What is Brand Recognition, and Why Does it Matter?
Brand recognition is a vital component of any company. It’s not something intangible that you can’t see or hear. In fact, it’s the opposite!
It’s the successful use of visual, auditory, and physical cues to show your audience the character and attributes of your business without having to hit them over the head with it.
In recent years, brand recognition has become an essential part of advertising and marketing thanks to the never-ending water hose of ads squirted in our faces everywhere we go. You’re bombarded with ads whenever you watch a video on YouTube, play a mobile game, scroll your social media feed, or read the news. It’s endless.
With that in mind, let’s dive into more detail and look at what brand recognition is, why it’s essential, and how you can build up your brand recognition.
What is Brand Recognition, and How Does it Work?
Visual branding is made up of several different elements, such as your business name, logo, packaging, unboxing experience, and ads. Together, these elements help your audience understand your brand’s character and attributes.
With that in mind, companies aim to build brand recognition, which is the extent to which a consumer can correctly identify a product or service after seeing one of these elements.
The ultimate goal of brand recognition is to reach a level where your customers instantly recognize your brand and recall who you are.
Now, let’s take it one step further and think about the bigger picture.
When you imagine one of your friends, do you only recall their name? Or do you instantly think about their face? The last time you saw them? An enjoyable time you had together? How do you feel about them? Or if you want to see them again really soon?
When a brand like yours can reach that kind of recognition, it’s an absolute game-changer and can dramatically help boost your success. We’ll talk about how it can help you below.
One of the most recognized brands in the world is Apple. But how did they get there?
They invest heavily in their brand. Their marketing department does its best to ensure their visual, audio, and physical elements work cohesively to further their brand.
Let’s take a look at how Apple uses these elements to boost their brand recognition.
Visual cues
Visual cues like Apple’s logo, or Nike’s swoosh are instantly recognizable and strengthen a brand’s recognition. A poorly-designed logo could reflect badly on overall branding, which is why companies put so much effort into their logo design.
A logo is often referred to as “the face” of a company, so it’s no wonder brands want a good-looking logo to represent them.
Audio cues
Ever watched a YouTube video or listened to a song with low audio quality? It detracts from the overall experience, and can even leave a sour taste in your mouth.
Branding experts understand the need for high-quality audio, as your customers’ ears are just as important as their eyes. Catchy songs and number-one hits sound amazing because so much work and effort go into cleaning up the sound to give you the best audio experience.
Check out any of Apple’s commercials and pay attention to how crisp and clear the music and sound effects are; it’s not by chance.
Creating such an amazing audio experience increases Apple’s brand recognition as a company that values high-quality.
Physical cues
Another way Apple sets itself apart from the competition with similar products is its physical branding. Apple designs their products and packaging to be as smooth and comfortable as possible. The latest iPhones, iPads, and MacBooks are a delight to look at, touch, and use.
They were one of the first companies to turn unboxing into an experience by using high-quality packaging and carefully wrapping up and placing all the added extras like charging cables, adapters, and earphones neatly in the box.
Combined with all of its visual and audio elements, Apple successfully elevated their brand recognition to crazy-high levels.
Why Brand Recognition is Important
Many companies sell similar items or services.
One of the main things that separate a company from the competition in the market is its brand, and how much brand recognition they have.
Let’s imagine there are two companies that both sell similar products, like yoga mats. There’s very little difference between the mats. The deciding factor will often be the brand with the highest recognition level (as long as it’s positive!), because customers tend to trust brands they recognize more than brands they haven’t heard of.
This brand recognition is why one company may be more successful than the other. It’s why, when customers are looking for a new pair of running shoes, they’ll first check out Nike over the competition.
The Difference Between Brand Recognition and Brand Awareness
Brand recognition and brand awareness are very similar, but also wildly different.
Wait. What?
These two terms are closely related, but they aren’t the same thing.
As stated earlier, brand recognition is when your audience can identify your products/services as belonging to your brand just based on visual, audio, and physical cues. In other words, it’s whether or not people recognize your business.
Brand awareness is when people know your company exists. Before people can recognize your brand, they need to be aware of its existence. You can spend as much time and money as you want on your brand recognition, but it won’t matter if no one is aware it exists.
How to Build Brand Recognition
We’re going to look at some solid, actionable tips you can use to help build your brand recognition. Remember, brand recognition isn’t just about raising awareness, it’s about creating and showing-off the elements of your brand. Ultimately, this will help people identify and build a connection with what you’re offering them.
Knowing a brand exists is one thing. Knowing a brand exists and has the solution to your problem is a whole different level of success. Use these tips to help highlight and showcase what makes your brand different from your competition and the value you bring to the table.
Because your brand recognition and brand awareness go hand in hand, you’ll need to work on both simultaneously.
1. Create a clear brand identity
The first step is to ensure your brand is easily identifiable. This means you have a professional logo that matches your brand’s character, you have a brand color palette, and you already have a tone of voice and backstory.
Once that’s all in place, you can start to build your brand recognition.
2. Work on your website
Having a great-looking website that’s fast, useful, and optimized to rank for important keywords is important for your success. The last part is crucial if you want to see success, especially in the digital world. Even if your business is entirely physically based, such as garden care or interior decorating, you still need a professional website to help your brand recognition. It helps your audience understand who you are as a brand and the value you bring.
The website should have your brand design elements we mentioned in the previous step. You can include information about yourself, your company, and even things like customer reviews to let visitors know how great your brand is.
3. Associate with influential websites by guest blogging
A great way to help reach your target audience is to ‘guest blog‘. This is where you write a blog post and share it with another website to publish under your name. It’s a great way to help spread the word about your brand, especially when it’s posted on a popular website that’s relevant to your industry.
For the best results, share important information, such as tips, guides, or create a FAQ that aids readers and establishes yourself as an authority figure.
4. Bring your social media accounts up to speed
Lots of people are on social media, and it’s a great way to foster real relationships with your audience. But it’s only useful if your social media accounts are up to date. This means that your accounts must have all of your brand’s design elements, and should feature customer-focused content that appeals to your target audience.
5. Stand out from the crowd by being unique
Copying a successful brand’s appearance is a strategy that’s doomed to fail. It’s always best to be unique. Doing so will show your customers you bring added value compared to other companies that are similar to each other.
When shopping for a new mobile phone, there’s no difference between Android phones, but an iPhone is unique because of its shape and feel – it was the first full touch-screen phone.
Over to You
Now that you know what brand recognition is, what will your next steps be? If you need a hand creating your branding assets like your logo, why not let the Tailor Brands AI logo maker do it for you?
If you’re ready to start your branding journey, remember to stay true to your brand’s character. Brand recognition is only part of the puzzle. Without any awareness, you’ll struggle to find success.
The post What is Brand Recognition, and Why Does it Matter? appeared first on Tailor Brands.
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