BrainTrust Query: Is Brand Awareness a Useful Research Measure in an Era of Digital and Shopper Marketing?

No one would argue that products can be bought without customers being aware of them. The classic model of awareness leading to interest leading to qualified interest leading to trial and then repeat and loyalty still applies today. However, advances in customer-level marketing have refined that approach.

The key is to drive awareness of a product and its benefits to a select target--best customers and potential best customers. Since that group can represent less than 20% of the customer base, general awareness levels become a lot less useful. In addition to BCs and potential BCs, a brand wants to drive awareness to customers who are advocates, or are likely to become advocates.

General awareness is like mass media--it only works well if your customer is "the masses."

Mark Price, Managing Partner, M Squared Group, Inc.

Spot on, Joel. We're aware of a lot of brands -- doesn't mean we want to buy them; doesn't even mean we like them; just means (as you pointed out with Lifebuoy) that they're somewhere there in our collective unconscious.

Even intent to buy is suspect to me in this world of instant gratification, real time offers and digital overload all the way to the point of purchase.

As a start of the brand journey, we might do better to ask the question of "brand relevancy." I know this brand -- I think it meets my needs and I think it's something I might consider buying -- as the initial point at which a brand has permission to engage. Then, to the "store back" way of thinking, we understand that brand relevancy can happen anywhere from the shelf to the social network to (heaven forbid) the advertising campaign.

If we evaluate brands from a position of relevancy and salience, I think we'll get a much better sense of their overall health, a key metric to apply social monitoring data to, and an overall metric that is far more actionable than aided or unaided awareness.

Lisa Bradner, CGO, Geomentum

Measuring brand relevance and brand advocacy is much more important today than aided brand awareness. If I were a brand manager, I'd like to understand what causes my brand to become more relevant to shoppers, and where those relevancy cues come from. Maybe they are generated by exposure to shopper stories or ratings and reviews within the retailer web sites or the social media space. That is actionable information, and can be translated to shopper marketing activity.

Anne Howe, Founder, Anne Howe Associates

Instead of "location, location, location"--or perhaps in addition to--think "context, context, context." At the store shelf it's all about recognition, not brand recall or aided awareness. The research metrics we should use are dependent on the frame of reference. That's why great marketing research is partly science and partly art, but always about skill.

If you're asking about commercials seen the night before, it's likely to be a recall measure. But if you are simulating a shelf display...or you are in the store itself, you want to be certain to identify which brands are parts of the consideration set as the consumer makes a purchase decision. The measure that delivers that insight is "recognition." Even eye tracking falls short as a standalone tool, because we can record the eye "noting" a brand, but we need to follow up to determine if the consumer realized she was seeing that brand.

To some extent, the packages are the "aided" component. They stand on the shelf as helpful reminders of the fabulous messages marketers have put out about their brand. But if the consumer overlooks the labels or they don't break through her consciousness, the brands have disappeared off the shopper's mental radar and lost their opportunity to motivate.

So I can agree that brand awareness is not always the appropriate measure. But I have to state the case for the in-store and on-shelf metrics, such as recognition, that have the most relevance to understanding which brands break through the clutter.

Joan Treistman, President, The Treistman Group LLC

Awareness is the ante for purchasing, but not a guarantor that a purchase will be made.

You have to separate awareness from purchase behavior to some extent. Most people are aware of brands like the Edsel but it's been a long time since anyone purchased one.

People are also very aware of brands like BP--just one example of a long line of brands with high awareness resulting in decreased, not increased sales.

John Dranow is right--it is all about breaking through the clutter to find what you want as a consumer, so, in the end it all comes down to what happens at retail.

Ryan Mathews, Founder, ceo, Black Monk Consulting

Awareness of what the businesses want to know is not the right question? What do the consumers in that store notice and what influences their decisions are the important questions. Brand awareness can be 100% for respondents in a given study. If those consumers are not a major portion of the joint consumers entering that retail outlet and if other brands have found a way to attract those joint consumers, brand awareness test results are not helpful.

Camille P. Schuster, Ph.D., President, Global Collaborations, Inc.

Brand awareness and perception is EVERYTHING. As an employee of the world's second most valuable brand (IBM), behind only Coca-Cola, there are myriad aspects of this status that are continually leveraged with the client or consumer. Additionally, there are great tools to identifiably measure the real-time perception of any brand around the world based upon consumer sentiment. Many companies of all sizes are actually modifying their marketing strategies based upon the tactical findings of these brand perception tools.

Ralph Jacobson, Global Consumer Products Industry Marketing Executive, IBM

I think it's safe to say that a lot of our classical marketing paradigms are up for grabs.

I think the big shift we're witnessing is the "democratization" of brand awareness. The era of big brands buying big media and building big awareness is coming to a close. It's entirely conceivable that an upstart brand with a strong social marketing campaign can build as much awareness as a P&G brand and with only a few thousand dollars and some creative ideas.

Conversely it's also a hell of a lot easier for brands to get washed away in fray. Being known is no guarantee of being relevant (yes Sears I'm talking to you). And being relevant today is no guarantee of being remembered tomorrow.

Doug Stephens, President, Retail Prophet

Brand awareness is what Sales and Marketing is all about. Without it your product becomes the 800 lb. gorilla dancing around while the kids are playing jacks.

I agree with the comment that 90% of the items on the shelves are ignored while searching for what we want and what we know works best for us. That does not in any way mean we are not aware of the other 90 percent. We are simply not buying them on this trip to the store.

Ed Rosenbaum, CEO, The Customer Service Rainmaker, Rainmaker Solutions

Getting noticed at retail is a very simple proposition, follow the 4 P's and you will be successful. Product differentiation through target market segmentation relies on this and so do consumers at the point of sale. The key is not to try to make your product a destination product, but instead to make it stand out once it is on the shelf by aggressively pursuing the 4 P's of marketing. A failure on any of these key indicators is only an easy way to allow your competition to gain a better presence...and more sales...at the point of purchase.

Kai Clarke, President, Miraclebeam Products, Inc.

Hello Joel, your comments on brand awareness are spot on, as usual. Brand awareness is one of the elements needed to be in place to sell well. But I believe Brand Popularity is the key component: your brand might be in the list of tens or hundreds of brands you know, but if not on top of the list, you're not going to be purchased. Your brand needs to be appreciated and amongst the favorites.

That being said, the next step is to be desired for purchase, another element to work on as a marketer. And so the relevance of the brand is the key component here. The trick is in how you handle this part, that's not an easy one (any advice?).

'PhilippeKG'