Amongst many interesting results, Nielsen’s 2022 Annual Global Marketing report showed us that companies increasingly need to build brand awareness to stay relevant.
In recent years the consumer market went through a radical change. People got used to shopping online, where the ’shelves are infinite’. This makes it harder for brands to stand out from the rest, especially because now there is no preliminary physical contact with the product. Not only that, but supply chains were regularly disrupted, forcing consumers to try alternatives.
Stressful Times in B2C and B2B
According to research conducted by Nielsen, „85% of studied purchases involved brands the customer had already tried in the past. Additionally, 22% of consumers report feeling worried or nervous about trying a new brand.”
Companies not only need to ease the stress of the first choice, but also need to nurture relationship with new clients. Because, as mentioned previously, consumers now have infinitely more opportunities to try out new services.
Whether we like it or not, this is also true in the Business-to-Business market. These new developments in consumer behaviour can show themselves in B2B purchasing patterns as well. Of course, the effects are not as dramatic as in B2C. Because, as we all know, companies strive for consistency and stability.
How to Maintain Brand Awareness
Companies that want to build Brand Awareness have to start with research. Not only about themselves and the market, but about how content is consumed and what the important topics are. Branding and Brand Activation have to be done accordingly.
Yet another Nielsen report highlights that „over half of U.S. consumers (52.3%) purchase from brands that support causes they care about; similarly, more than 36% expect the brands they buy to support social causes. Brand trust is also a significant purchase influencer.”
The above quote shows that having a meaningful and continuous CSR strategy is a great tool to maintain Brand Awareness. This also stands true for B2B Communications as well, where having partners well-known for their charity can be a selling point in itself.
Another, obvious way to stay relevant is to develop valuable content. As things stand right now, video is one of the most popular format for content. However – forget me the pun – we should not be content with that. Our production has to evolve with the times, in order to keep up with our audiences. We create content for the customer, not for self-entertainment.