Marketing for Brand Awareness: Why It Matters and How to Get It Right

Are your accounts doing enough marketing for brand awareness? There’s a lot of emphasis on one-to-one personalized promotions to increase revenue. But when a consumer has never heard of a brand, will they buy it through a promotion? Around 25% of consumers note they have tried a product for the first time after encountering an ad or other information such as a blog post, reports AudienceSCAN from AdMall. With the right kind of advertising, think branding and promotion versus promotion, that number could be higher.

How much should businesses spend on marketing for brand awareness?

Researcher Les Binet has long argued that only 5% of consumers are currently in the marketplace for a specific product or service at one time. They call this marketplace reality the “95/5 rule,”and it is based on research from Ehrenberg Bass Institute of Marketing Science.

The researchers also recommend specific spending guidelines. They encourage marketers to “devote about 40% of your marketing against the 5% in-market consumers and 60% of your budget towards creating future demand with the 95%.”

Are your accounts too optimistic about audience targeting? 

Many businesses are not following Binet’s guidelines. In addition, they may be too optimistic about today’s primary method of optimizing advertising outcomes: audience targeting. Research from Advertiser Perceptions points to the false belief that “22% of sales are driven by targeting.” In fact, it’s closer to 11%. 

What are the other factors that influence consumer purchases?

Businesses that take the long view in the marketplace focus on multiple factors that influence consumer purchases. For advertising, it’s reach, creative and recency.

How much does creative advertising impact revenue?

A new study by FleishmanHillard and Contagious, The Chaos Advantage, indicates that brands must stand out in today’s crowded media world. If they don’t create excellent and bold messaging, they can see brand conversion drops of up to 37% and “ROI declines of 14%.”

But many brands fear that a bold campaign will lead to backlash. They don’t want to be cancelled by consumers. With proper testing, they can find the spot in the market. Encourage your accounts to explore their creativity. With an AdMall subscription, you can access AI-generated ad copy by industry vertical to start the creative process.

How does traditional media outperform digital for reach?

Binet argues that “big media” which equates to traditional media, delivers something that digital media can’t. It’s all about reach. Formats like radio, TV and out-of-home advertising reach significantly more consumers than formats like social media. Nielsen data shows out-of-home messaging, for example, reaches 94% of 25-to-54-year-olds on a weekly basis. For Snapchat, the reach is much lower at 22%.

Traditional media often outshines digital when it comes to dwell time — all about how long a consumer pays attention to an ad. Research conducted by Dr. Karen Nelson-Field shows that an ad needs 2.5 seconds to impress itself on the human brain. Dr. Nelson-Field contends that most, 85%, of digital ads don’t make a long enough impression.

Why brands should combine traditional media with digital

But when a marketer combines traditional media with digital such as online video, the brand gains more attention from consumers. Researchers also believe that a shared ad experience, such as seeing an out-of-home message from a local business can draw consumers together.

A compelling creative across all media formats can prompt consumers to discuss the ad and the brand, generating buzz and often, more business. Around 17% of U.S. adults believe advertising is not as creative as it used to be, reports AudienceSCAN. Remind your accounts that it’s worth the effort to make a memorable ad when they are marketing for brand awareness.

The power of recency

Advertising investment is a way to let consumers know a business is healthy. Around 11% of U.S. adults believe stores that advertise are better than those that do not, according to AudienceSCAN.

Closing thoughts

Your accounts may be locked into a mindset about advertising. They may believe it’s too expensive to always be advertising. But the research proves that the right balance between promotions and branding leads to superior marketing for brand awareness. And it ensures revenue growth now and in the future.

Image by Gustavo Fring on Pexels.