As a branding agency in Orange County, Twelve12 has to make sure that our customers have a clear understanding of a branding strategy, especially when we have to deal with desperate situations where we need to choose between the awareness, the reputation, or the image of a brand.
In a perfect world, we shouldn’t have to sacrifice anything, but this is not usually the case, and let’s face it, many companies wait until they have a crisis on their hands to seek expert advice. This can be a challenge for all the parts involved in a decision and it is often a process of choosing the best option based on the current market, experience, benchmarking and a little bit of hope. We can’t know for sure the outcome of a strategy, but we can reduce the risk to a minimum when we have a realistic goal. Based on our experience, trying to achieve unrealistic targets is often a recipe for disaster.
Understanding the main differences between brand awareness, brand reputation, and brand image can be tricky. But when we need to decide which one we should sacrifice to keep our brands alive, it becomes very important that our clients are crystal clear about the path that they are choosing and why.
Brand awareness is the extent to which consumers are able to recall or recognize a brand. This is an aspect of branding that is very important, and consumers usually buy a product or a service that is recognized among the first three brands that they can recall in a product category.
Then we move to the brand reputation: this is how a brand is viewed by customers and the communities in which it operates. It usually goes either to a favorable or an unfavorable side. Recently, many brands are moving to help out the community, be more environmentally friendly, or help charities. This is not a result out of the goodness of their managers’ hearts; this is a result of investigation among customers and favorable outcomes after making these changes.
Brand image is the impression in the consumer’s mind of a brand’s total personality. With brand awareness, comes the brand reputation, and then the consumer decides the place that a brand deserves for them compared with other brands.
So, in order to be able to choose, you need to understand clearly where your main issue is. What is hurting your brand the most? Focus your efforts. It is not easy, but you will be able to get there if you pay attention. We could think about a brand with great products that has a poor brand awareness and where the reputation and brand image is not that good. It may not be concerned with the environment or local charities. In this case, a good place to start would be brand awareness. People find the brand good and recognize it as a quality brand, by focusing on brand awareness, we build up the brand image and we get better sales and better ranking as an outcome.
Find out more about this topic and branding in Orange County, give us a call today. At Twelve12, we have what you are looking for.