Brand Awareness and Market Presence Affect Even The Small Guy

What do leaders in any product or retail consumer based industry have in common?

BRAND AWARENESS and MARKET PRESENCE (among other common denominators)

Brand awareness is about the people in your target demographic, so where are those people? We see evidence in our daily news (literally). The news industry has changed tremendously, most people read/view their news from an online source. Readership is continually growing on news websites. This means readership is down for the traditional news entities.  Because of this, the smart money advertising dollars have shifted from print to web. We are now starting to see newspapers and circular magazines shut down or transition completely to an online platform on an all to regular basis.

It’s a fact that people are spending more time online, less time interacting with others face to face. Think about it. People purchase music, watch tv, download books, read articles, shop, research consumer goods and communicate at one place - ONLINE! According to  BIA/Kelse,  97% of all consumers use the internet for product research. Product knowledge is gained  from an endless list of online resources like advertisements, forums, shopping websites, review websites and the list goes on and on. It doesn’t stop with product research. Think about the last time you had a stomach ache and checked out webmd.com,  or heard a rattle come from your wheel well and ended up checking out the new automd.com for answers. Many people go to the doctor or mechanic, having already done research, thinking they know what the problem is or know what product they want based off their own research!

It isn’t enough anymore to simply boost your google ranking through quaility back links or pay for click ad campaigns. Good starting points, but a bit short sided. To summarize;  you need to have more quality content online. Content besides what is on your own website. You have to display your brand, product and content on a whole host of sources and social media communities. It plays a key part in the target audience that is researching your particular niche or market. This has become the norm for the vast majority of growing and well established brands. It is by no means a magic wand, but it is a must, to maintain and improve product awareness among your target market!

To learn more about online consumers, read this article by BIA/Kelsey!

We are doing our best to keep up with the current market. What are you doing? Begin the discussion below!