Instead, savvy leaders are turning their attention to brand experience, and moreover, to creating the sort of brand experience that knocks spots off the competition and keeps customers coming back, time after time.

Let’s take a look at what brand experience is all about (and how you craft one to be proud of).

What is brand experience?

Brand experience is the culmination of every interaction a customer has with your brand – from direct contact with a customer services advisor, to the branded email that lands in their inbox. Brand experience is made up of thoughts, feelings, and reactions to everything your brand does (and doesn’t do), along with the perception of what you stand for, and how you operate.

When people interact with your brand, what do they think? How do they feel? What’s their lasting impression? These things – which combine customer experience, user experience and brand identity in one – come together to form your overarching brand experience. And it’s essential to get it right.

Brand experience is what influences a customer to keep choosing you, based on positive experiences – so a good brand experience is one of the defining factors in building a loyal customer base: a true marker of success. But it’s not only about direct interactions. Brand experience happens well before someone makes the decision to purchase from you: before that decision is made, consumers are factoring in your reputation in the market, your online reviews, what people are saying about you on your socials, and even how happy your employees are.

But if you’re hoping to be universally liked, you may be in for a disappointment. Brand experience is entirely subjective; so while you can tweak the circumstances and put your best foot forward, it’s about appealing to the largest number of your target audience, rather than garnering universal adoration.

Brand Experience vs Customer Experience

Brand experience and customer experience are closely linked but distinctly different.

Customer experience (CX) is about the thoughts, feelings, and reactions that people have when directly purchasing, consuming, or using branded products or services; brand experience (BX) is these same thoughts, feelings, and reactions, but they can result from either direct or indirect exposure to any interaction with your brand, or branded products and services.

It’s brand experience that ultimately influences whether someone will purchase from you in the future.

Customer experience is critical because, well, it’s your customers who really steer the ship and determine whether your business is a success or a failure – so creating a creditable customer experience, and one that you can easily monitor, is essential. In fact, our Customer Experience Survey Software makes the process of getting to the heart of what your customers think completely effortless, if you’re interested? But we digress…

Brand experience is perhaps a little trickier, but equally valuable.

Why is Brand Experience important?

Brand experience is important because the reputation of your brand is everything. Brand experience is what informs brand perception, and brand perception is what makes people want to buy from you. Get it wrong, and you may as well signpost all those high value customers straight to your nearest competitor.

When people have a positive brand experience, they’re far more likely to become customers (and loyal customers at that) than if they have a negative experience or remain ambivalent. In fact, ambivalence is hardly better than a poor experience: someone who feels completely neutral about your brand is never going to pick you from out of a line-up now, are they?

Get your brand experience right, and you’ll have customers for days (or preferably years, but that’s not what the kids say).

What makes a good brand experience?

A good brand experience is made up of lots of different factors; in other words, it’s never just one thing – meaning that your efforts must be widespread and all-encompassing.

Let’s look at some of the areas that influence brand experience:

Direct marketing

Your direct marketing efforts will have an enormous impact on the perception that people have of your brand in the wider marketplace. When a potential customer visits your branded website, they’ll want to see beautiful design that reflects who you are; a good brand experience will also factor in ease of use, so you’ll want to get any snags ironed out!

Adverts should showcase your core values and create a clear picture of your personality, while the design of everything your brand lends its name to – from your logo and signage to your social media platforms and customer communications – should elicit positive emotion.

And let’s not forget customer service: while not marketing per se, this direct form of communication is crucial to get right, as customers will form a lasting impression of a brand based on treatment from and interaction with its employees.

Indirect marketing

Marketing comes from all manner of places – not least of which is your own employees. When you can boast highly engaged employees, they act as the best brand ambassadors you’ll ever have. Plus, they’re likely to tell their friends and family about how great you are, which does wonders for brand perception.

Your online presence also has a profound effect on brand experience: the way that you interact with people through social media and on your website can make or break a first impression. And don’t forget the value of customer reviews! Most of us research a brand before we buy from them these days, and the reviews that are waiting for us heavily influence our perception of that brand.

Personalization

Customers like to feel valued, and a personalized experience is a great way to give the people what they want. While generic marketing campaigns are all well and good, a degree of personalization goes a long way. What you’re really looking for is to build a connection with consumers, and if you choose to leverage customer data – along with information gleaned from social media and other interactions – you can create a depth of connection capable of bolstering your brand experience.

Playing on the senses

The best brand experiences are always the ones that take us in; make us feel something. And the best way to do that is to appeal to the senses. From audio to visual to touch, smell and taste, branding that connects to a specific sense can form one heck of a connection. Take this into account when you’re developing your advertising, marketing, and customer communications, as senses play a big part in forming a positive brand experience.

Participation

As well as feeling valued, customers like to feel involved – so get them in on the action! If you have a physical store or pop-up, allowing potential customers to interact with your product and provide real-time feedback is a great option to increase participation. If you’re solely online, encourage consumers to do more than sit back and watch by making it possible for them to submit suggestions, have questions answered in real-time, or chat to other customers via a forum.

How to create a great brand experience strategy

Your brand is how customers – and potential customers – perceive you; your brand strategy is how you influence that perception. So now that you know what makes a good brand experience, it’s time to breakdown how you create a great brand experience strategy.

1. Develop a mission statementBefore you can get where you’re going, you need to know where you’re heading. A mission statement should include your target audience, your values, and your vision. This can then be used as the foundation for your marketing campaigns, and as the basis for all internal and external touchpoints, communications, and interactions.
2. Assess the current status quoAre you meeting customer expectations? If not, why not? If you’re doing well, what could you be doing better? And what is it that people love? Before building a brand experience strategy, it’s essential that you gather a full and accurate understanding of how your brand is already performing.
3. Pinpoint areas for improvementOnce you know what you’re doing well and where your efforts may be going slightly awry, you can put practical plans in place to make things better. This is one of the most crucial steps you can take when it comes to informing and improving brand perception: mistakes can be forgiven, but only if you learn from them.
4. Tell your storyPeople find it much easier to buy into a brand when there’s an element of connection – and that requires the personal touch. So, what’s your story? How did your company come to be? What core values motivate you to do what you do? Telling the story of your brand can really help to make you more memorable, likeable, and relatable.
5. Carve out a unique positionBrand experience is subjective, but you can give yourself the greatest chance of influencing a positive brand experience by putting something unique out into the world. Think about your story, your mission statement, your target audience, and what you want your brand to stand for.
6. Get sentimentalMuch like when you tell your company story, using sentiment and emotion helps you to establish a deep-seated connection with customers and consumers alike. With the right marketing team behind you, it’s easy to evoke certain emotions in your target audience through well-considered social media posts, advertisements, and customer comms.
7. Tap into authentic customer feedbackYour customers have perhaps the biggest influence on your brand perception. Why? Because they’re the ones who write reviews, talk about you online (whether good or bad), and share their experiences of your brand with friends and family. Try to tap into the ways that your customers respond most authentically and encourage feedback at every turn.
8. Measure the resultsWhen you put any plan into place, you need to monitor the outcome – and your brand experience strategy is no different. Regular pulse checks are important, as is ascertaining your starting point. As you move through your strategy, keep an eye on customer and employee engagement, customer feedback, online interactions, website usage, and those all-important sales figures.

How can brand experience improve customer loyalty?

Loyal customers are worth their weight in gold (and considerably more than new customers), so it’s unsurprising that securing customer loyalty is one of the overarching goals for most companies. But did you know that brand experience has a major part to play in taking people from one-time or prospective customers to total converts?

Brand experience is all about creating positive associations in the minds of consumers when they encounter absolutely anything to do with your brand – from your website, online reviews and social media presence to your staff, your stores, and your products and services. And every one of these positive associations is a step towards customer loyalty.

It’s a no-brainer when you think about it: if people have a positive brand experience, they’re more likely to choose your brand again in the future. That’s why it’s so important to create an emotional connection between your brand and your target customers.

Brands live in the minds of consumers, so you need to do all you can to influence their perception. This is even more crucial when we consider that a bad brand experience (and therefore, a bad brand reputation) can be all over the internet in a matter of moments these days. Thankfully, creating an emotional connection through a series of positive brand experiences can garner the level of loyalty that allows consumers to look past minor transgressions when you handle them in the right way.

Building brand experience then is a form of future safeguarding: your customers are more likely to stick with you through the hiccups if your overall form is good.

Brand experience examples

Right then, which customer-centric companies are out there giving the best brand experience possible? Let’s look.

1. DuracellNot just a battery! Duracell has set its brand apart by establishing a true emotional connection with consumers (we told you that was important!) By playing on the ‘power’ of its batteries, the brand makes us feel like we can really trust in the product – making it the go-to for families that don’t want to be let down when it comes to powering up toys for Christmas! With inspirational adverts telling emotive stories, they’ve got us hooked.
2. AppleApple is the king of brand experience, and consequently, boasts one of the most loyal customer bases out there. Their stores work in harmony with their ads, which work in harmony with their products, their staff, and their socials: it’s a cohesive brand experience that speaks to its core values of style, innovation, and functionality. There’s no doubting that Apple is always top of mind in the market for the brilliant brand experience it brings.
3. NikeRemember when we talked about the importance of increasing customer participation? Well, Nike has got this nailed. Nike By You gives its customers more control over the products they’re buying – allowing them to customize products with different color and style combos. What could be cooler? And by including a ‘sneaker bar’ in its NYC flagship store, the brand experience is carried from online to in-store – giving customers the chance to customize their kicks in person! Now that’s what we call a brand experience…

How can Forsta help?

When it comes to creating an effective brand engagement strategy, using the right software can take you far.

With Forsta’s Brand Experience Insights Software, you can effortlessly uncover what your customers really think about your brand – allowing you to cultivate a better brand experience by making the changes consumers actually care about. Because if you’re not listening, how are you going to know where improvements need to be made?

No brand is perfect, but that doesn’t mean you should be shooting in the dark. Our software can help you to remove the guesswork – allowing you to make the right call, first time around. We can give you a balanced view of your brand perception (from your biggest fans to those neggy haters), which means you can do more of what the people want, and ditch what they don’t.

Ready to find out if you’re fighting fit? Book a free demo to see what we can do.

Brand experience, revealed

Well, there you have it. Now that you know what brand experience is, why it’s important, what makes a good one, and how to create a strategy that delivers it, you’re ready to ride off into the sunset and start converting consumers into incredibly loyal customers.

Just remember to give us a call if you want to do it properly.

The explosive growth in research technology has been the catalyst for many of these new pressures. Nearly 1,200 software companies supply the research industry [2]; automation tools and DIY solutions promise lower costs, faster results and ease of use for client teams.

All this has compressed timescales, reduced project prices and squeezed agency margins. The cost of a typical online attitudes & usage survey, for example, fell by two-thirds between 2010 and 2018 from $27,000 to $9,000 [3].

The need for speed is also a major pressure. 2021’s GreenBook industry trends report surveyed both buyers and suppliers of research, and ‘faster time to insights’ was a top priority for both groups [4].

And in recent years, many ‘buyers’ of research have become ‘doers’ as they bring previously outsourced activities in-house. Easy-to-use platforms for surveys, customer panels and structured concept or ad testing have been widely adopted by insights, experience and even marketing teams.

Taken together, these trends imply less agency-led research to go round; and greater time and cost pressure on the work that remains.

So what can agencies do?

Many are responding by fighting fire with fire: using technology to automate, standardize and find operating efficiencies.

They see clear commercial returns from these investments including:

• Reduced time spent on low value activities (eg rework, manual data entry, etc.)
• Redirecting resources to more profitable work (eg analysis, insights, etc.)
• Increased operating margins and business valuations

The most automated processes are survey analysis, text analytics, charting / infographics and integration of other data sources such as social media [5].

The power of automation

We also see agencies applying automation across the full spectrum of quantitative and qualitative research. Examples include:

• Project inputs: reusable project templates, survey tools integrated with panels, translation databases, question libraries and client portals.
• Project management: participant scheduling and incentives, live fieldwork monitoring, online focus groups, live streaming of offline groups, live client access to progress reporting.
• Project outputs: automatic transcription, translation and tagging, verbatim coding, auto-generated commentary, PowerPoint automation, dashboards, self-service analysis for clients and direct integration of data into their environments.

More winning strategies for Market Research Agencies

Read more about Forsta’s take on the coming golden age for research agencies, and the key strategies being implemented in our full white paper.

Download

 [1] The Innovator’s Dilemma, Clayton Christensen, 1997

[2] Insight Platforms directory of software tools for research, analytics and experience

[3] Global Prices Study 2018, ESOMAR

[4] Greenbook Industry Trends Report, Business & Innovation Edition, 2021

[5] Greenbook Industry Trends Report, Business & Innovation Edition, 2021

McKinsey Periscope, Accenture Interactive and PWC all have established customer insights capabilities, and these have been growing strongly.

Other consultancies have acquired research agencies with specialist expertise. KPMG acquired Nunwood to build a deeper customer experience capability; PA Consulting acquired Sparkler, an agency with deep expertise in media, digital and entertainment markets.

Whether by acquisition or organic growth, management consultancies are increasing their share of the customer insights market.

ESOMAR estimates that ‘established’ research agency revenues were US $33bn globally in 2020, and that consultancies generated $11bn in research income in the same year. For every 3 research dollars spent with agencies, another dollar was spent with consultancies [1].

The forecast for 2023 suggests that agency revenues will increase by just $3bn to $36bn; but consultancies will grow to nearly $15bn – getting closer to a 2:1 ratio [2].

Why is this shift happening? Three trends are driving it:

1. The importance of customer insights is growing: senior executives increasingly see research, analytics and experience feedback as a source of growth and differentiation.
2. Research clients are demanding more commercial expertise from their insights partners. Business Knowledge is the single most important skill that buyers want to see their suppliers improve, according to the latest GRIT report [3].
3. Consultancies have a broad suite of capabilities to connect research with other workstreams, deliverables or transformation programs.

What can research agencies do about this?

The first two trends represent significant opportunities. In fact, many agencies have grown by taking the fight to the consultancies: developing their own premium advisory practices, deepening their expertise and prioritizing the commercial impact they can make for their clients.

By going ‘upstream’, they have been able to:

• Work with new types of clients in brand, innovation or strategy roles – often at very senior levels
• Command higher day rates for their services in line with the value they bring
• Avoid commoditisation and nickel-and-dime price negotiations on individual projects.

 These consultative agencies typically build capability in one of three areas:

1. Industry or vertical focus, such as media and entertainment, financial services or business-to-business
2. Research specialism such as behavioural insights, semiotics or innovation forecasting
3. Business application such as brand strategy, creative development or customer experience.

Such premium advisory services – built around a core of research – are proving to be a very successful strategy for ambitious agencies.

Read the full white paper

At Forsta we’re privileged to work with nearly 1,000 agencies around the world, from boutique specialists to the largest international networks.

Our most successful agency partners create value by connecting the worlds of Market Research with User, Customer and Employee Experience.

Read more about Forsta’s take on the coming golden age for research agencies, and the key strategies being implemented in our full white paper.

Download

[1] Evolution of the Data, Analytics & Insights Industry: a forecast to 2023, ESOMAR, https://shop.esomar.org/knowledge-center/library-2021?publication=2957

[2] Evolution of the Data, Analytics & Insights Industry: a forecast to 2023, ESOMAR, https://shop.esomar.org/knowledge-center/library-2021?publication=2957

[3] Greenbook Industry Trends Report, Business & Innovation Edition, 2021: https://www.greenbook.org/mr/grit/

We were curious to hear what industry leaders Tom Fortin, Managing Partner & CIO, iCapital and Viviane Martins, CEO, Falconi had to say about building an innovation culture from the ground up. At their panel, they explored how to overcome organizational resistance to innovation, how to maintain an innovation culture even when the environment is challenging, and finally, how data can help you support your innovation culture. 

So, we’ve taken what we heard and are sharing it with you. 

Get curious about innovation 

What does it mean to have an innovative culture? It’s a question that more and more business leaders are asking themselves as they search for new ways to remain competitive, relevant, and poised for success. 

So, let’s get one thing straight: innovation is not the same as invention. Invention is about individual, brilliantly bright moments; innovation is about value creation, and in business terms, creating a data architecture capable of supporting a continuous flow of brilliant ideas. 

But how do you instil innovation into the heart of an organization? 

How to handle innovation resistance 

People are creatures of habit, which means they tend to resist change. Leaders often face a huge challenge when starting on the path to innovation, as employees of all levels can be reticent – particularly in highly regulated organizations. 

As companies grow, innovation can move further down the agenda. People get comfortable, and change becomes seemingly risky; this is especially true in large organisations that don’t reward risk. If you’re set on embracing innovation then, you need to let your people make mistakes. Encourage them to try new approaches, and don’t reprimand them if they fail. 

As with most business initiatives, change must be led by the top by senior leadership, who make it clear that a fresh focus on innovation isn’t optional. But because no one likes to be forced to do things, change champions are crucial here: you need designated change leaders to act as spokespeople within your organization, capable of selling the vision, implementing change, and resolving any issues along the way.  

Building the company around these people is how you ultimately establish an innovation culture. Because while leadership might be responsible for promoting innovation, a true innovation culture needs to find its roots at the bottom. 

But with the challenge of running ‘business as usual’ operations, how do you support a culture of innovation at scale? 

Facilitating innovation through support mechanisms  

The right infrastructure and support mechanisms can set up the organization to share critical knowledge within their teams.  

Much of the time, existing processes, routines and incentives act as hurdles to innovation, so it’s up to leaders to foster a genuine sense of collaboration across their teams. 

When it comes to developing the infrastructure and support mechanisms to fuel innovation, leaders again play a critical role. It’s important to find your change champions, and pair them with technologists that understand the business. Technologists that only understand tech, but not the business, are only one piece of the puzzle. You need to have a solid business context to build trustworthy systems and relevant solutions. 

But things don’t have to be perfect first time: set up an iterative approach, move with the versions you have, embrace your mistakes – and keep learning. 

Innovating in the face of economic hardship 

There’s no denying that our economic environment has changed, and that businesses (and their customers) are facing several challenges. But that doesn’t mean innovation should stop. Quite the contrary. Difficult economic times allow organizations to differentiate themselves. In fact, when things go wrong, the companies who run on a culture of innovation are far better placed to win market share and grow their business.  

Your customers still have problems to be solved and needs to be met, and your employees still have goals to meet. Innovative companies are focused on solving their customers’ (and their employees’) problems. 

But innovation isn’t only about developing new products or growing your business: it’s also about becoming more efficient and creating a competitive advantage by managing your costs and streamlining your operations. And one of the most effective ways of increasing efficiency is by drawing on data to bolster your innovation efforts.  

Accelerating innovation with data  

Consider the history of software: we are constantly building new blocks of information, and gathering untold amounts of data, but it can sometimes be difficult to make sense of. Companies need to be able to understand how the data they collect represents the people they’re targeting, and what their perspectives actually are. This allows organizations to innovate with truly personalized experiences.  

Data and culture go hand in hand. Your culture is the sum total of all of the actions across all of your teams, and while you can always have a set mission and defined values, it’s actions that define your culture. Remember, your culture translates into your customer experience, so this is an important one to get right. 

Where culture is the hypothesis, data is the hard information that should be informing your decisions. So instead of simply being ‘data informed’, switch to being ‘data driven’. How are people making decisions? How do they dissent and voice their opinions? Data helps you to find patterns and pinpoint user actions, but it’s culture that will help you to reimagine the application of that data.  

Data is invaluable, but it doesn’t tell you the whole story: you need human interpretation on top, and that’s influenced by your culture. If you start with data first, you end up in a position where you’re simply optimising numbers.  

Data should only ever be a tool to track the overall outcomes that your company chases, but these outcomes should always be determined by your culture. 

Many of the world’s largest companies use our technology to understand their audiences, identify opportunities and improve experiences.

This unique position has helped us see how successful innovators are bringing together the disciplines of Customer Experience, Customer Insights and Market Research. They overcome internal silos to pursue a holistic understanding of their most important stakeholder: the customer.

We believe this philosophy will shape the future of the research & experience industries, and we have a name for it.

We call it Human Experience, or HX.

Human experience unites the capabilities, data and technologies that help companies understand the people they serve. It’s underpinned by software, but it’s really a philosophy and a framework.

It’s about creating joined-up insights about people – be they customers, colleagues, patients, citizens or any other group.

These whole person insights come from connecting qualitative and quantitative research; integrating behavioural data with feedback; and working across market research, user research, customer experience and employee experience teams.

Many research agencies already do this and are capitalizing on the movement to HX. The benefits they see include:

• Better quality insights for their clients that combine different signals and methods
• Agency growth from new customers beyond the traditional market research or consumer insights department
• New revenue streams with income from continuous monitoring, behavioural data or strategic workshops – not only primary research
• Higher revenue growth from new HX categories: CX Management, for example, is forecast to grow at 18% annually between 2021 and 2026 [1] – vs 3% for established market research [2]

This ‘shift to HX’ manifests itself in several ways, such as adding experience management to research capabilities or design insights projects that seamlessly connect quantitative and qualitative perspectives.

Dublin-based agency W5, for example, measures business customer satisfaction with voice, mobile and data services for eir Large Business using Customer Effort (CE) and Net Promoter Score (NPS). This program helped to deliver reduced churn, improved revenue and significant long-run cost reductions.

Elsewhere in the world, Brazilian research consultancy Albar Research wanted to understand the roots of childhood obesity across Latin America. They combined online surveys and smartphone diaries to collect rich insights from parents and children across the region.

There are many more examples like this elsewhere on the Forsta website, where you can read stories of agencies building human experience capabilities around a core of market research.

More winning strategies for Market Research Agencies

Read more about Forsta’s take on the coming golden age for research agencies, and the key strategies being implemented in our full white paper.

Download

[1] Customer Experience Management Market – Growth, Trends & Forecasts (2021 – 2026), Mordor Intelligence

[2] Evolution of the Data, Analytics & Insights Industry: a forecast to 2023, ESOMAR

However, the inverse is also true: technology companies need expert services to be successful. Even an archetypal software firm like Salesforce, for example, spends 25% of its revenue on professional services and support [1].

Similarly, in the research industry, it is a myth that do-it-yourself (DIY) software tools remove the need for researchers. In fact, DIY tools can provide misleading results in the wrong hands: sufficient research expertise will always be required to craft appropriate inputs, interpret data and contextualize results.

What today’s clients really want is hybrid research partners who have both expert teams and technology. They also want the flexibility to switch between models depending on their needs: from fully self-service to fully supported and all points in between.

In the past, only the largest agencies could afford to develop technology solutions for clients: ‘build or buy’ were both expensive options and required deep software expertise.

But things have changed dramatically in recent years. It is now much easier for agencies to create their own white-labelled ‘products’ that blend software services by using cloud hosting, open integrations and ‘no code’ development tools.

Of course, agencies have always relied on technology in some form to deliver their services; but the new hybrid world is markedly different. It’s about providing technology to clients – as well as using it in the back office. It implies:

• Creating technology products with their own revenue streams
• Enabling clients to self-serve if they want to
• Providing a wider range of flexible service models: technical support and training for ‘DIY’ users; hand-holding or light-touch project management for ‘partial DIY’ users; through to full-service research and consultancy.

This is a significant shift for many agencies, but it opens-up many new commercial opportunities:

• A broader range of revenue streams
• New pricing models for annual technology licenses or retained services
• Higher long term profit potential from software or intellectual property assets
• Faster delivery to clients who can self-serve when they need to
• Improved client retention with longer term agreements rather than project-based contracting.

Examples of ‘hybrid’ software and service models for research agencies might include:

1. Client portals and dashboards for reporting, data visualization and collaboration
2. Packaged survey and reporting tools for proprietary methodologies
3. Customer communities or panels
4. Integrated solutions that combine data from research, social, eCommerce or other sources
5. Video libraries and analysis tools for qualitative research outputs.

Agencies who successfully blend software and services like this will not only meet the evolving needs of their clients better – they will drive top and bottom-line growth for their own businesses.

More winning strategies for Market Research Agencies

Read more about Forsta’s take on the coming golden age for research agencies, and the key strategies being implemented in our full white paper.

Download

[1] Salesforce annual report 2021

If you don’t know where to start, you’ve come to the right place. By the end of this blog, you’ll understand the merits of measuring brand awareness, ten ways to actually do it, what to measure, and how to use all of that lovely data you’ve collected. You’ll also get an insight into the huge business benefits of using targeted software to help you on your way. 

So, what are we waiting for? Let’s go! 

Why measure brand awareness?  

Measuring brand awareness is a sure-fire way to understand your place in the market from the perspective of the people who matter: your target customers. When you measure brand awareness, you get the most incredible insight into what your brand is doing well, and where you might need to pull your socks up. 

Look, there’s no point burying your head in the sand. If something’s not working, you wanna know, right?  

There’s so much competition in just about every industry, sector, and sub-sector out there, so making sure that people know who you are, what you do, and how you can make their lives better is the only way you’re going to make a name for yourself. Literally. People need to know your name!  

But can’t you just look at how many twitter followers you have?  

Actually, no. Brand awareness is about more than just your social media following (although this is important, too). You need to know that your brand is getting in front of the right people – and that when it does, it’s giving the right message. You’re looking to understand the human experience of your brand, from start to finish. 

If you still need convincing, you might want to check out our complete guide to brand awareness. 

10 ways to measure brand awareness  

When it comes to tried-and-tested methods for measuring brand awareness, these are ten of the best. 

1. Monitor web traffic How many people are checking out your website? If your numbers are high, chances are your brand awareness levels are, too. But you need to monitor two types of visitors: those who get to you by typing in your URL (your direct traffic), and those who find your site through social media, ads and SEO. Both are incredibly valuable, but the distinction is an important one. Direct traffic shows how many people already know about your brand; web traffic that comes through other avenues (such as ads) suggests your marketing efforts are doing the trick.  
2. Track social media metrics Okay, we said it’s not about your follower count, but it is a little bit about that. While you can’t measure brand awareness in its entirety through social media metrics alone, gauging how many followers – as well as retweets, shares, comments and likes – you have across your brand’s social media accounts is a fairly good indicator of awareness.  
3. Carry out a brand awareness survey Brand awareness surveys can be worth their weight in gold – if you know how to use them. Before you get going, pin down precisely what outcome you’re after: do you want to know how familiar people are with your brand, or are you more interested in how they feel when they hear your name? Online surveys targeting your ideal audience can return the most valuable data, but give some thought to whether you want to ask aided questions (‘which of these drum manufacturers do you recognise from this list?’), or unaided questions (‘which is the first drum manufacturer that springs to mind?’). 
4. Put a social ear to the ground  Social listening lets you hear what people are saying behind your back (and to their entire networks) in the most organic way possible. Instead of setting up your target audience with potentially biased questions, social listening tools allow you to refine your own search, filter out anything irrelevant, and soak in the sentiment surrounding your brand.  
5. Set up Google alerts Much like social listing, Google alerts lets you keep track of every time your brand name is mentioned online. You’ll be notified with a summary of all the places your name is popping up, allowing you to assess your own growing (or waning) popularity. But one word of warning: if your brand name is fairly generic, this might not be the best option for you.  
6. Consider search volume data Google Adwords Keyword Planner, along with Google Trends, allows you to monitor how many searches your brand name is getting online. An upwards trend in search volume suggests that your brand awareness is increasing (hooray!), while a downwards spiral can give you a gentle nudge that something’s not working. But again, this method isn’t so great for brands with generic words as names.  
7. Examine content performance The content your brand puts into the world is not only great for marketing: it also offers you a solid brand awareness measurement. Looking at how many people have viewed and engaged with your blogs, videos, podcasts and posts gives a good indication of how effective your brand awareness strategies actually are.  
8. Measure your share of voice and impressions  Measuring your own brand awareness is crucial, but it’s even more insightful when you look at it alongside your competitors. If your brand awareness has seen a 30% boost, but competitor brand awareness has risen by 60%, something’s going wrong. Looking at your share of voice and share of impressions allows you to benchmark your own brand performance.  
9. Analyse referral traffic When brands link to your website, it puts you in front of a bigger audience; it’s also a really great endorsement. Tracking referral links through Google Analytics then will help you to see how popular you really are. Just be mindful of high bounce rates, and make sure that any data you’re taking into account generates real traffic. 
10. Embrace brand tracking software You’ve got a job to do, and unless you work for a research agency, that job probably isn’t to sit and measure brand awareness. Fortunately, you don’t need to pay exorbitant agency fees anymore, or do all the hard work yourself, because tracking has evolved. Through brand tracking software, you can access the data that’s already there – all the way from brand sentiment, through to NPS. 

Best metrics to measure brand awareness  

Right then, you’re ready to start measuring your brand awareness with our ten tactics above – but what metrics should you be looking at? Try these three out for size… 

• Mentions: Your volume of mentions is a super important metric, because it lets you see how many times your brand name has been mentioned online, how many conversations your brand has been a part of, and whether you’re on an upward or downward trajectory in terms of your online presence. But better still, you can even track brand talk that doesn’t come with a #hashtag or @mention, as well as the conversations that happen beyond your own brand channels. And that’s where all the juicy stuff is. 
• Reach: Your reach shows just how many people your brand could be under the nose of through those mentions and (tagged or untagged) conversations. Reach is calculated by looking at the number of followers of each person who mentions your brand – because, like it or not, an influencer with 500k followers will generate far more brand awareness than your best mate with only 500 followers.  
• Engagement: As we covered with your content performance above, engagement can be a really useful metric to track. It might not be as concrete as site visitors or social call-outs, but if people are actively engaging with content from your brand, in whatever form, it means that something you’re saying is resonating and making an impact. 

How to use data gathered from measuring brand awareness 

Once you’ve collected all of that lovely rich data, what do you actually do with it? Well, that depends on your results. 

• If your website traffic is low, you probably need to invest in SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) to help Google find your site when someone searches for a related key word. SEO is always a worthwhile investment, but if the metrics show your site isn’t getting seen, you’ll be left in no doubt. 
• If a few pieces of your content are performing particularly well, and others not so much, this should help to inform your future marketing strategy. Why did those pieces do so well? What was different about them? Who engaged with them? How can you replicate that level of engagement? Understanding what content your customers want to see is key for growing brand awareness. 
• If a brand awareness survey shows that people don’t understand what your brand stands for, you’ll know that you’re not communicating your vision clearly enough, and possibly failing to live your values. That gives you something really concrete to act on: your brand needs to live and breathe its ethos, so if that’s not reaching your customers, it’s time for a strategic rethink! 
• If your online mentions spike at different periods of time, do a deep dive on what else is going on at the time. Have you launched a new product? Are you running a competition? Or has someone made a complaint and you’re actually getting negative attention? It’s crucial to stay on top of your online presence, tune in to what’s going down well with your customers, and quickly diffuse any negative mentions through empathetic actions.  

How can Forsta help?  

It pays to listen, and no one understands that better than us. 

Remember way back in our ‘measuring brand awareness’ section, all those sentences ago, when we said you didn’t have to do all the hard work yourself, or pay exorbitant agency fees? That instead, you could chuck the challenge at some savvy software, and save yourself the headache? 

Well, here it is: Forsta’s brilliantly brilliant Brand Experience Software. 

Why is it so brilliant, we hear you ask? Well, it cuts out the guesswork, tests your ads for you, lets you hear from everyone (even your mortal enemies), and shows you how to get happier – and more plentiful – customers. It gives you the data you need, then tells you what to do with it. 

Headache, sorted.  

Overwhelmed? Don’t despair 

It can feel like a lot, but so much of brand awareness really is in your control. With the right tools, the right knowledge, and the right approach, you can work on measuring, understanding, and ultimately boosting your brand awareness.  

And when you reach that point? It’s totally worth it.  

If you’re team Nike, you won’t think twice about who to buy your next pair of trainers from; if you’re firmly in the Pepsi camp and feeling parched, you already know which bottle you’re going to reach for. It’s this level of awareness that all brands aspire to, and in this complete guide to brand awareness, we’re going to help you grow yours.  

What is brand awareness?  

People knowing your name, recognising your logo, and understanding what you do is brand awareness. It’s seeing the Starbucks green and mentally planning your Frappuccino order; hearing someone mention fried chicken and heading over to KFC; smelling that unmistakably fresh soapy bubbly scent and knowing you’ve just walked past a branch of Lush (bath bomb anyone?). 

Brand awareness is stepping out of the shadows and making a name for yourself. It’s the very first step in the buying process, and a crucial stage of the customer journey. And while you might luck out on off-the-cuff, one-time purchases, most consumers won’t consider buying your products or services without a degree of brand awareness – because buying decisions are based on trust. 

In fact, 46% of consumers would willingly pay more to buy from brands they feel they can trust, so it really is in your interests to boost your brand awareness to dizzy new heights.  

Why is brand awareness important? 

59% of customers prefer to buy from brands they already know about – which is a no-brainer when you think about it. You’re always going to gravitate towards what you know, if what you know is good service, good quality, and a brand that you can trust.  

Done right, brand awareness is a hole-in-one for setting you apart from your competitors. If you tell your story through your brand, in a way that’s eminently human, it’ll help customers to relate to you, connect with you, and see your unique qualities.  

Choosing a brand is like choosing a partner: you have to know what they’re about, what they stand for, and how they’ll make your life better before you go all in. And if those things line up? It’s much easier to commit.  

We’re constantly bombarded with brand imaging and messaging from the moment we wake up (and inevitably reach for our phones), to the moment we slink off into bed. For a business just starting out – or an established company hoping to launch a new product or service – building a strong sense of brand awareness is essential for drawing in new customers.  

Without brand awareness, why would people choose you? What’s going to make them say “yep, that’s the brand for me” if they have no clear idea of who you are and what you do? If they can’t spot your logo in a line-up, or bring to mind anything of interest when they hear your name, they’re unlikely to seek you out when it’s buying time.  

Brand awareness is important because it stands up and shouts “Hey! This is me! This is why you need me! And this is why I’m so much better than my lousy competitors!” It’s a rousing chorus of carefully orchestrated enticements projected at potential – soon to be converted – customers. And if you’re not ploughing a decent amount of time, energy and resources into building it, you’re seriously missing a trick. 

Brand awareness also provides a really crucial metric for your marketing efforts, how well your target audience knows you, and the correlation between the two. Measuring brand awareness can help to inform the strategic direction of your business, clue you in on whether people are responding to your campaigns, and help you to pinpoint any areas in your approach to market that may not be working.  

It’s also a good marker for your organisation as a whole. By focusing on and tracking brand awareness, you have something tangible to report on to senior leaders, while uniting employees around a shared goal. And united, engaged employees will go a long way towards boosting your brand profile – trust us! 

Types of brand awareness  

There are five key types of brand awareness that you need to be aware of, as it’s up to you decide where your ambitions lie, and which type of awareness you’re prepared to push for in your brand awareness journey.  

1. Aided brand recognition 
2. Unaided brand recall 
3. Visual branding  
4. Top of mind 
5. Brand dominance  

First up, let’s deal with aided brand awareness versus unaided brand awareness. What’s the difference? 

Aided brand awareness (also known as brand recognition) is when someone can recognise your brand from a list of logos or brand names. It’s great if they do recognise you because it means that something you’re doing is definitely working, but it’s not quite so heartening as making it into unaided brand awareness territory.  

Unaided brand awareness (also known as brand recall) is when someone is able to recall your brand name following a simple cue: for example, naming Cadburys when asked what chocolate bars they’re aware of. If Cadburys was the first brand mentioned, they’ve also achieved ‘top of mind’ status – which is literally the first brand listed in a recall question. See, it’s not all that complicated, is it?  

As for visual branding, well, it does what it says on the tin. Visual branding is when people recognise your brand from its colours, designs, packaging, logo, advertising, and any other visual clues. This is irrespective of your brand name. In fact, some people buy based on visuals alone; even if they can’t bring your name to mind.  

Brand dominance is the ultimate in brand awareness (shiny gold trophy coming your way). When someone is unable to recall any other brand than yours in a category, you’ve successfully achieved brand dominance, and can now take over the world (but please don’t, not really; we can’t take any more big changes right now). 

Brand awareness is a sliding scale, and while you might need to start at the bottom, there’s a tonne of ways to climb the ranks quickly enough; you just have to be willing to put in a bit of leg-work. Keep reading for some top tips on developing, improving, and measuring brand awareness.  

How to develop brand awareness  

1. Make the right first impression. We’re taught never to judge a book by its cover, but when it comes to your brand, people are going to make snap judgements about who you are and whether you’re worth their time and money. Harsh, but unavoidably true. Take your website for instance: it takes around 50 milliseconds (0.05 seconds) for people to form an opinion about your website. So, is your website telling people who you are? Are you happy with the message they’re getting? You need to make sure your content is consistent (and SEO-optimised), your logo is a true reflection of your brand, and even your font is right for the story you’re trying to tell. This is your narrative, so own it.  
2. Make your stance known. We’ll come on to creating a brand identity later, but here, we’re talking social issues. A massive 64% of consumers would decide to either buy from a brand or boycott it entirely, purely because of its position on a social or political issue, while 89% of shoppers would choose to stay loyal to a brand that shares its values. That doesn’t mean you need to start organising protests or challenging politicians on twitter, but it does mean your brand needs to come with its own level of awareness. Transparency is key, so only back (and talk about) matters you actually want to align yourself with; you can’t be disingenuous here.  
3. Play the long game. It takes five to seven impressions for people to remember a brand, so you can’t expect to connect with your customer base through a single blog, email, or social media interaction and have their immediate brand buy-in. You need a consistent campaign that encompasses the entire customer journey, and ensures all touchpoints are in alignment – from your website, advertising and online presence, to your customer service, consumer aftercare, and any complaint handling. And it turns out that presenting a brand consistently across all platforms can actually increase revenue by up to 23%, so it’s well worth the effort. 
4. Get your voice heard. Did you know that brands that blog generate a whopping 67% more leads than brands that don’t? Of course, blogging is just one way to get your name out there, but content creation really is incredibly important for building brand awareness. Blog posts are a great way to show what you’re all about – especially for service-based businesses. If you regularly post useful insight that shows your expertise, customers will naturally gravitate towards you. It’s that trust thing again. And blogs, thought leadership pieces, even well-thought-out social media posts, can all help to position you as a brand that people can trust. 
5. Choose your colours wisely. When it comes to branding and increasing brand awareness, colours really do matter. In fact, using a signature colour has been found to increase brand recognition by up to 80%! Different colours tend to evoke different feelings in people (there’s a whole science around it), so give careful thought to what message you want your branding to conjure up in the minds of your customers. Calm, energetic, intelligent, responsive, agile, dynamic, comforting, trustworthy, dependable, friendly, warm, exhilarating, revolutionary…whatever your goal, there’s a colour for that.  
6. Create a relatable identity. Who are you? Who’s at the helm? What do your employees feel passionately about? How do you speak to your ideal customer? What causes do you believe in? What’s your stance on climate change? Fast-fashion? Gender-equality? Do you believe in pay parity? What portion of your profits do you donate to charity? What problem have you been set up to solve? How are you any different from your closest competitor? Do you own your mistakes? Have you got a sense of humour? Are you proud of what you do? These things might not all feel important, relevant, or significant – but they are, because you need a living, breathing identity that customers can connect with. Without that, you’re just another faceless brand.  
7. Hone in on your ideal customer. Any brand would be happy with any customer (within reason; we imagine you all have a couple of notable exceptions). But while all business is business, and all profits are profits, identifying, understanding, and targeting your ideal customer will help you to strengthen your brand awareness amongst the people who are most likely to relate to your brand message. Your marketing also becomes more effective when it’s designed with your target audience in mind, rather than trying to appeal to the masses, because you’ll be addressing a specific pain point. 
8. Focus on customer service. The importance of great customer service should never be underestimated for its role in building solid brand awareness. If someone stumbles across your brand and receives stellar service, you’re going to stick in their minds. In fact, a convincing 73% of consumers cite customer experience as an important factor in their purchasing decisions.  

Brand awareness strategies 

You can’t just sit back and hope for the best when it comes to growing your level of brand awareness. Fortunately, there are plenty of strategies you can deploy to get your name in front of your target customers – no matter what your budget. 

Advertising 

Whether you choose to advertise through social media, search engines, over the radio, on the TV, or through the good old medium of print, advertising can be an incredibly effective way to appeal to a large and diverse audience. You do, however, stand a much better chance of making a lasting impression if your branding is memorable. If you’ve developed a brand with personality, really play on this when designing your advertising campaigns; if you haven’t got the sort of creative freedom that gives you room to play, focus on developing a strong brand message, name and logo. 

PR (Public Relations) 

PR is well worth your investment from a brand awareness perspective. If you have a product launch to announce, a big business deal to boast, a new service offering to shout about, a launch to publicise, or you want to secure coverage for some great work your business is doing in the community, PR is the way to go. By building relationships with journalists, editors and publications, you can communicate your message, your way. Another option is to target influencers who are most likely to appeal to your target audience: if you can get them to try your product or service and (preferably) give it a glowing review, people will take notice of your brand.  

SEO 

A brand’s online presence is a deal-breaker in our digital age, but it’s not enough to simply set up a site or bash out a few blogs. Whatever you do online has to be fully optimised for SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). SEO allows people to find your website or content when they type certain key words into their search engine. Without the right key words in your content, you’re unlikely to get picked up and presented to potential customers. For this, we’d recommend working with an SEO expert who really knows their stuff. 

Thought leadership 

One of the best methods of boosting your brand awareness is getting your name out there in a thoughtful, meaningful way; a way that adds value and draws people in. Positioning yourself as a thought leader in your area will help people to feel like they’re buying from someone who really knows their stuff. You do this by crafting relevant and insightful white papers, articles, demos, podcasts and videos – or by speaking at events and taking part in roundtables.  

Sponsorship 

If you have adequate budget, sponsorship can give you a great return on investment. By paying to endorse something BIG – like a TV show, sporting event, competition or festival – you can gain some serious exposure for your brand. It does of course help if you’re endorsing something that aligns with your brand values, but as long as you’re choosing to sponsor something that your target audience will actually see, awareness of your brand will soar.  

Events 

Putting on an event, or speaking/showcasing your brand at somebody else’s event can introduce you to swathes of new customers, as well as other professionals in your area. This sort of networking is extremely valuable when you’re building a brand – even if you don’t get any direct sales from it (to begin with). Plus, any event also comes with its own PR opportunities!  

Improving brand awareness 

As well as practical strategies for putting yourself firmly in the public consciousness, there are ways and means of building brand awareness that go beyond a piece of PR or a single advertising campaign.  

People like to build personal connections with the brands they buy into, which means your business has to be much more than just a business. It has to be authentic. It has to be consistent. It has to be transparent. And it has to be human. Get those things right, and brand awareness is sure to follow.  

1. Be authentic. Today’s consumers value honesty and transparency, and most are smart enough to spot when a brand is being inauthentic. There are tonnes of marketing opportunities out there, but you need to give serious thought to what your brand stands for, what you believe in, and the values and causes you want to align yourself with. If you take to social media and start promoting your brand through an awareness day or current issue that your image is in no way aligned with, and you don’t live those values in other ways, it’s not going to wash with (cynical or savvy) customers. Interestingly, 88% of consumers say that authenticity is a key factor when deciding what brands they like and support, so this stuff really matters.  
2. Be consistent. This is quite closely related to authenticity, because a lack of consistency creates a feeling of inauthenticity. Consistency is key when it comes to promoting your brand message, telling your unique story, and connecting with your customers. You need a consistent tone of voice across all of your social media platforms, in your emails, on your website, and across your ads; you need a consistent approach to handling negative feedback and resolving complaints, and you need a consistent stance on everything from the environment to how you use your profits. It’s this dependable consistency that helps to build trust. 
3. Be transparent. Nowadays, companies aren’t only known for what they sell; they’re also known for how they treat their employees, how fair their pay is, whether they prioritise people over profits, and if their approach to work/life balance has moved with the times. These things might have nothing to do with what you’re selling, but they have everything to do with your brand. And while you might try to keep company goings-on behind closed doors, 66% of consumers think transparency is one of the most attractive qualities in a brand. People are naturally curious, and it pays to lean into that.  
4. Be human. There’s no fun in doing business – whether that’s buying a product or using a service – with a faceless corporate machine. We all like the fantasy of the face behind the brand, because it reinforces that sense of connection we’re so often longing for on our customer journey (and heck, in life in general!) To really have an impact on your audience then, you need to think of your brand as a living, breathing person; understand their personality, their humour, and how they speak – then introduce your brand to the world like you would yourself to a would-be friend. Crafting a narrative is a great place to start with this, so give yourself a little back story (like X-Men Origins, but with a little less violence), and start living that story in everything you put out there. 

Measuring brand awareness 

While brand awareness isn’t nearly as neat as many other metrics, it is possible to get some real value from measuring awareness of your brand in the market. Which is good news really, as you need to know where you are in the popularity stakes. 

Look, we know this isn’t high school, but stick with us. 

Getting a feel for how many people know your name, recognise your branding, visit your website, read your blogs, and bring you to mind when they have a need for what you’re selling, helps you to gauge whether your brand awareness efforts are doing the trick, or whether you need to change tack. And this is how you find out. 

Quantitative brand awareness 

For people who like hard and fast numbers. 

• Website traffic: If you have a website, you want to know how many people are hitting it up. Direct traffic will tell you how many people key in your URL to make it straight to your door, and this is the best type of traffic as it’s intentional, and means that your marketing efforts are working. Hooray! Site traffic numbers are still super important though, as this means people are finding you through SEO, social media, adverts, or shares from their network. 
• Social media metrics: It’s never good for people to get hung-up on how many likes they’re generating on social media, but for business? It’s something you need to know. Social engagement – in other words, how many likes, comments, retweets, shares and followers you have across all of your social media platforms – is a good indication of just how healthy your brand awareness is. A good level of engagement also shows that your brand persona is interesting enough for people to want to interact with you. 

Qualitative brand awareness 

For people who like the slightly fuzzier (but still really important) stuff.  

• Awareness surveys: Surveys can give you an insight into how familiar people are with your brand, and what they think of it. In assessing brand awareness, you can choose to ask aided, or unaided questions. An example of an aided question would be giving someone a list of brands (yours, plus your competitors) and asking which they recognise. An unaided question would be to ask them to list which brands they know in your area. This also lets you see which of your competitors are leading the way in the brand awareness stakes.  

Aided question: From this list of chocolate brands, which do you recognise? 

Unaided: Which brand of chocolate first spring to mind?  

• Social listening: We love a good tech solution, and this one certainly gets our vote. Social listening tools allow you to keep track of what people are saying about your brand on social media, without needlessly trawling through endless posts, tweets and comments. You can see who’s tagging your brand, what engagement you’re getting, where your hashtag is showing up, and how your brand is being portrayed. This gives you a great indication of sentiment around your brand, and how aware of it people are. Setting up Google alerts is another reliable, time-saving way of keeping track of your mentions. 

Brand awareness examples  

Brand awareness campaigns come in all shapes and sizes. Let’s take a look at some of the best. 

Marmite 

With its ‘Love it or hate it’ strapline, Marmite leans into its polarizing status to perfect effect. Better yet, it encourages conversation, debate, even fierce rivalry. Well, perhaps not that fierce, but people do feel pretty strongly about whether Marmite is the best thing since sliced bread, or an edible error of cataclysmic proportions. As a self-branded ‘aggressive flavour’, its brand awareness efforts are no less in your face – and it works a treat.  

Bodyform 

Bodyform is a brand that stands strong on normalising periods, but it also works hard to lend a voice to women the world over by highlighting the many issues that can affect women’s bodies. Back in 2020, Bodyform launched an impactful ad campaign that brought attention to the ‘unspoken’ truths about women’s physical experiences – including endometriosis, infertility, first periods, and the menopause. The ads also shone a light on the wider impact on emotional wellbeing and mental health. Inspired by research that found that 21% of women feel society wants them to stay silent about their experiences, the ‘Womb Stories’ campaign was a huge success, and spoke to their target audience to perfection. 

Nutella 

The chocolate spread has cleverly launched its ‘Nutella Friends Edition’: a special jar that contains 21 mini jars. Each mini jar holds two portions which, wouldn’t you know it, is just darn perfect to share with a friend. To add to the genius, the jars are fully customisable – with a blank space to write a name, or your own message. And who doesn’t love a personalised gift? This type of campaign is brilliant because it encourages customers to spread the love, and your brand name, far and wide. Well played Nutella, well played. 

How can Forsta help?  

If you want to get the inside scoop on how people experience your brand, we’ve got the tools to help you get to the heart of the feedback that’s already out there, just going to waste.  

We can shine the light on your social rep (what people are saying about you online), give you an accurate idea of your NPS (Net Promotor Score), and even test how your ads are landing (it can be brutal, but wouldn’t you rather know?) 

Find out which of your carefully crafted content is creating connection in the minds of your customers, and which is sending them running for the hills (or for your nearest competitors). We can also set up group testing and targeting to see what your ideal audience is really into – which is pure gold when it comes to boosting the ol’ brand awareness.  

Bottom line, you don’t have to do any of this stuff alone. In fact, it’s far easier if you don’t. 

So, are you ready to find out how you’re faring? Let’s go! 

Well there you have it. You know what brand awareness is, why it’s important, what the different types of brand awareness are, how to develop brand awareness, the best brand awareness strategies to get you noticed, how to measure (and improve) brand awareness, and what a good brand awareness campaign looks like. Phew! 

Even better than that, you’ve got a total brand awareness aficionado on-side to help you through the whole process.  

Glad you stopped by? We sure are.  

Achieving proprietary eponym status is the dream for any brand, but beyond this lofty ambition, there are plenty of meaningful ways you can boost awareness of your brand – even if it doesn’t replace everyday language any time soon. 

In this blog, we’ll talk you through everything you need to know about increasing brand awareness: from why it’s important, to the best strategies to deploy today. We’ve even thrown in some examples for an added touch of inspiration (and given ourselves a shameless plug while we’re at it). 

Importance of establishing brand awareness

So, why is brand awareness so important? 

To get straight to the point, branding is everything. E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G. You can have perfect products, stellar services, and the world’s biggest budget for fancy marketing campaigns, but without a decent amount of brand awareness, you’re not going to get very far. It all comes down to your brand, and what sets it apart. 

Before we go any further, let’s get back to basics. When we talk about your brand, it’s not just your name or your logo; it’s those things, and more. Your brand is a perfect mix of name, logo, what you offer, and the content you put out into the world; in other words, the whole human experience your customer has when it comes to your brand. 

Effective branding is great for driving customer recognition, increasing confidence in your company, and establishing brand equity – but you want more. And that’s where brand awareness comes in. 

When your brand becomes familiar to people and they start to really understand who you are, what you do, and why you’re different, your reputation grows; it’s easier to build excitement around product launches and fresh services; you’ll start to benefit from loyal customers and repeat business, and keeping one step ahead of the competition will be all in a day’s work.  

Brand awareness vs brand recognition  

When we talk about brand awareness, it’s important to remember that it’s a little different from brand recognition. Brand recognition is simply about how well a customer – or potential customer – can identify your brand on the basis of visuals, such as logo and brand colours.  

A great example of strong brand recognition would be spying McDonald’s ‘golden arches’, and knowing you’re about to call in for a McFlurry. There’s absolutely no chance of mistaking the famous ‘M’ for another brand, and the visual recognition is so strong that within seconds of seeing it, you’re imagining yourself tucking into your favourite maccies. McDonald’s is the gold-standard for brand recognition and could probably get by on this alone, but most brands need the depth that comes with brand awareness. 

Brand awareness is like brand recognition’s big brother – the one brand recognition looks up to, in awe and amazement, wondering “will I ever be that big”. That’s because brand awareness is savvy enough to know that looks aren’t everything: it’s what’s inside that counts. (By inside, we mean the feeling your brand conjures in your customers. We’re not just plucking analogies out of thin air here).  

So as well as being able to name your brand from a logo, brand awareness is about the bigger picture: how your target audience feels when they hear your name; what they understand about your ethos; how well they know your products and services. The reason all that matters so much? Once you’re dealing in brand awareness, those costly marketing campaigns you put so much love (and budget) into start to stir up feelings in your customers. Result! 

Brand recognition is great because it means that people are connecting with your brand, but brand awareness takes this one step further. As well as capturing the attention of your audience in a memorable way, brand awareness is more focused on your: 

• Values 
• Reputation 
• Unique selling points 

Ultimately, this is what makes potential customers choose your brand over that of your competitors, regardless of product price or cost of services. It’s about drawing people in, engaging with them, inspiring trust, and creating a personal connection – which all equates to greater growth for your business. Not to mention higher profits and brighter long-term prospects.  

Brand recognition and brand awareness are really closely intertwined, and strengthening one will always have a positive impact on the other. They speak to your audience in different ways, but those ways work together to grab attention and carve out your unique space in the market.  

But while recognition is about being able to spot your brand in a line-up, awareness is calling it to mind without any visual clue – like when you’re thirsty, and you know you want a Coke when there’s not a red bottle in sight; or you’re in need of a taxi, and summon an Uber without even contemplating a comparison search of taxi companies nearby.  

It’s this level of awareness that takes you from recognisable, to truly memorable. And that’s where the true success stories happen. 

So, how do you get there? 

How to increase brand awareness: Our 15 top strategies  

Take a look at 15 of the most effective strategies for boosting your brand awareness.  

1. Create a custom #hashtag Hashtags are great for getting you noticed, but even better than tagging onto an existing hashtag is to create your own – especially when that hashtag gains traction! 
2. Make yourself memorable Standing out from the crowd is no easy feat, but if you’ve got the sort of brand that can take a heavy dose of personality (or even better, a humongous dose of humour), you might just crack this whole brand awareness thing. Be loud; be proud; be you. 
3. Tell first-rate stories Who are you? What do you stand for? What’s so great about you? Where did you spring up from? The better the story, the more engaged your audience. Create a narrative, and weave it into every piece of marketing.  
4. Offer referral perks Word of mouth is an oldie, but a goodie. If you want to get people talking about you, what’s in it for them? A freebie? A discounted service? Make it worth their while, and word will spread in no time. 
5. Sponsor local or national events However far your budget can stretch, the brand awareness opportunities that come with sponsorship are worth their weight in gold! Try to sponsor an event that either aligns with your brand, or correlates with your brand ethos. 
6. Guest blog If you have something important to say, or valuable content to share, finding a relevant site with a large readership willing to post your contribution can get your brand in front of a whole new audience.  
7. Establish a branded presence on social media A strong brand voice is one of the most effective tools in your advertising arsenal. Once you’ve got that down pat, post regularly to social media using your brand voice. Your brand voice should also be used in every online interaction.  
8. Make shareable infographics When you create something that other people want to share, you’re quids in (from a marketing and branding perspective, anyway). Having your name associated with something valuable will also up your brand equity.  
9. Post display ads on the Google Display Network If you’re not sure what we mean by display ads, they’re simply the banner ads that run on advertising-supported sites – making them great for getting your name out there, and your brand noticed.  
10. Give out freebies Branded merchandise, done right, can mean your brand sticking around someone’s home, car, or office for a long time to come. Research your target audience and give some real thought to what they’ll value. Pens aren’t always where it’s at.  
11. Create a buzz with competitions How many times a day does someone on your newsfeed share a competition post? People love the chance to win – whether it’s an experience, a product, or simply a title. Devise a competition that requires people to share your company profile – and make it fun! 
12. Plump for podcasts Everyone’s a broadcaster these days, right? Well, the savvy ones certainly are. Starting an industry-relevant podcast can set you up as a thought-leader, and propel you towards household name status. If there’s a lot of existing competition in your industry, try to get a guest spot on someone else’s! 
13. Create some controversy Feeling brave? Sticking your head above the parapet and voicing a controversial opinion that may differ from the norm can generate some serious brand awareness. Just make sure the stance fits your brand! 
14. Stand for something good What matters to your brand? Find that one thing, and create do-good campaigns around it. People will respect you, employees will feel more engaged, and your name will be associated with something great. 
15. Influence the influencers Pinpoint the most influential people in your industry, and entice them to do the marketing for you. Offer them freebies of your product or services, in exchange for reviews, promotion, or useable testimonials. 

Examples of companies building their brand awareness  

Whether you do it through company culture, clever marketing, a strong brand voice, or any combination of effective ways to build your brand awareness, it helps to see which companies are making strides in their industry. 

• TOMS: Footwear company TOMS has created a brand awareness status to be reckoned with. How? By doing good in the world! In developing a socially-conscious ethos, and leaving their customers in no doubt about what they stand for, people will happily hand over far more cash than is necessary for a simple pair of pumps, because they know they’re helping others in need. 
• Dropbox: Making use of incentives to drive referrals? Dropbox has it covered! By granting users an additional 500MB-1GB of storage for every person they recommend, Dropbox successfully achieved a 3900% brand awareness increase in the space of 15 months; doubling its user base every three months. 
• Pretty Little Thing: PLT takes the power of influencer marketing to new levels. They understand their target market to perfection, and by snapping up the biggest stars of shows like Love Island, their brand ambassadors do all the hard work for them. Gemma Owen, daughter of footie legend Michael Owen, has been signed most recently after making it to the Love Island finals – but fan-favourite Molly Mae is, perhaps, their most successful (and influential) signing to date. 
• Burger King: Burger King has social media presence, consistent brand voice, and a strong sense of humour all on point – and their multi-faceted approach to building brand awareness is beautiful to see. Their witty responses and light-hearted ‘trolling’ have earned them the rep of funniest brand on social media, and their customers know it. 

Even with examples to follow and brands to aspire to, it can sometimes be tricky to know where to start. The good news? You don’t have to go it alone. 

How can Forsta help?  

Remember that shameless plug we mentioned at the beginning? Well here it is! In all seriousness though, we really do have something worth shouting about. That’s because we’ve developed a pretty nifty piece of software that you can use to increase your brand awareness.  

Launching or changing a product or service can be a scary business, but our software removes the guesswork.  

• Map the market: Find out what your customers want, how you can win their loyalty, and how you stack up against your competitors. 
• See consumers in action: Test your product or service on your dream customer; see how they react, and make changes that’ll help your brand awareness to stick. 
• Put your branding to the test: Not sure what’ll work? Test your marketing decisions in front of a select audience and get real-time feedback. 
• Name your price: You don’t want to be known for the wrong reasons, so make sure the price is right by testing with real consumers. 

Not bad, eh? 

Feeling more aware?  

You made it to the end! That means you should be pretty clued up on brand awareness by now, and have a much clearer idea of how to get seen, heard, and remembered by your target audience.  

If it feels overwhelming, keep in mind that once your brand awareness starts gaining traction, it’ll be easier to ride the wave. And if you need a helping hand from someone with the software and solutions to get inside the minds of your ideal customers (in a brand-testing sort of way; we’re not telepathic), then give us a call. Or something even more modern.  

The Forsta AIR awards celebrate excellence and innovation in market research, and the 2021 winners were truly exceptional examples of innovation in the market research space. Although our entrants are not judged on this question, we asked them to predict and comment on how they see the industry evolving over the next ten years.

There was remarkable agreement in what they had to say. Here, we have pulled out the new and continuing insight trends, and other emerging ideas, that will likely shape the future of market research.

1. Technology is the key to the future

We hoped our clients would say that! In fact, around a third of the award participants made this point. As one succinctly expressed it: “We will see more creative ways of engaging with respondents and collecting feedback. Technology will be absolutely key to this.”

Others mentioned how reduced physical interaction in the post-covid world had accelerated the use of technology. Yet the pandemic as a topic came up much less often than we had anticipated – we took this to mean our clients are already looking to a post-corona future as we move into 2022.

2. Artificial intelligence (AI)

AI was another hot topic. Specific technologies that our entrants thought the industry would make more use of included social listening analytics, tracking studies, emotional response technology, video analysis and more qualitative technologies blending seamlessly with quantitative. However, it was technologies that harness machine learning or artificial intelligence that were most hotly tipped to become important.

In the words of one entrant: “In 10 years, we should see technology and automation play a much bigger role in market research. While people will still lead the way, they will be getting a lot more help with machine learning, robotic computation and reporting, and data integration.”

Another predicts: “As this technology advances, we also expect to see more interest in behavioral research and the use of tech to analyze this, with data scientists utilizing more predictive analytics rather than hindsight.”

3. More data sources

Several entrants saw a future with more big data and merging data sources to develop a rounded view of the consumer, including more reliance on passive and observational data alongside a growing abundance of transactional and behavioral data.

One entrant went as far to predict a growth in: “Stronger feedback programs, where consumers participate in data generation more seamlessly, whether that’s through answering a question whilst watching a YouTube video (already available) or agreeing to provide behavioral data that a new slate of tools will be able to seamlessly analyze.”

4. Speed and efficiency

Many of the AIR Awards winners predict that the efficiency of technology is going to be increasingly important in allowing more time for thought and insight generation. However, as one person puts it “Speed and reliability are the hygiene factors”, or in other words, that’s a constant pressure that can never be ignored.

5. Skills and the tech-savvy researcher

Our winners also noted that with all this new technology comes the need for market research professionals to increase their skills, to become more tech-savvy (or less tech-averse).

They also predict a need to make room for new skillsets within the industry, as one entrant explains: “I’m excited to see the evolution of market research over the next 10 years. I think there is no better time to be in insights. We are uniquely placed to be the custodians of consumer truth. To leverage our scientific base and fuse it with newer disciplines (such as behavioural economics and design thinking), emerging technology (such as biometrics and virtual reality) and advances in analytics (such as machine-learning).”

6. Human experience

Around a quarter of the entrants spoke of the importance of focusing on the human aspects – the human component behind the screen, whether as a research participant or customer within the research chain.

One talked of the responsibility of the industry to show values such as sensitivity and empathy among clients, vendors and respondents. Another, looking further ahead (and, we suspect, speaking for many!) talks of the opportunities that understanding people better will bring to the industry:

“We believe the industry will evolve to being true business partners with organizations, providing a conduit directly into the hearts and minds of customers. The tools we use to do this will continue to advance as we learn more about humans, and technology further evolves. Truly understanding people and what they need is a key role for the research industry. When we understand and educate the business on these things, we will be valued.”

A special thanks to our customers who participated in the 2021 Forsta AIR awards and shared their MR predictions. We’re thrilled to continue to develop the technologies and services that support our customers in 2022 and beyond. The next 10 years will be an exciting time for the research and insights industry!

The ‘new normal’ in research 

The pandemic has forced many sectors of the insight industry to speed up their existing digitalization programs or even adopt online methods for the first time.  

This is the conclusion of Manny Rodriguez, Global Director of New Business at Forsta. He’s noted how research companies that used to reject digital methods are now embracing the technology for the first time – in place of in-person interviews, qualitative groups or ethnography.  

Foresight caught up with Manny, who’s just blogged his reflections on the strangeness of industry events post-Covid. He talks about adjusting to the new normal of socially distanced business meetings and links this to some surprising changes that are defining the new normal for research.  

“Just thinking about bringing strangers into a room to talk about products, or an interviewer sitting on the sofa in someone’s living room – people aren’t ready for that yet. That has and will continue to limit the options for research for some time. I don’t want to call it a metamorphosis, but we’re seeing something of a transition in our industry where a reluctance to explore new technologies has been broken down.” 

Manny Rodriguez, Global Director of New Business, Forsta 

Necessity as the mother of digitization 

In the early stages of the pandemic, researchers had to cancel their projects or put them on hold. According to a recent report from industry body ESOMAR, initial losses were short-lived. Globally, research revenues in 2020 mostly matched those from 2019, with modest 1% growth. Not all parts of the world recovered during 2020 – the deficit persisted in some. But the USA managed to grow by 4% and Europe by 2%. 

Businesses soon realized they needed research to understand how to work in a changed world. Research projects were unfrozen, and within months companies were approaching Forsta for the tech that would help them to adapt and survive. And this wasn’t just happening in the more obvious areas, like digital qual, but across the entire range of solutions. 

ESOMAR’s report shows strong growth in interest and investment in technology across the industry, post-Covid. But it warns that “the divide between more established, more ‘traditional’ research companies and tech and digitally enhanced solutions continues to widen”. 

Manny says the answer for this is simple: companies must think about where technology can most reduce the effort and cost of their research. This could include using tech to bring together their qual and quant streams, or by communicating data in more visual ways, rather than conventional, lengthy reports. 

“We’ve been helping clients to understand and see the value in their technology as a whole – not as disparate pieces or things that need to be tackled on their own. Because one will naturally feed into the other. I think the pandemic has probably made folks a lot more aware that something like this could very well happen again. And like Covid, that something will be very, very unexpected.” 

Manny Rodriguez, Global Director of New Business, Forsta

Companies need the right tools to be resilient 

Many companies came to Forsta for help in the early stages of the pandemic. Manny believes some of these companies wouldn’t still be around today if they hadn’t embraced new technology.  

He’s proud that Forsta proved to be a safe haven for users during such an unpredictable period, so full of unexpected challenges. The Forsta platform performed without any incidents and without need for any modification.  

But Manny feels the research industry is still learning lessons about how pivotal it is to have the right technology when you want your firm to become more resilient.  

Read Manny Rodriguez’s blog “What we’ve learned going around the world with Quirks” here.  

ESOMAR Evolution of the Data, Analytics and Insights Industry, a forecast into 2020 https://shop.esomar.org/knowledge-center/library-2021?publication=2957 

Back on the road again 

It was September 30th, 2021 – almost 18 months since we were all grounded by the pandemic. And I finally got the chance to hop on a plane for the first of three Quirks conferences, in Chicago, London, and New York. 

Travel’s not as simple as it was. And once I arrived at Quirks, I needed proof of vaccination and a mask on at all times. I was taken aback by the significantly lower turnouts. Considering less than 60% of the US is fully vaccinated, I guess it makes sense. I can see how boarding a crowded plane and spending a few days at an indoor conference hall with strangers from all over the world might not be appealing to most. But I couldn’t wait. 

Socially distanced socializing  

I always make the rounds at conferences. It’s a great good way to hear what everyone’s talking about, and what our industry’s future looks like. And to catch up with some old friends and colleagues too, of course. This time was extra special for me, because I was representing Forsta in the midst of launching our new brand and vision.  

So I struck up some conversations, but things felt a bit…awkward – even with people I’ve known for years. Is that who I think it is behind the mask? Do we shake hands or fist bump? (Get that wrong and you’re suddenly playing a clumsy version of rock, paper, scissors.) The most common bit of branded swag at this event was hand sanitizer. Almost every session seemed to have something to do with the pandemic. Everywhere I looked, there seemed to be some little reminder that things aren’t quite back to normal.  

A sudden new interest in new tech 

The turnout may have been lower than usual, but enthusiasm was high enough to make up for it. The speakers and vendors at all three events were optimistic about the trends and opportunities in research. In my opinion, the research industry’s always been a bit slow to adopt new ideas. Traditional methods still dominate the industry, even as new approaches and technologies have arrived.  

The pandemic has shown businesses that they need to embrace new tech to stay competitive. Automation, machine learning, artificial intelligence, facial coding, eye tracking, brain wave mapping, voice analysis – these aren’t new technologies. But they’re now gaining a foothold in an industry that’s been set in its ways for decades, much of which is due to the pandemic A lot of that has brought on by the global pandemic.  

For example, think of a seasoned qualitative researcher still doing in-person interviews. In 2019, it would’ve been tough to move away from this approach and switch to a digital solution with facial coding or eye tracking. Fast forward to the middle of 2020 and that same researcher will have had no choice but to switch – simply because in-person research was no longer an option. Out of sheer necessity, the pandemic has made the research industry sit up and notice the benefits of new ideas and the new tech at their disposal. This opens the door not just to more digitalization, but also for ways of getting scalability and insights at speed.  

Ultimately, it’s all about agility 

Back to everyone’s favorite research buzzword: agility. One clear takeaway from Quirks is that the pandemic has changed the world and we can’t go on doing things the old ways. 

Things are starting to return to normal, but it’s certainly a new normal. There are reminders everywhere. Even the simple flight attendant announcement as we taxi away from the gate may forever be changed to include “make sure your mask is entirely covering your nose and mouth.”  

There’s a great quote that sums up my thoughts and recent observations: 

“Things happen, we learn to adapt or we don’t, but we move on in some way or another. Sometimes that’s hard and takes longer than we’d like.” 

Barbara Elsborg

Perhaps the pandemic has finally forced the research industry to do the same.