If you’re reading this, chances are, you’ve already know, that it is extremely important to build brand awareness for your business – whatever that means.
Words like “brand awareness” and “brand recognition” are like mystical marketing creatures, that are synonymous with achieving success. Especially when there are thousands of other businesses competing for your customer’s attention.
However, few people really understand, what brand awareness is and how to build it.
But it doesn’t have to be that way.
Building brand awareness can be easy, once you really understand it.
In this post, I’m going to clarify the term „brand awareness“ and show you simple and actionable ways to grab your customers attention.
Use Games and Quizzes to Understand Brand Awareness
Let’s start with a formal definition of „brand awareness“. Don’t worry, if you don’t really get it. It will be clearer soon.
„Extent to which a brand is recognized by potential customers, and is correctly associated with a particular product. Expressed usually as a percentage of target market, brand awareness is the primary goal of advertising in the early months or years of a product’s introduction.“
I know, this sounds a little technical. So let me illustrate the concept of brand awareness with some quizzes:
Beginner: How many of the 36 Logos can you identify? The more people recognize the logo on the first sight, the bigger is the company’s brand awareness.
Advanced: That was too easy? Try to score 18/24 on this Ultimate Logo Quiz by Buzzfeed and spot the real from the fake.
But logos aren’t everything, when it comes to building brand awareness.
Let’s talk about fonts.
Can you identify the brand from just one letter?
And colors …
I think, you get the idea.
Now, that we’ve seen, how brand-aware we are, when it comes to the big players, let’s see, how we can build brand awareness for our own brands.
The goal is, that someday every member of your target audience, who sees even the tiniest representation of your brand identity, will instantly think of your business.
The Ultimate Guide on Branding + How to Apply it to Build Brand Awareness
If there is ONE study on branding and how to build brand recognition, you should know, it’s definitely the work of Al & Laura Ries. The marketing experts published The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding, where they examine, how the world’s most famous brands built brand awareness.
But I don’t just want to just replicate all of the laws and let you hang with that. After all, I promised ACTIONABLE advice, and a list of laws is everything but actionable.
This is why I included tips and action items on how to apply the 22 Immutable Laws of Branding to your branding strategy.
1. The Law of Expansion
The power of a brand is inversely proportional to its scope.
When you put your brand name on everything, that name loses its power.
Action: Narrow your focus. Start with one product / service.
2. The Law of Contraction
A brand becomes stronger when you narrow its focus. Powerful branding always starts by confining the category.
Action: To focus even more, define your target audience. Better yet, define a singular buying persona.
3. The Law of Publicity
Think publicity, not advertising. The best way to generate publicity is by being first – find your unique selling proposition and turn your business into a monopoly.
Action: Define your Unique Selling Proposition. What differentiates your brand from your competition?
4. The Law of Advertising
Though everything starts with publicity, your brand will eventually need advertising to stay alive. Market-dominating brands advertise their position. It’s the single most important motivating factor in customer behavior.
British Airways official slogan is: British Airways – The World’s Favourite Airline (And you thought peer pressure stops after high school.)
Action: Act like the big players from the get-go. Position yourself as an industry leader, even when you’re just starting out. Fake it ‚till you become it.
Also read: NOBODY READS YOUR FUCKING BLOG – 35 REASONS WHY
5. The Law of the Word
A brand should strive to own a word in the mind of the consumer.
Crock-Pot, Jacuzzi, Jet Ski, Escalator, even Heroin … they are all brand names.
Action: Call your product or service by the name of your brand to build a strong association.
6. The Law of Credentials
People buy from brands they trust, so strive for authenticity.
Ex.: „Coke – It’s the real thing.”
Action: Be authentic. Show your face, show your weaknesses.
Listen to the Hashtag Authentic Podcast to learn how to build a trusting relationship with your customers.
7. The Law of Quality
Quality is important, but brands don’t rely on consumers to judge it. Brands know, how to appear high-quality to consumers: elegant packaging, champagne for their customers or just premium pricing.
Action: Act premium. Raise your standards and your prices. Go the little extra-mile, when it comes to customer experience.
WWCCD = What Would Coco Chanel Do?
8. The Law of the Category
A leading brand should promote the category, not the brand.
Ex.: „De Beers – A Diamond Is Forever” See how they promote diamonds in general, not just De Beers diamonds.
Action: Include category-promotion into your ads and copywriting. If you have a coffeeshop, share your love of coffee. If you are a photographer, talk about the magic of capturing moments in a picture.
9. The Law of the Name
After all, a brand is nothing but a name.
Why do we pay $100 for a blouse from Chanel, but only $5 for one from Primark. Sure, the quality is better, but 50x better? Propably not. It’s the name and its perception.
Action: Yes, you should also try to offer the best possible quality. But remember, that quality isn’t everything. Nobody will buy your awesome product, when they never get to see it. This is closely connected to the Law of Quality (No. 7). Sell a premium product, not just premium quality.
10. The Law of Extensions
Want to destroy your brand? Easy. Put its name on everything and watch it die.
Action: Be very picky about where you put your branding on. This doesn’t only apply to your own products, but also to who and what you promote. When you have a blog or website, only promote products you use and like, and that fit both your brand and your target audience.
11. The Law of Fellowship
Instead of trying to destroy your competition, work together and increase the market reach of your product category. In 1997, Bill Gates invested $150 million in Apple. It’s a long story, but in the end both companies benefited tremendously and today, you can’t imagine life without personal computers.
Action: Help your competitors. Find brands in your niche and with a similar size / following like your own brand. Give them shoutouts, share their posts and link to their websites. It will come back to you.
12. The Law of Generic
National Coffee isn’t a brand name, Starbucks Coffee is. Don’t give your brand a generic name. It only leads to confusion and undermines all your efforts on building brand awareness.
General Electric got by with it, but it exists since 1892.
Action: Choose a memorable brand name. Don’t include words like National, General, World, Nature’s etc.
13. The Law of the Company
Brands are brands. Companies are companies. Don’t confuse them. A company can sell under different brand names. It’s better to associate a brand name with a product type than with its CEO.
Action: When you register your business, keep in mind, that your business name and your brand name don’t necessarily have to be the same. Think about the future. If you plan to start other brands, it might me a good idea to give your business a more generic name or just use your own name to keep it general. By doing this, you avoid having to register another business later on and can keep everything under the same roof.
14. The Law of Subbrands
Don’t use subbrands, it will only confuse customers and weakens your main-brand. Instead seperate the brands completely.
Ex.: Honda’s Luxury Brand is Acura, not Honda Premium.
Action: When you branch out, launch a premium line or another product category, sell it under a seperate branding. You can leverage your existing audience, but don’t leverage your brand.
Also read: 29 STEPS TO INSTANTLY CREATE 10X BETTER CONTENT – CHECKLIST + INFOGRAPHIC
15. The Law of Siblings
There is a time and a place to launch a second brand.
Ex.: A&E launched The History Channel.
There’s not really an action item here. Just keep in mind, that having one brand doesn’t mean, you can’t start another.
16. The Law of Shape
Studies show, that horizontal logos are more impactful than vertical ones. You can use submarks to save space, when needed.
www.chanel.com
Action: Choose a horizontal logo and add aditional submarks or alternative logos. The easiest and most common way to put this into practice is using your brand name in your signature font, sometimes compared with your icon and tagline. Then, add a round or square submark, e.g. your icon or initials.
Here’s an example from one of my own branding packages:
Logo
Alt Logo
Submark
17. The Law of Color
To increase brand recognition, a brand should use a color or color scheme that is the opposite of its major competitor’s.
Ex.: Microsoft uses all the colors, Apple uses none.
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Action: Identify your major competitors and analyze their branding. Use a color scheme contrary to theirs, especially, when they are already well-established.
18. The Law of Borders
Branding means global branding. A brand should know no borders.
Action: If you are an international company, don’t change your branding from country to country to fit the national taste. Be consistent and use your otherness as an advantage. It can even be part of your unique selling proposition.
19. The Law of Consistency
A brand is not built overnight. Branding success is measured in decades, not years. Don’t change your mind every few years or your efforts will go to waste.
Action: Don’t rush your branding. Keep in mind, that the branding you choose today will stay with your brand for years to come. Invest in a professional brand identity. Quality branding will multiply the effect of all of your future marketing efforts.
20. The Law of Change
Every brand identity evolves over time. Trends change and brands have to adapt. But changes should only be careful and incremental. Don’t change everything at once.
Action: If your brand feels outdated and needs an update, take it slowly. Work with what you have and only change some details. Give it a fresh look, while keeping the essentials.
As an example, take a look at the evolution of the Twitter-Icon. It has always been a bird in – roughly – the same shade of blue, but still kept up with the times.
21. The Law of Mortality
No brand will live forever. Euthanasia is often the best solution.
Action: Know, when it’s time to pull the plug.
22. The Law of Singularity
A brand should be purposeful and single-minded. It’s a „singular idea or concept that you own inside the mind of the prospect“ (Ries and Ries).
Action: Get a clear picture of what you want your brand to be associated with. How do you want your customers to feel? What should be the first thing, that comes to their mind, when they think of your brand and your product? Reliable? Exciting? Empowering? Strong? Feminine? That’s the secret of the brand personality.
SOURCE: Al Ries and Laura Ries, The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding, HarperCollins, 2009.
There you have it: The 22 Laws of Branding + 21 Ways, how to implement them and build brand awareness for your own business. (I didn’t include an action item for No. 15 – The Law of Siblings).
The First Step to Build Brand Awareness
Now, it’s your turn. Start today and build your brand awareness. You can download my cheatsheets as a PDF at the end of the post. Keep them close and use them as a constant reminder on what to do and what not to do with your brand.
If your unsure, where to start with your branding, take my branding quiz and grab the free style guide, that fits your brand personality. It contains a brand personality description, brand examples, fonts, color schemes and other brand assets.
Once you understand your brand’s personality, it will be much easier for you to target the right audience and build brand awareness.
The brand personalities are: Espresso, Black Coffee, Frappucchino, Cappuccino and Latte Macchiato. (I’m black coffee, btw – as a brand and as a coffee drinker)
Comment, if you have any questions, share your experiences and – most importantly – your quiz results. 😉
Also, grab my Brand Board Template and get started building your brand!
Download the 22 Immutable Laws of Branding + Explanations
Feel free to use the Infographic, and the Pictures on your own website, but please link back to this article. 🙂
