We treat each business as its own person, with its own personality. Part of this is knowing what stage the business is in. Has the business just been born? Is the business crawling? Maybe the business is in the walking stage? Or perhaps the business is running at full force?
This will have to do with how the business is marketing or advertising. Every consumer goes through the stages of: awareness, recognition, recall and action.
What does all this mean? Let's start with awareness
The awareness stage is the first stage and is the concept that your target market, the people you are trying to reach, is "aware" of your brand. Do they know what your company does?
This is the hardest, most time-consuming, longest and sometimes the most expensive step. How does a business get their target market to be aware that their product or service exists? You can have the best product or service in the world, but if no one knows about it? You know where I am going with this. How a company is going to build their awareness can have many factors, but the basics are through marketing and advertising. Having a website can definitely come in handy. Using social media will also build brand awareness. There are many forms of marketing that can help build brand awareness, it simply depends on the business and the budget that will determine how fast a business will move to the second step.
Second step, recognition.
When your target market sees your logo, do they recognize it? Do they relate your logo to your business and ideals. Creating that mental picture of the brand in your consumers’ heads is very important. Is your logo on both sides of your business card? Don’t feel bad if it is not. I find many companies that do not use both sides of the business card. To me, that is like a waste of real estate. Need new business cards, or even a design? Even if we are not the ones going to design or print them, no worries, give us a call or email your ideas over and we will give you are feedback. A consumer needs to see the logo at least 3 times before there is a chance of them recognizing it, let alone recalling it.
Third step, recall.
When your target market is thinking about a need or want can they "recall" your business. For example, my tooth hurts, you want me to think of, or be able to recall, your dental company. Or maybe I am feeling like I really want to go back to the gym, you would want me to be able to recall your gym. Maybe I am talking to someone that needs a new house, you would want me to be able to recall your mortgage company or you as a real estate agent. This is one of the harder stages. Think about when you were taking a test. When there were the multiple choice tests and then the essay tests. Many of us would be ecstatic about the multiple choice test because it is “sometimes” easier to recognize the right answer, rather than having to recall all the information.
Fourth step, is where every company wants to be, action.
A person is aware of your company, can recognize your logo, recalls your business as to satisfying the need or want, then acts. The consumer calls, emails or walks into your business.
Those are the stages, some of the stages could happen all at once. Someone sees your store, relates the logo with your store, remembers they need an outfit for that night, recalls your store that is in front of their face, goes into the store and buys a shirt.
However, it can obviously take longer than that. Someone can be aware about your product or service, but maybe they do not have the “need” or “want” right now. Take the mortgage industry, you meet John at an event that talks about getting a loan for a house in about 6 months. Do you think you want to stay in front of him? Of course! How would you do this? Social Media, Email Marketing, Newsletter etc. That way, when John is ready to get that loan, he knows who to call.
All these steps can be confusing and frustrating.
DVK is here to help. We will determine what stage your business is in and then discuss your budget and options, creating a package that you are comfortable with. Call us, we are here to help: 561-594-5837 or email me personally at Rebecca@dvkprgroup.com.
