Building Brand Awareness

There are many factors which play into consumer purchasing behavior. For example, when a consumer enters a grocery store, there are many factors that could potentially influence their purchasing decisions. These factors include (but are not limited to):

• He/she may or may not have made a shopping list before heading to the store
• He/she may have eaten beforehand, or they may be ravenous
• He/she may have a lot of time to peruse the aisles, or they may be on a tight schedule
• He/she may have watched television before heading to the store, and have now bought a product that was advertised on that commercial
• He/she may be on a budget, so they are only purchasing store-brand items

There is an endless list of outside factors which potentially play a role in the purchasing process.

This begs the question of what can a company do in order to influence a consumer's purchase? One such thing would be to increase their brand awareness.

So what is brand awareness?

Kevin Lane Keller notates in his working paper, "Building Customer-Based Brand Equity: A Blueprint for Creating Strong Brands":

"Formally, brand awareness refers to customers' ability to recall and recognize a brand. Brand awareness is more than just the fact that customers know a brand name and the fact that they have previously seen it, perhaps even many times. Brand awareness also involves linking the brand -- brand name, logo, symbol and s forth -- to certain associations in memory...It is important that the brand not only be "top-of-mind" and have sufficient "mind share," but it must also do so at the right times and right places." (Keller, 2001).

Based on the above definition, a company must keep their brand front and center in the consumers' minds (the right place), so that when a purchasing decision is about to be made (the right time), the brand will be remembered and will be purchased.

Buh how does one go about creating and increasing their brand awareness?

Keller believes that depth and breadth are the key components to brand awareness. The author describes depth as "how easily customers can recall or recognize the brand." For example:

• If I were to ask you which soup has a red label, which brand comes to mind?

• If you answered "Campbell's" to the above question, it's because they have created a strong brand identity and brand awareness for their numerous product lines.

Keller describes the other key component, breadth, as "the range of purchase and consumption situations in which the brand comes to mind."

• If I were to ask you what you would want to eat on a cold, winter night, many of you may also answer Campbell's soup. This thought process is again due to a strong brand awareness and relevance to the question -- on a cold night, you would want to consume a product which warms you up, like Campbell's soup.

Television advertisements (as shown below) also help to reinforce a brand's positioning and to help increase awareness.

Do you think Keller has it right -- is it depth and breadth which truly matter when building and maintaining a brand's awareness? Or are there other more important components?

Works Cited:

Keller, K.L. (2001). Building Customer-Based Brand Equity: A Blueprint for Creating Strong Brands. Working Paper Series, 01-107. Retrieved from http://mktg.uni-svishtov.bg/ivm/resources/CustomerBasedbrandEquityModel.pdf