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.



Part III of the Series looked at more ways to increase your brand awareness.

By Analyzing Industry Trends, you will get a better idea of the big picture of your industry and will be able to find profitable niche markets that you could dominate.

Next to Put up a Challenge on All Critical Areas! focused on how you would profit by eliminating all the rate limiting areas of your product and brand.

To further improve on your branding, you would choose to Evaluate Your Product Branding, as this would give you a clearer picture on where your product stands and whether the product is congruent with your company Mission Statement and Values.

So let's get on with Part IV!

Step 10: Re-Design!

We will talk about Apple Computers again. Where would they be without their packaging, their aesthetics? What brings out the coolness factor?

If you decided to write a book, does the design matter to you? After reading Tom Peter's book, Re-design, I'm utterly convinced that design really does matter. The design and packaging says a lot about your brand and your product.

There's a saying ‘don't judge a book by its cover', but in reality and in business, this is what catches the eye of your customer.

That said, what colors would you use to communicate your brand? Do you own the color for your product niche?

One very successful use of color branding would be Cadbury. Tell me, when you think of the color purple and think of chocolates at the same time, what pops out in your mind? Cadbury of course! That's how powerful color branding can be. Coupled with a distinctive packaging and a memorable company logo and catch cry, your brand would sticky. It wouldn't leave your customers mind.

What a way to stand out from the crowd.

Step 11: Let Word of Mouth Marketing Work Its Magic!

This is one of the most powerful strategy to exponentially increase your brand awareness.

Now that you already know where your product is positioned, from step 1, then you can capitalize on that by focusing on your brand and products' key strengths and Unique Selling Proposition.

If you have a product that is novel and unique in its own way, that promises real benefits to your ideal customer, and the target market is broad enough, people will start becoming your advocates- they will evangelize to others about your product and brand. Yes, they effectively become your sales rep, and volunteer ones at that.

This really can't get any better because when your customers are your raving fans, they are the best testimony for your product. Not you, not your advertising agency, but your customers that are your best source of testimonials.

To initiate Word of Mouth Marketing,

1. Offer Special Packages with Purchase

2. Give away something for FREE

3. Make something that gives significant Benefit and Value to Your Customers

4. Publish a viral e-book and distribute it for Free, thereby increasing its sphere of distribution and influence

5. Be genuine and don't spam!

6. Focus on Solving a Problem, Meeting a Need or Fulfilling a Dream

7. Don't Forget to Tell Your Customers about your brilliant product: Market it!

Step 12: Enable Customization and Have Abundant Choices, It's the Long Tail Era!

Companies such as Dell and Amazon have acted swiftly in this department.

For one, Amazon treats every individual as an individual. It knows that everyone wants different products, and that makes them have gazillion products and many different specific niches. This makes them memorable, and helps them target many segments of the market at once.

Dell Computers on the other hand offers many customization options for their customers and having used Dell computers before, I'd say that is a very good strategy. This effectively means that they can cater to many audiences at once, be it a novice computer user to the avid gamer.

This is where Henry Ford failed. He did not want to offer choices to his customers and built the same model T over and over again, thinking that with better economies of scale he could produce cars that are more affordable. But customers are a lot more complex than that. They want options. And more options.

Hence, give your customers options, choices. They will thank you for that. And will remember your brand.

To conclude, there are many ways other ways to exponentially increase your brand awareness, and this series of articles provide a good starting point on your journey to branding greatness. What you need to do is take these steps and gradually apply it into your business branding strategy, measure the results and keep improving on what you have started.

The journey to exponential increase in brand awareness starts with you today, so started with it immediately!

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

Hope that you have gleaned something useful from this series of articles and wish you all the best in your marketing endeavors!

Copyright 2007 © Daniel Toh, www.copymarketing.com