Brand Awareness / Brand Positioning

“Remain at the forefront of a customer’s mind…if you aren’t, someone else is.”

                                                                       - Joshua Garity

Brand recognition is often the deciding factor when customers are choosing between two or more products/services. Advertising cannot wave a magic wand and make people buy products or services they are not yet ready for. It involves a crucial process of familiarizing the customers with the brand. This is why we see the same advertisements on newspapers and television commercials and hear the same on the radio over and over again. The aim here is to create brand awareness.

        Brand awareness is the measure of the consumers’ awareness of the existence, importance and availability of your brand. It is closely related to brand recall which is the readiness with which a given brand springs to mind.

Following are some famous examples
Kitna Deti Hai – Maruti
Chutki Mein Chipkaye – Fevistick
Jeevan ke sath bhi, Jeevan ke baad bhi – LIC of India
I’m Loving it - McDonalds

Creating positive brand positioning requires creating a positive image of the brand. When operating in a competitive market with similar businesses selling similar products and services, there are often very few factors that differentiate one product or service from its competitors. Therefore, the product or service that maintains the highest positive brand awareness usually gets the bigger market share. 

Positive brand awareness reflects the effectiveness of marketing communication. Thus, the initial goal of advertising campaigns is simply to make the target market aware that a particular brand exists. At the end of the day, branding is a major reason why people pay more for one product over another.

In our opinion, to increase brand awareness a business needs to advertise not only when business is under performing or before a new launch but also when business is at its peak albeit with some lesser spend than in aggressive stages.

Brand Positioning at different stages of business growth

·        A young naïve business entity needs to register with its target audience and hence creating awareness is of prime importance. Greater the budget bigger the impact and vice versa. If your voice of the brand can reach the last levels you ought to get a bigger opportunity.

·        When business is strong there is a steady flow of money to support an advertising campaign.

·        A strong client or customer base reduces the pressure of advertising extensively for new projects.  Although the end result is to sell the product or services, the path that leads there begins with awareness of the brand.

·        Existing customers often forget about other the services or products on offer. Effective soft selling can be used to increase your business with them.

·        When business is strong and stress is low, you can be more receptive to innovative marketing ideas. Creative advertising creates emotional responses and registers deeper in the minds of the customer. This emotional connection will help them remember your brand.

There are successful companies who do not advertise but are very successful. They have developed their business through customer service and word of mouth. This form of advertising is called social interaction and it involves great time and effort to measure success. Normally smaller brands with a local or regional reach can rely on their product/service worth and instead of spending on the advertising through various media can concentrate of personal branding involving time and physical efforts.

Whatever the choice of creating awareness, an organization needs to promote globally and maintain a constant presence in the minds of the buyer. In order to survive and excel, it becomes crucial to differentiate your business from your competitors who are on the hunt for the same customers as you are, based on your budget and assuming the deliverable do not lack on qualitative and quantitative parameters as the case may be.

To find out unique ways of keeping your business on top of your clients’ mind, contact Blossoms on mktg@studioblossoms.com or call +91 98230 64636

Client - Vishwakarma Institute of Management, Pune
Job Brief- To design a corporate brochure intended for complementing the placement activity of student. The target audience were bigwigs of various industries who can influence the decisions of Campus Placements depending on the credibility of the institute

Communication Solutions for iRS

Client -  iResearch Services

iResearch Services was to participate in MarketingWeek Live Exhibition which is annually held in London. It's a mega exhibition providing platform to various industry verticals. iRS intended to capitalize on this opportunity and planned for Folders, Presentation, Stall Design, Standy to convey their positioning on and of the venue.

Folder Design, Size - A4 Open

Folder Design, Size - A4 Open 

Standy Design, Size - 3 x 6 feet

Stall Design - 9 sq mtrs

Corporate Presentation (PPT)

Focusing on Target Market (Audience)

“The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well that the product or service fits him and sells itself.”

-          Peter F. Drucker on the power of really knowing your target market.

A well-defined target market is the first step to a marketing strategy. It is important to acknowledge the need to understand your target market, without it, you cannot zero in on the people who will buy your products. Therefore focusing on the target market is crucial for the growth of every business, whether small or big.

 Your value proposition must be relevant to your ideal buyers so that they recognize your direct address to them. For instance, a jewellery brand launching a new line of products should not target all women. It must rather target the ideal customers based on the kind of product; if it is more suited to working women, the focus must be on targeting working women instead of marketing the product to all women groups. The taste of McDonalds and KFC is different for different geographies. McAlu Tikki is specifically conceptualized for Indian vegetarian target group. This implies that the target market must be clearly defined.

Michael Porter, in his 1980 classic Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analysing Industries and Competitors, has described three best strategies that are commonly used by businesses to achieve and maintain competitive advantage.

They are, cost leadership, differentiation, and market segmentation (or focus). Market segmentation is narrow in scope while both cost leadership and differentiation are relatively broader in market scope.

So the primary need is to conduct a marketing analysis that is in depth, providing all the data that is needed to focus on your target audience effectively.

Define your target market by analyzing these four preliminary categories of information about your target customers:

• Geographics: The location, size of the area, density of your customers.
• Demographics: The age, gender, income and occupation of your customers.
• Psychographics: The general personality, behavior, life-style, rate of use, repetition of need, benefits sought, and loyalty characteristics of your customers.
• Behaviours: The needs they seek to fulfill, tastes, preferences, emotional and logical reasons to use a product.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Then answer the following questions to get well rounded definition of your target market.

·         What do your customers currently think about your brand?

·         What would you like them to think about your current brand?

·         Who else is competing for their loyalty and devotion?

·         How will you attract them to your products or services?

The final definition of your target market will help you to focus on all customer groups which your product or service is capable of impacting.

        You may then design your marketing strategy without being speculative of your marketing efforts because you are now confident of hitting the right market after your detailed analysis.

How to manage wooing the target market on a shoe string budget?

        Normally, for start-ups, the budget for marketing is too small. They have to think about marketing wisely and cannot afford to throw away their money. One has to be smarter, leaner, and meaner than the competition. While your competitors hide behind their marketing, you have no choice but to find creative, low-cost, high-impact ways to get visible and become attractive to your prospects.

      Blossoms suggests a simple yet effective way, without incurring much cost on paid researches to understand the demography and psychographs of the target market; assuming that you have what it takes to be a survivor initially and gradually climb the ladders of success.

a.       Identify your target audience/market.

b.      Project your USP through a strong communication message which will create an image of your product/services as they are intended to be.

c.       Decide on the media usage as per the plan or prepare a media plan.

d.      Be visible through low cost mediums, depending on the business and its target audience.

e.      Build on every opportunity to create more inroads through credibility and improving on the features, there by overtaking the competition who might want to catch with you.

 

Facebook for Business

“The web is at a really important turning point right now. Up until recently, the default on the web has been that most things aren’t social and most things don’t use your real identity. We’re building toward a web where the default is social.” –
Mark Zuckerberg, Founder of Facebook.

True to the spirit of social networking, Facebook spins out a web of real and dynamic social connections. This network when used for business communications paves way for very interactive and direct engagement with existing as well as prospective customers online.

Having a Facebook fan page is beneficial for large corporations, entrepreneurs, small business, freelancers and other business-oriented professionals aiming to acquire a successful business in terms of spectators boost and sales growth. Facebook pages are/can be attached to personal accounts and can even be linked to your website. You can also create a fan box in your website were visitors can immediately become a fan. Facebook fan pages are public. Everyone can see it in search engines and can advance the potential for exposure. Thus it serves as a SEO (Search Engine Optimization) boost.

Facebook is simply the largest social network out there. With 500 million active users and a host of highly efficient applications, it provides unlimited opportunities for optimizing your online marketing.

With such a compelling online presence, a single Facebook Fan Page can make your brand infectiously popular. Therefore Facebook for business is becoming more popular day by day.

Facebook pages are increasingly being used by companies for varied purposes such as to:

• build brand image
• drive traffic to website and blogs
• access online marketplace
• announce or get feedback on new products
• manage online reputation
• attract employees
• use the marketplace to find items or services required
• communicate company information
• spotlight accomplishments
• reward customer loyalty
• promote special events and special offers
• create partnerships
  This is a great way for a company to get exposure and that too free of cost!

Using online means of communication such as Facebook for business reduces the marketing budget while at the same time increases sales. Facebook is cost efficient, more personal and more fluid than any other marketing medium. Hence, it is a smart and effective way to increase marketing scope.

Making use of Facebook for business is as easy as a-b-c. Just register and follow the instructions to create a page. Then viola! The easiest and most happening social media tool for business is all yours to use!

As in the words of Mark Zuckerberg himself, “a simple rule of business is, if you do the things that are easier first, then you can actually make a lot of progress.”

Importance of a sound Social Media Strategy

The question is no longer should we be doing social media, it's are we doing it right?

- Eric Qualmann, Author of Socialnomics

The social media adoption survey conducted in 2010 for the Society for New Communications Research by Dr. Nora Barnes at UMASS Dartmouth shows that more than 60 percent of Fortune 500 companies now use some form of social media marketing, but a strategy for engagement and measurement is still lacking. Businesses, big and small are realizing the need for a social media strategy and marketing plan for their future success.

Statistic on social media usage:

    91% are using at least one social media tool

    80% have a company page on a social networking site

    79% post status updates or articles of interest on social media sites

    57% build a network through a site such as LinkedIn

    54% monitor feedback about the business

    65% maintain a blog

    52% are active on Twitter

Any Social Media Campaign needs to be developed as an extension of the core digital presence – your business website. One should not forget the importance of company's website as it is an authentic home turf for clients to know in greater details with respect to your products, services etc.

Social media usage is on rise in multitudes in recent years, thanks to the internet penetration and awareness of the subject. Social media provides a platform for the client to directly converse with the company. However, as a caution, this can misfire if not handled properly. The connect should be correct between the two entities involved to propel the business bottom line or else the results will be devastating at times.

Every business needs to take a strategic approach to incorporating social media into their marketing and communication plan. Apart from having a Twitter feed and a Facebook page, one should be sure of what to do with them, or how to measure your results? After all, it is the future of business communication that we are looking towards.

If you need help with your Social Media Strategy and Marketing Plan contact us today - mktg@studioblossoms.com

Change is refreshing !!!

Have you ever wonder how the first Apple logo looked like 30 years back? Did you know Volkswagen was Hitler’s idea? Or how the IBM logo changes over the time? Or where the Mercedes-Benz Brand And The Three-Pointed Star logo came from?