In Part II of the series we learnt that to be successful in creating brand awareness you should firstly Get Inside The Heads of Your Customers and have an understanding about their lifestyle and preferences, then Empathize with the Feelings of your Customer. Then you Create Focus Groups to get deeper into specific topics and issues that is pertinent to your customers, your products and your brand.



So let's move along to part III!

Step 7: Analyze Industry Trends

A further extension into the survey format is by buying readily compiled statistics and figures on the industry. This gives a trend and often times provide clarity on the next action or the right direction that has to be taken by the company for sustained competitiveness.

By knowing what the industry price for your product, the number of sales per customer segment and many other related statistics, you would be able to work out which markets are still untapped and lack competition.

This may lead to new opportunities and new grounds for investment, and could further propel your brand awareness.

Step 8: Put up a Challenge on All Critical Areas!

Sometimes, by just focusing on one single aspect of your brand or product will bring success. Although initially you can focus on that aspect and excel in it, eventually your product must be able to compete on all fronts that are the cornerstone of your brand.

What happens is that the areas that are lacking would automatically be a stumbling block to the exponential brand awareness that you are craving for, and hence it would be labeled as the rate limiting step.

To avoid this, it would be vital to put up a challenge on all of the vital fronts of your brand, and that differs for every product and brand.

An example would be a restaurant: What are its Critical Areas?

1. Customer Service

2. Food Quality

3. Car Park facilities

4. The Atmosphere of the Restaurant

5. Perceived Value for Money: Pricing

This would represent the critical factors for the restaurant, and if it is lacking in any of these critical areas, then the brand of the restaurant would no doubt be diminished or would not grow to its full potential.

If the restaurant has great car parking facilities, excellent customer service, fantastic atmosphere, but lacking in food quality and lacking in perceived value for money then that restaurant would only be as successful as its food quality warrants. And that is a definite critical area of the restaurant. In fact, it would probably be its number one priority.

Step 9: Evaluate Your Product Branding

It's time to evaluate your branding strategy. Sometimes a product does not take off due to wrong positioning. Sometimes the product does not fit the profile of your company, hence preventing the expected exponential increase in brand awareness from happening.

Evaluate if your product brand fits into the profile of your company.

Do you think if Apple Computers suddenly changed its emphasis from beautiful and trendy computers to the traditional, uninspired shape and ugly design of computers and instead focused on making powerful computers that their raving customers would follow their lead and still purchase from them? Does that strategy align with their catch cry of ‘Think Different”? No. They would be better off changing it to “Think Traditional or Think Ugly”.

Would customers of Dell be following their lead if Dell Computers decided to sell their PCs via brick and mortar shops instead of selling it online? Would this action violate the customers expectations of Dell and of their promises? You bet it would.

So does this scenario happen to your company? Do you have any products that are not aligned to your overall company business strategy? Its time to clear up the mess and begin re-focusing your efforts to build a congruent brand image.

The next part will show you even more advance ways to exponentially increase your brand awareness. So, don't miss out on the fourth part: How To Exponentially Increase Your Brand Awareness Part IV

For more information about Marketing and Copywriting, please visit my site at www.copymarketing.com

Copyright 2007 © Daniel Toh, www.copymarketing.com