniqueness of your brandname as some names like 'Apple'  can be the subject of searches regarding the fruit and not the technology company.
• Impressions. This refers to how many times your advertisement or content was viewed, regardless of whether the audience clicked through. If you also maintain YouTube content, the views can count also.
• Reach & Frequency. Reach refers to the unique number of people to whom your advertisement or content was served. However, the frequency (ie impressions) may be a higher number as the same person may see your content multiple times over a specified period of time.
• Social listening aka Media monitoring. Social listening is the process of monitoring unpaid online discussions about your brand. (This helps you to understand what customers are saying about your brand.

CONTENT RELATED TO BRAND AWARENESS MEASUREMENTS

• Brand awareness and brand awareness strategy 101.
• Brand awareness measurements along with varios ratios can be one consideration in calculating sales projections in a business plan. 
• How to build a new brand for modern consumers.
• Emotional advertising; deeply personal emotional triggers
• Brand core values
• Genericide is noteworthy phenomenon for very successful brands! Know how to care for what you hoped for. Wildly successful branding can result in losing your brand if you do not know how. Learn how to prevent brand genericide.

How to Introduce Yourself or Company

You only have one chance to make a first impression. The opportunity most often presents itself when you are selling B2B products and or services, introducing yourself or business at the beginning of a public speech, mingling at a networking event or in a job interview in which someone requests that you "Tell us about yourself!" This short post illustrates the formula for making a good first impression. 

The point of an introduction is to illustrate how you may add value to the particular situation (company, project, etc). Consequently, it is ideal if you have at least some basic knowledge of your counter party's situation, their problems to be resolved or, at the very least, the type of problem they usually need to resolve by virtue of their area. In short, you need to show them what is in it for them. Dan Lok offered a formula of 3 Ss; Success + Strength + Situation. I think it encompasses the other advice found elsewhere.

Success

Example (when being interviewed for a social media managerial job): I have been worked working / My background is in Social Media for the last 3 years. I specialize in helping clients from over 10 industries to increase their fan engagement. In fact, I have consistently increased customer engagement by 300% to 500% within under 6 months alone. That is what I am passionate about. I have listed those clients in my reference section.

Strength

Example: My strength is my ability to understand what the audience wants. I pride myself on my reputation for creating compelling content that I know the audience will enjoy and love to share.

Situation

How do your background and strength (from above) apply to your counter party's situation?

Example: I am looking for a company / a strong team in which I can add value and make a positive return on investment. Is this what you are looking for? NB End with a question. Whoever asks questions controls the direction of the discussion. 

CONTENT RELATED TO INTRODUCING YOURSELF

• How to Handle B2B Sales Objections
• Introduce yourself this way always, even if you are selling wholesale products in the cottage industry. 

How to Build a Brand for Modern Consumers in the Information Age

Branding

Branding refers to the promotion of the brand name ie the identity / 'personality' of a corporate entity, product line (aka 'family'), single product targeted to relevant stakeholders. A modern Marketing guru once said that, even if the logo or any other signage is removed from your offering, the market will still be able to recognize a well established brand. Relevant stakeholders are targets of this type of communication. Depending on the type (whether corporate branding, family branding, product branding, etc), these stakeholders include shareholders, wholesale customers, employees (for corporate brands) and consumers (for family and product brands). In short, branding is a matter of reputation for making one's way in the world of relationships. Reputation has such far reaching implications that, according to research, even contribute to the likelihood of customer evangelism (the ultimate in generating new leads).

This post discusses the trends associated with the information age and their impacts on branding, the ideal focus and techniques for branding and means of measuring success. 

Trends in The Modern Consumer's World

Corporate brand building can be thought of as creating your company's personality with which your target market can have a relationship. Corporate brand building today should not be undertaken without due consideration of modern consumers and their world. Modern consumers enjoy a world with the internet, social media, cameras being available to everyone and a culture moving ever closer to full and open disclosure of what used to be humans' deepest darkest secrets. Consequently, real people behind products and services are far more exposed than their pre-information-age counterparts. For instance, while several Hollywood actors played the role of very masculine heterosexual men when, in reality, they were secretly gay. This era of reality television and regular Joes becoming significant celebrities from home videos forces the issue of authenticity upon anyone trying to sell something.

As the information age took off, consumers became so well informed and scrutinous that they now can even shake the erstwhile unshakeable credibility of companies that once seemed larger than life. For instance, Monsanto has faced so much criticism for GMO products that many consumers began tuning in to YouTube homesteaders and health food stores. In short, consumers distrust in large companies has risen to such a large extent that social media influencers (on YouTuber, Instagram and so on) get far more traction from messages about brands than brands themselves. Previously, marketers used the psychographics of their target market to create advertisements in Facebook or Google accordingly. They knew that their target market's social influencers were personal friends and family and could only hope they had imagined their profiles correctly and trust that the brand's good word would be spread. Today however, longer term blogging / vlogging internet-based influencers present a huge opportunity. They remove the guess work out of imaging the details of significant influential persons in the lives of their target market. In short, these influencers are essentially living, breathing target customer avatars that marketers had only imagined up from data. 

Another major trend is that branding efforts need to be increasingly more personal from both sides, ie in terms of how the brand is perceived by the target market and the level of emotional engagement customers may need.

In the minds of consumers, the lines have blurred between a brand and the face behind it (which is often a founder). Consequently, just as a product in marketing has an extended definition to also include all aspects of the marketing mix, so too has the definition of a brand become extended to include the human being behind a brand. Whether or not we realize it, every human has a brand, ie what they are known for. Especially if linked to a company's brand, it is therefore ideal to manage one's personal brand strategically.

Trust is a significant area, especially among generation Z and millennials who are unlikely to trust conventional forms of communication. Accenture research suggests that modern consumers prefer brands that stand for a purpose that reflects their own values and beliefs (regarding issues that are social, cultural, environmental and political). They expect authenticity and nearly 50% will even stop doing business after 'brand disappointments', ie when brands deviate from their expectation regarding what that brand stood for. Furthermore, many will not hesitate to complain their disappointments over social media. 

Furthermore, companies now seek out influencers, ie regular people who have built a large online following. Unlike previously in which branding focused on a product's functional value, this new approach to branding focuses more on creating a relationship, ie responding appropriately to the fact that modern customers do business only with brands they KNOW, LIKE AND TRUST. Essentially, these three criteria correspond with the sales funnel.

• Get known; be real! For product branding, consumers are weary of curated perfection. Many consumers want to know about the founder, the company's story and inner workings. For large companies, consider the cases of Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, Apple's Steve Jobs and so on. Modern consumers prefer realism. However, even small cottage industry companies showcase their founders in some meaningful way. Examples include Skin Passion (Ayesha) from Ghana, who ... "is dedicated to natural home made herbal soaps and skin care [...] using all natural ingredients." [Her YouTube channel description]. Her success illustrates that it is no longer necessary to appear buttoned up to be considered professional and trustworthy. To be clear, 'being real' requires you to present yourself without a facade or pretention, ie show your flawed self unapologetically. Your true self can not please everyone, and that is fine. However, you are likely capable of delighting a niche with a personality or other attribute that is sufficiently developed and strong. Our true self will attract people who can truly relate you and will establish sustainable relationships. Skin Passion videos mostly showcase her making soaps in the casual setting of her backyard. Others showcase provide information about the benefits of her wild harvested ingredients, her stall at the farmer's market and plants from which she gets her raw material. Her children make cameo appearances to help display her work. This product-related content, along with the odd story about personal life experiences (like the healing 'Bed Wetting' with herbs video) gives her clients insight into her, even family life. Although her videos often have camera shake, slanted horizons or the slightly distracting sounds of children playing in the background and she rarely ever wears makeup, her unpretentious, no-frills presentation adds to the very down-to-earth appeal of her brand. Ultimately, consumers feel they 'know' her, her workspace and work conditions and the source of her materials.

• Get known; evolve your brand image as your business evolves! As your brand evolves, signal the changes to your target market. Example: Rihanna's album 'Good Girl Gone Bad' exemplifies this. It risked losing audience likeability of her earlier innocent girly image for the sake of representing more authentically who she was becoming. This move towards authenticity proved hugely successful. Rihanna's new imperfect presentation was easier to relate more relatable to an equally imperfect audience. Consider this process on par with appropriately establishing your target market's expectations. After all, if expectations are set correctly, you are more likely to satisfy your customers when you and or your brand act accordingly. It was therefore neither shocking nor damaging to Rihanna's reputation when pictures surfaced of her smoking marijuana with her then boyfriend Chris Brown who had had a reputation for being a 'bad boy'.

• Be known; tell your brand's story, ie the compelling reason you started your brand. Storytelling is arguably the most powerful way of bringing your brand to life in the minds of your customers. There are several winning formulae like having stories that showcase a problem with which target customers can relate and then resolve the problem with your product; doing social good. Example(s).
• Social good. A traveler found a remote village plagued by poverty. However, upon noticing the people's ability to make hammocks, he created a dropshipping business using his knowledge of the internet along with their craftsmanship. The story shows the people's lives before and after this business initiative. It shows the faces of real people, introducing many by name along with some bio information.
• Problem resolution. The conceptualization of a t-shirt company specializing in ultra soft shirts was said to have begun the day after his girlfriend threw out his favorite t-shirt that he loved endlessly but had obviously become too worn for social tolerance.

• Be known; let your customers tell your brand's story. Testimonials told as a story that delves into the customer's challenges and how they were resolved can be very convincing.

• Be known; declare your core values. Modern consumers assess companies as they would people they just meet. They likely want to know if a company's values match their own. Avoid superficial and cliche mission or other value statements. For ideas, consider the deepest desires of consumers that your product fulfills. In many cases, companies do not merely have a single mission statement but also statements related to specific aspects of their business. Also remember to use a tone that suits your industry and target market.
• Example. Adidas' core values  essentially suggest that they believe in winning. Their mission is to be the best sports clothing company in the world. This is ideal since consumers of sporting clothes are likely competitive in nature and can therefore relate to this core value.
• Example. Types of statements: product mission, economic mission, social mission, purpose / vision, mission, culture statement.
• Ben & Jerry's
• Our Product Mission drives us to make fantastic ice cream—for its own sake.
• Our Economic Mission asks us to manage our Company for sustainable financial growth.
• Our Social Mission compels us to use our Company in innovative ways to make the world a better place.

• Get liked; Be authentic and personal in ways that target customers can relate. As mentioned above in Rihanna's case, the emergence of her authentic persona was more relatable and therefore more likeable. The same is also true for the abovementioned case of Skin Passion's Ayesha. You either love or hate these women.

• Get liked; target customers emotionally! Adopt applicable emotional marketing techniques as triggers to branding. Emotional marketing techniques commonly apply to sales. However, consider the following a means of selling the idea of your brand's superiority. 
• Example(s): Products mostly resolve a pain point or provide pleasure, the former of which is more powerful purchase motivator. For instance, if you provide therapeutic products, they promise to resolve the pain points associated with health concerns that you should address. However, if competitors create their product with harmful ingredients, this provides an emotional branding opportunity. Start by highlighting the problem, ie your target customers are forced to trade off between wellness in one area and toxicity that affects other areas of their health. Your natural brand can promise superior quality control that never forces consumers to make such compromises.
• Example: Heinz entered the baked beans market when many producers were suspected of using undesirable fillers. Heinz responded by offering their product in clear bottles that differentiated them as more trustworthy. Consequently, that brand's reputation of trustworthiness allowed it to continue demanding higher prices many years afterwards.
• Example(s): If your product's quality is on par with that of the competition, use middle positioning pricing; ie apply neither the cheapest nor highest price. Your brand will be perceived as having a higher quality to the cheapest brand and more reasonably priced than the priciest brand.

• Get liked; employ influencers. They are your target market's electronically adopted friends and families who can put in a good word to your target market about your brand and positively influence the buying decision. 
• Seek out influencers whose attributes are those of your target customer avatar, most importantly having the problem or desire for which your product is a solution.
• Specify the details they should include when introducing your brand, like noteworthy things to know about the brand, emotional brand marketing to encourage emotional engagement / liking, reasons to trust the brand, processes / CRX, etc  
• See how to select suitable influencers, how much to pay and how to negotiate costs with influencers.

• Get liked; differentiate! Since today's world allows mostly anyone to create a high quality product or service, competition is rarely based only on product quality and there will always be someone else with comparable products willing to undersell you. Capitalize on the fact that no one can compete with you to be you in whatever unique, innovative and differentiated way you present yourself and brand. In short, presenting your unique personal brand builds sustainable competitive advantage. The person behind a brand can achieve this merely by being him or herself; by having a unique mix of life experiences and talents.
• Example(s): Grace for the Millers on YouTube is a unique family channel. They are unusually large, with 7 children. However, 4 of those children are adopted from different races and countries. Some needed special medical attention. Their family rose to quick stardom as they showcase their very active life of adventure, holiday celebrations and challenge. They are the modern day 'Brady Bunch'. Their stardom comes simply by being a family of 9 with different individual challenges and personalities. Their life on display has become a successful brand against which no other family can compete on the basis of the mix of characteristics that make them wildly popular. 

• Get liked; be imperfect. Being imperfect is perfectly relatable! Example(s). A clothing company even speaks of mistakes the business made (like opening a branch that failed miserably). In the 'About' page, the founder mentions the failure even in a funny way. Specifically, he says the only good thing about that branch was the launching party.
  
  

• Build trust; be transparent! Be transparent even when the truth reveals something controversial about your brand or you. 
• Example: Companies are encouraged to support the national economy by using national manufacturing. In fact, part of many American companies' competitive advantage is consequently based on being 100% American. However, one American business explained that they use national manufacturers whenever possible but hired a Thai company for some of their business. They explain this by starting to speak of their goal being to offer the highest quality and the fact that national companies often offered much more costly work that did not always comply with quality needs. They go on to assuage the common concerns associated with foreign manufacture. For instance, they speak of the Thailand business being ethical and having other compliant standards. Consequently, although risky, they reveal the positive reason for their unpopular decision. Their brand arguably fares better than Khloe Kardashian's Good American whose US-based alleged sweat shop conditions to cut costs brought bad publicity.
• Example: See the example above of how Heinz charged a premium for not using fillers like competitors and using transparent packaging to engender trust.  

• Be trusted; be consistent! Every aspect of your marketing mix should remain consistent with the brand values. Even your brand's key public person's personal reputation management should also comply. Since a company's brand is often inextricably linked with a key person (like its founder), it could suffer if the reputation of the human face somehow becomes inconsistent and, within the context of the brand, 'tarnished'. Additionally, let your actions reflect the values you claim to espouse.  
• This is evident in the case of Uber which saw significant backlash when its CEO's reputation came into question when he nicknamed his newfound luck with women 'Boober'. He ultimately needed to resign from his own brain child in order to save the company's long term trustworthiness. Arguably, authenticity helps to prevent major fallout when / if the person behaves in a way that deviates from an otherwise curated personna. For instance, when Rihanna was seen smoking marijuana with 'bad boy' Chris Brown, swearing and having runnings with a property owner over her nudity, her brand was not ruined as these behaviors were more in line with the more authentic image of her that had been portrayed in the 'Good Girl Gone Bad' album.
• In keeping with their stated mission to 'make the world better', Ben & Jerry's created a charitable foundation that receives 7.5% of its anuual profits to fund community-oriented projects and, a little more risky, activism (which includes preventing climate change).  

Measuring branding success
After using appropriate brand awareness strategies, compare the results with SMART branding objectives. Objectives may look like this. 

• to increase brand recognition by 75% within 2 quarters. Brand recognition can be measured within the context of the 3 Rs, ie being Recognized, Remembered and Revered. Do customers know that you exist? When they encounter your brand, do they recognize that it is you? What do they remember about your brand? 

CONTENT RELATED TO BRAND BUILDING

• Brand awareness promotional strategies
• Building a brand is like creating a personality. It signals to your target market what they can expect. Ensure that, at the very least, the customer experience meets that expectation (ie is satisfied with the relationship).
• Manage your brand story.
• Understand the personality type of your target market and how to adapt appropriately.
• Emotional advertising; deeply personal emotional triggers
• When approach sellers, get an advantage by introducing you and your company effectively.
• Measuring brand awareness
• Genericide is noteworthy phenomenon for very successful brands! Know how to care for what you hoped for. Wildly successful branding can result in losing your brand if you do not know how. Learn how to prevent brand genericide.

How to Communicate Premium Quality Products

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Featured snippet from the web

Premium aka high-end products are those that sell for (an average of 20%) more than the average category price. If you want to sell your product as a premium or high-end product, your every step must convince customers that your product's value (whatever 'value' means in your industry) is so stellar that the high price is so justifiable that it is a non-issue. 

Before beginning, know how your target market defines product 'value'. For instance, baby boomers are known for valuing quality ingredients in their cosmetics products while younger generations value 'green' brands and solutions for their pain point of acne. Consequently, use and promote the best quality ingredients if you are targeting baby boomers while focusing on your 'green' product formulation and how it tackles each of the component issues related to acne if you are targeting a younger audience. 

Continue in this way for all other aspects of the marketing mix, without cutting corners. 

Some DOs & DON'Ts

• Publicly promote your brand's premium characteristics. Just doing this elevates the perception of your brand relevant to other brands that do not.
• Use high quality photography and other visuals.
• Luxury does not need to follow the mainstream opulence-related perceptions of luxury. Use 'mythological marketing'. Mythology often refers to a collection of myths belonging to a particular religious or cultural tradition. However, in marketing, mythology involves telling your story in a way that engages your customers in a deeply personal and emotional way, ie personal emotional marketing. Brands that do this well, always tell their emotion-triggering story. Examples include showing how you use traditional techniques after having trekked through difficult terrain, talking with indigenous peoples and so on. This is why many handcrafters have YouTube videos showing themselves making their products. If they grow cultivate product inputs, they earn emotional value by showing they care and pick the produce, 'like their ancestors, etc'.  
• Outside of the benefits that relate intrinsically to your product, ensure that your advertising communicates exclusivity, high quality and whatever 'premium' means in your industry. Prestige and other forms of psychological pricing are essential.
• Use only those distribution channels that your target customers value. For instance, if you are wholesale selling natural personal care products, sell to only health stores and organic farmers' markets rather than to supermarkets and gas stations. In short, your product may seem of higher quality by association

CONTENT RELATED TO COMMUNICATING PREMIUM QUALITY PRODUCTS.

• Psychological pricing