Understanding Brand Recall & Awareness

Richard Branson once said, “Your brand is only as good as your reputation”. Do you agree to this?  

Imagine this! When you’re thirsty, do you order a soda or ask for a ‘Coke’? If you need a copy of something, do you say ‘Xerox’ or ask for a photocopy? When you don’t understand a certain term, do you look at a dictionary or simply ‘Google’ it?

Well, the little things you say and do in your everyday lives shows the impact certain brands have on you. They almost become generic words for a type of product.

Brand recall, which is a subsection of brand awareness, refers to how much of an imprint you can leave on the minds of your target audience through your logo, messaging and branding material.

While brand recall is about building the right associations between your company and customers, it is also the path to creating an unforgettable business and building loyalty.

Tips to Reinforce Brand Recall

The whole purpose of a brand recall strategy is to make your company standout from the marketing glut and to establish enough recall so that your target audience actually converts.

• Freebies: Everyone loves free stuff. A reliable way to build brand recall is by hosting a giveaway. However, for this strategy to work, it’s important to identify the right gift that aligns with your brand.

• Storytelling: A fool-proof hack to become a memorable brand is to start with stellar storytelling. Focus on creating emotionally-moving and compelling stories that will not just pique the interest of the audience but also excite them.

• Experiential Marketing Campaigns: Another way to reinforce brand recall is by creating an experience that a target group can associate with the brand. Such campaigns have a great ROI as it connects with the potential customer in real-time. Cup branding is a perfect example of an engagement-based campaign. It also generates good brand recall as your target audience would have already warmed up to your product experience.

• Referral Programs: A potential customer will gladly spread the word of your product or service when they’re aware they’ll get an added perk. Zomato Gold is a great example of how smart referral programs can growth hack a business. Their referral program helped generate tons of word-of-mouth leading to 40,000 memberships being sold on day one of the program launch.
  

With these brand recall tips, you’ll be well on your way to becoming a star brand. Just like Rome wasn’t built in a day, you cannot expect numbers to soar from day one. The secret is to be patient and continue your marketing efforts.