Getting your company brand to your market as soon as your business is even a concept is imperative to gaining traction in a competitive market. Whether you are starting a business from the ground up or have an established client base, if you haven’t tapped brand awareness you’re missing out on valuable growth.
There are three main kinds of brand awareness; they include aided, spontaneous and top-of-mind. Aided awareness is when a consumer can recognize a name when presented with a list of companies of the same market, oppose to spontaneous recognition whereby a consumer can list a number of market brands. Top-of-mind awareness, however, is what all companies aspire to achieve and is the kind of status such companies as Coca-Cola and Toyota enjoy.
But to achieve any kind of brand awareness, your company must tap a channel to effectively reach the market. Of course your company will need branding that reflects the mission and targets the market you are trying to break into. Getting this logo and branding out there, however, is where the challenge lies.
Free advertising is closer than you might realize. Silk screening t-shirts for promotional giveaways, for example, are an excellent starting point to generate brand awareness. If you have excellent branding and people enjoy your company logo, and actually wear their t-shirt, not only are you encouraging brand awareness in the individual wearing the shirt, but also in everyone who sees the shirt.
No matter how you get your branding to your market, having a plan in place to establish brand awareness is imperative to driving success. This is because brand awareness, and the degree to which it penetrates your market, determines how trusted your brand (and subsequently company) really is. Your market is much more likely to buy from a trusted company rather than one that has little or no trust.