In the world of internet marketing branding plays a very critical role in an overall marketing strategy. Branding tactics, designed to increase familiarity, ultimately result in front of mind awareness, trust, and purchases. To leave it out of a business marketing equation is to risk future success and sustainability.
The good news is, becoming a familiar brand doesn’t mean spending millions of dollars on a Super Bowl ad. Becoming a familiar brand simply requires patience and a strategy that encompasses a variety of marketing tools designed to increase brand recognition.
Recognition means you’ve established front of mind awareness. When people think about your industry, your business is first in their thoughts. For example, imagine you’re traveling through an unfamiliar city, you’re hungry and you have a choice an unknown burger drive through or McDonalds. Chances are you’re going to choose McDonalds simply because it’s a known factor. You know exactly what you’re going to get. Even if you’ve never been to a McDonald’s you’re likely to choose it because you’re familiar with it. This familiarity has a direct result in purchasing behavior. In fact, it has a direct effect on your emotions.
The Ludwig-Maximilians University Hospital in Munich, Germany studied 20 men and women. While in a MRI scanner, the participants were shown a series of automobile manufacturer logos and insurance company logos – think Mercedes Benz and AFLAC. Some of the logos were well known, others not very well known. Each logo was shown for three seconds. As the men and women viewed the logos, they were asked questions to determine their perceptions of each brand.
The results of the study showed that well-known brands activated the inferior frontal gyrus, anterior insula and anterior cingulate gyrus on both sides of the brain, and activation of the precuneus in the left hemisphere – all associated with positive emotions. Unknown brands had the opposite effect. They activated the precuneus in both hemispheres – an area activated by negative emotional response.
The conclusion? Strong brand names produce favorable emotions. Favorable emotions most definitely play an important role in a customer’s buying decision. It pays to increase brand recognition.
You may also be familiar with the “Coke versus Pepsi†taste test. Where subjects were blindfolded and asked to taste unmarked soda and identify which they preferred. What wasn’t generally shared was that when subjects were told that one of the drinks was Coca-Cola they were more likely to show a preference for it even if it wasn’t Coke. Interestingly enough the people who were told it was Pepsi, even when it wasn’t, didn’t seem to show any biased behaviors. These results were attributed to Coca-Cola’s branding and the reason Coke generally sells more product than Pepsi.
With so much competition for market share online and off, branding is an integral part of a marketing campaign. You don’t have to be Coca-Cola or General Motors to benefit. Brand familiarity works on all business sizes, all industries, and all consumer types. Familiarity breeds comfort and confidence in a product even when we’ve never tried the product before. It’s why building large databases and contacting them often is such an integral part of marketing. It’s why retail stores create loyalty programs and give consumers little cards to keep in their wallet and it’s why a long term branding strategy adds significant profits to a company’s bottom line.