How Consumer Awareness Is Becoming The New Norm For Top Selling Brands
Post Created By Eric Burton | Updated On December 18, 2023
Since Brands are perceived subjectively by consumers, it is common for modern American companies to make decisions involving their products and services based on demographic profiles. The reason why this happens is that businesses, now, more than ever, need to represent a specific type of customer in an otherwise flooded marketplace. In a sense, companies must become mirrors of the Values represented in society today.
The assumption behind this is that consumers align better with companies who, not only solve their explicit needs but seek to also understand their implicit needs. In this case, it’s particularly uncommon for consumers to have loyalty to businesses that aren’t invested enough in their stakeholders and express introspection about their ideals.
"This is because they recognize, albeit subconsciously when there is no connection between themselves and a product or service, a connection derived from knowing their personal, political, and moral motivations."
At its core, a brand is an investment in knowing the way consumers respond emotionally to social, political, ethical, and cultural. This can mean well in the long term because, without this information, a company cannot set itself apart from thousands of others offering the same goods. Therefore, the substance of a successful business is in the interaction, reaction, and overall consumer experience.
Credits to Thee AST London Photographer from Unsplash.com
Does My Company Need Branding If I Have A Logo? Doesn't That Count?
A logo alone doesn’t magically reel in tons of buying customers. It is the over-encompassing Brand presence, the personality of the business, so to speak, that attracts them. This is because people respond better to human-like qualities. A business with a seemingly conscious personality relates better to society. For example, Apple’s shareholding hasn’t tripled in the last few years because it has the best devices. While it does offer top-of-the-line products, its consumers are presented with something far better.
The company’s tagline reads, “Think Different,” offering a glimpse of how owning its products can make a person more innovative and frankly, cooler. Apple shows how its products benefit its consumers’ lives rather than offering them a feature. This would explain the emotional attachment and behavior of millions of loyal customers who continue to make lasting purchases.
More noticeably, consumers seem to enjoy these types of qualities in Brands. For example, Coca-Cola could be viewed as standing for equality and multiculturalism, with different consumers responding either positively or negatively to their Brand based on their own beliefs. In this way, a Brand could potentially attract or alienate a consumer through the Brand’s messaging, or ideological lens. This is done to reflect what consumers may like or dislike about their society and what it represents. (Shepherd, S., Chartrand, T. L., & Fitzsimons, G. J., 2015).
Conclusion
What Branding provides for a company proves to be unique and indispensable, because it is the place where the most intangible sensory connections happen within a consumer journey. Although customers seek out and relate to forms like logos, imagery, iconography, design, and typography, those connections happen in the customer’s mind. On the other hand, a Brand becomes likable through affinity and awareness based on a consumer’s emotions, experiences with certain brand touchpoints, and first impression feelings. In the case of any type of relationship, where there is no connection, there can be no lasting loyalty. That is why a company needs branding.
FOOTNOTE:
Shepherd, S., Chartrand, T. L., & Fitzsimons, G. J. (2015). JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, 42(1), 76-92.
https://academic.oup.com/jcr/article-abstract/42/1/76/1811239
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About The Author
Eric Burton, Brand Identity Designer
Eric is a visual identity designer and brand strategist who helps small businesses launch new products and services with content-driven solutions for print and web-based media.
With over five years of experience in graphic design, working in various industries and environments, from manufacturing and non-profit to freelance and collaborative. he enjoys working with executives, LOB leaders, vendors, and printers to ensure quality and consistency across all channels and platforms.
His mission is to create impactful and engaging designs that connect with a business’s target audience to achieve goals such as increasing brand awareness, trust, loyalty, growth and equity.