Brand Awareness: How to Create Your Plan

What are you doing for brand awareness? Is your brand distinguishable in the sea of products? Food, in general, is a necessary sort of goods, making it important to consumers across every demographic and psychographic category. That means there’s literally thousands of branded food products competing for the attention of those consumers. These brands use a ton of advertising and media.

So, when it comes to grabbing potential consumers attention–what advertising and media tactics are you using? Developing a smart brand awareness strategy starts with three basic questions:

1.Who’s the target market?

2.What’s the right vehicle?

3. What’s it going to take to reach my target?

Building Brand Awareness: Who’s the Target Audience?

I get it your product is for EVERYONE.  Everyone loves it.  But, let’s dig deeper. Finding your target audience involves geographic, psychographic, and demographic analyses. A good place to start is looking at who already buys your product.  Is it mostly women or men?  If it’s mostly women, does she have a family or is she single?  If she has a family are their commonalities that thread through people who buy your products? Answering questions like these helps frame your strategy around your audience. Thus, you’re able to narrow the media tactics that offer the best exposure to your target.

Raising Brand Awareness: What’s the Right Vehicle?

Remember Saturday morning cartoons?   Initially, back when there were still only three major broadcast networks, Saturday mornings are how we know who Tony the Tiger is and that Mikey likes Life Cereal! These commercial placements made sense because kids were watching. In turn, they were going to tell mom to buy what they saw

on TV. These big brands had it right, but it’s impractical to think you’re going to drive hundreds of consumers to your branded product using the wrong type of advertising. The sheer number of options available when it comes to brand awareness tactics, from the internet and social media to television and radio, can feel overwhelming.

But this is important to take into consideration: Market Track analysis found that 80 percent of shoppers say they utilize more than one promotional media type to make purchase decisions, with print and websites being the most frequently used promotional vehicles.

In addition, sales reps from each medium are constantly hounding you about the benefits of their vehicle, never thinking about your product’s branded message or your target market. Be sure to match your advertising medium to your product’s brand message.

What’s It Going to Take to Reach My Target?

Brand awareness advertising can be expensive, and no company can afford to launch an awareness campaign that’s both inefficient and ineffective. Regardless of your budget, a skilled media strategist should be able to find the right advertising tactics that best fit your target audience and craft a media plan that leverages all your options for optimum exposure.

Trust me, there are different avenues are available to you for marketing purposes, including traditional media, digital media, and grassroots tactics. Each one has its advantages and disadvantages.

After all the homework, footwork, artwork, and planning are finished, the success of your company and its brand ultimately comes down to getting your branded product into the hands, mouths, minds, and hearts of the consumers. It’s what first-class marketing plans and activation strategies are designed to do. From marketing to retail buyers and consumers to brand awareness and engagement tactics, you should be ready for your launch.

Not sure where to start?  Call NewPoint or check out our food marketing book Moving Your Brand Up the Food Chain™. If you order the book now, it’s 50% off!