GENERAL INOFRMATION

_________________________BRAND AWARENSS__

What is Brand Awareness?

Brand awareness is the likelihood as to how aware a customer is about a brand, product or
service. Brand awareness is how much a customer or prospect recalls or recollects about a
particular company & its goods. Brand awareness is one of the key dimensions of brand equity
& its includes a customer’s ability to remember the product, logo, tagline, name etc.

Importance of Brand Awareness

Brand awareness is often considered to be a prerequisite which stimulates a customer’s buying
decision as it represents the main factor for keeping a brand in the consideration pool. Brand
awareness leads to consumers’ assessment of perceived risk and their determination to make a
purchase decision, driven by the familiarity with the brand and its varied characteristics. Brand
awareness can further be segmented into at least two facets – unaided which is also known as
brand recall and aided which is known as brand recognition. It is important for a company as it
helps in its brand equity and is one of the basic steps of brand building. The fact that brand
awareness plays a very important role is driven by the cut throat competition which exists in the
market due to minimal differentiation in commodity items. High degree of brand awareness
leads improved brand knowledge to better sales and high market share.

Elements & Types of Brand Awareness

Brand awareness is the ability of a customer to identify a particular brand. It is basically what all
a customer remembers about the company’s offering. Brand awareness can be how a customer
recollects various elements about a brand like logo, product type, slogan, advertisement, brand
name etc.
Brand awareness is basically of the following types:
1. Brand recall: Customers are able to identify the brand themselves without any aid, known as
unaided recall.
2. Brand recognition: In this type of brand awareness, aided recall helps customers remember a
particular brand.
3. Top of the mind brand: Any brand which a customer recalls without any help and is the first
thing on their mind is top of the mind brand.

Brand Awareness Models

There are several ways in which brand awareness leads to enticing a customer into a purchase
decision. Some models, which highlight the importance of brand awareness that creates a
positive brand image & which leads to customer buying a product are mentioned below:
a) Hierarchy of Effects Theory:
The hierarchy of effects theory typically demonstrates how a customer sequentially moves from
an unaware stage to ultimately ending up in buying of the product. There are three main stages
through which the customer goes through. These are: -
• Cognitive: - The first stage which focuses on building up the brand awareness about a
particular product and associate the brand with it.

What is Brand Recognition?

Brand recognition is the ability of existing consumers as well as prospective customers to
recognise a brand through its features like logos, taglines, colors, product features, other
attributes etc. Brands which have a higher brand recognition leave a more lasting impact on the
minds of the consumer, and generate a high brand loyalty over a period of time.

Importance of Brand Recognition

Brand recognition is a continuous process where a customer is regularly exposed to the positive
attributes of a brand, so that a certain perception or image of the brand is created with the
customer. It is very important for companies to understand what the customers feel about their
brand, how the customer positions the brand value, what is its brand image, brand knowledge
etc. For testing brand recognition, companies perform various tests through surveys, study
groups, brand recall tests etc.
Expressed normally as a percentage of the target market, brand recognition is the primary goal
of advertising in the early months of a product's introduction in the market. Brand recognition
does not necessarily need the customer to identify the brand name. Instead, it means that
consumers can respond to a brand after viewing its visual packaging images and tell us about the
brand awareness of the customer. Thus, the ultimate marketing goal is to have the target market
think of your product when they are ready to buy thus, making the brand to stand out from the
crowd. A high brand recognition means a higher brand equity.

Steps to Improve Brand Recognition

Some measures to improve the brand recognition of a product maybe:
• Provide great customer service like guarantees and after-sales services.
• Develop a heart-felt story that speaks to why you are in business which would gain trust of the
customer.
• Work to keep your name in front of your market and on the top of the customer’s minds.
• Provide value – exceed their expectations.
• Host a Facebook Group or promote your brand on twitter and other social media.
• Use the same photo/logo in all your marketing materials and be consistent in your branding so
as to not confuse the customer

What is Brand Recall?

Brand Recall is the degree or likelihood of instantly remembering the name of the brand if a
product/service or any other kind of brand association comes up. Brand Recall can be aided or
unaided.

Importance of Brand Recall

To increase their brand exposure, companies want their brand to come under unaided recall in
relation to their competitors. The first brand name which is recalled (often known as "top of
mind") has a distinct advantage in brand space over others competitors, as it has the first chance
of evaluation for purchase by the consumer. If a company has high brand recall, this would
mean there are more chances that while buying the customer will remember it more often and
would end up buying more of the brand. If this cycle continues, repeat purchases would be
more. Hence Brand Recall is very important for a brand manager. Brand recall is a part of brand
awareness, which along with parameters like brand recognition and top of the mind brand help a
brand establish in the minds of the consumer.
There are primarily two types of brand recall i.e. aided brand recall and unaided brand recall.
Unaided recall is where a person can recall or remember the name of the brand without any cue
or hint. Aided recall on the other hand requires an external cue or hint of this recall. Lets
understand more about them. As per common market research pure brand recall requires
"unaided recall". Unaided recall means that no help or aid is given to consumer to recall the
brand. It was already in the mind of the consumer under a product category. For example when a
respondent is asked to recall the names of any phone brands he may know, or any beer brands he
may know & the brands which he is able to recall without any help will come under unaided
recall. The other one is "Aided recall" which tells you the level to which a brand name is
recognized when the actual brand name is prompted. An example of such a question is "Are you
aware of "Apple" brand?" In this case the Brand name is told to the respondent. One of the few
brand recall test includes day-after recall test, which tests are consumers feedback after 24
hours.

Strategy to Increase Brand Recall

Companies give a lot of importance in ensuring that the brand recall for their products are high.
Having a high brand recall requires a lot of time, money and patience. Some steps to increase
brand recall are:
Maintain high quality of the product or the service as eventually customer needs have to be
fulfilled.
2. Ensure good brand visibility through advertising, packaging etc.
3. Brand recall can be enhanced by making sure people see the brand all the time.
4. Engaging customers through contests, events etc can help build a strong brand recall.
5. A unique brand name, logo, tagline etc can help connect with customers to increase brand
recall.

What is Top Of Mind Awareness?

Top of mind awareness is the brand that comes to mind first when an unprompted question
about a category is asked to a customer. Top of mind awareness is the percentage of customers
who think of that particular brand first. It is a measure to see how well brands rank in the minds
of customers. It is represented in percentage mostly.

Measuring Top of Mind Awareness

During an experiment to measure top of mind awareness, the customers are shown series of
advertisements or any other promotion and asked for the first brand that comes to their mind.
This is to checking the advertising awareness among the customers. They are asked these
questions 30 days after the promotions are shown. The experiment is repeated for many
customers and the percentage of people telling the different brands are noted down. From these
percentages the awareness level of the brand can be calculated. It is also used to measure the
effectiveness of the advertisement.
Companies try to build brand awareness through different channels and try to increase brand
equity. Brand awareness can be created by using TVCs, online marketing tools, print media,
OOH and other advertising channels.

Importance of Top Of Mind Awareness

Top of mind awareness ranks a brand of a company in the minds of the customers while
thinking about a particular industry or category. It helps in increasing brand awareness. People
see many advertisements and use the brands as per their choice and preferences. Basically,
people buy the products that come to their mind ‘first’. It is the brand that comes to the mind of
the customer first when they are asked an unprompted question about a category or the
percentage of respondents who name a particular brand first, without prompting, when they are
asked to recall all the advertisements, they had seen in last 30 days. It is the ‘most remembered’
or ‘most recalled’ brand names. It is a special form of brand awareness.

Categories of Top Of Mind Awareness

For the product to be in top of mind awarenss, the brands must qualify one of the following
categories:
 Perennial favourite: Keep on providing best products and services to all the customers.
Some of them will retain the experience and it will become all-time favourite for them.
 Lingering bad taste: Most of the people are not clear on what they want but they are
clearer on what they don’t. These are not the potential target customers as the brand is
coming to their first in a negative way. So, always avoid to be in this list.
 Right Exposure: Give the customers more exposure to the products. Frequency of
exposure of brand affects the customers as more frequent interaction with the brand leads
to more brand awareness and retention
Different Levels of Brand Awareness:
 Three different levels in which brand awareness can be measured are:
 Top of mind Awareness- The first brand that comes to the mind of customers when
asked about a particular category. For example, when the customers are asked about
shampoo, which brand comes to their mind first.
 Brand Recall- It is spontaneous awareness. The customers recall a brand after some cues
like the segment in which the product or service falls or a specific need that the brand
fulfils. For example, when the customers are asked about anti-dandruff shampoo, which
brand comes their mind.
  Brand recognition- It is an aided awareness. The customers recall a brand when they are
provided with a list of brands. For example, when customers a list of different brands of
shampoo and are asked which brand they have seen or heard out of the brands in the list.

Advantages & Disadvantages of Top Of Mind Awareness

Some advantages are:
1. It increases brand awareness among people.
2. The brand first comes to the mind of the customers when they go for any purchase. So, sales
will increase.
A few disadvantages are:
1. It is time taking, long term process and needs investment.
2. Customers get confused between more than one brand.

oOo