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A top goal of all branding is to increase brand recognition and awareness. Brand recognition is the ability of consumers to identify a brand by its attributes, such as its logo or distinctive colors. You may see the familiar green-and-white mermaid logo, for example, and instantly recognize it as the Starbucks logo. Brand awareness is the extent to which consumers understand what a specific brand represents or stands for. You see the Starbucks logo and know that it represents quality coffee and a relaxing and enjoyable experience.

Brand recognition and awareness are fundamental to a brand’s success. After all, if people don’t know about your brand, it’s not much of a brand. Brand recognition and awareness can open doors to customers, opportunities, and partnerships. These factors are especially important if you’re hoping to partner with large corporations because they’ll want social proof of your brand’s intrinsic value, such as number of friends and followers.

If you’re looking to form strategic partnerships or get your products into the big-box retailers, building brand recognition and awareness is the way to do it.

When building brand recognition and awareness is the goal, you may find the following branding activities to be particularly useful:

 Giveaways: A giveaway is just what it sounds like: providing free merchandise or services to consumers. Giveaways may involve swag, such as branded pens, key chains, koozies, and retail bags; sample products or services; free trial subscriptions; or contests. You can do giveaways alone or in conjunction with partners (see Chapter 9). You can do them at physical locations (see Chapter 11), online via your website or blog (see Chapter 12), or via social media (see Chapter 13).

 Press releases: Harnessing the power of the press (print, television, radio, and online news) is a great way to create buzz with very little effort. All you need to do is plan something newsworthy, such as an exciting event or a product launch, and distribute a press release about it. (See Chapter 10 for more about teaming up with the media.)

 Influencer campaign: An influencer campaign is a marketing tactic that involves recruiting or hiring people who are well known and trusted in target markets to give their endorsements. See Chapter 13 for guidance on how to launch an influencer campaign of your own.Whenever I add a new product to my Girl Gang brand, I initiate a small, organic influencer campaign. Over time, I’ve developed strong relationships with a small group of influencers, who contribute significantly to the success of every new product release. You may be able to expand your brand’s reach with one macro influencer or multiple micro influencers. A macro influencer is someone with celebrity status (a household name) — someone with tens of thousands to millions of followers on social media. A micro influencer, on the other hand, has followers in the range of 10,000 to 50,000. Micro influencers charge significantly less for their services and may even promote a brand they really like for free.

 Brand partnerships: A brand partnership is an agreement between at least two businesses that want to help each other increase their brand exposure. Teaming up with a brand that has an audience you’re hoping to reach can be very helpful. Strategically partnering with another brand can bring in a new audience, create sales opportunities, and offer brand exposure for both companies. (See Chapter 9 for details about building strategic partnerships.)Impossible Foods, a vegan food company famous for its plant-based burger patty, teamed up with Burger King to create the Impossible Whopper. This brand partnership is a great match because each company is reaching a new market. Burger King is adding a menu item for vegetarian customers who previously wouldn’t buy its beef burgers, and Impossible Foods is reaching customers at a popular fast-food chain who may not have tried its product.

 Traditional advertising: Depending on the product or service you offer, traditional advertising in the right outlet can help create brand awareness. If you’re launching a coaching business, taking out an advertisement in a magazine or journal that’s popular in your industry can give you exposure to precisely the market you’re trying to reach. Before buying any ad space, check out the publication’s circulation, which provides insight into the maximum number of people who will see the advertisement, as well as the demographic, which is the target audience. Use these to make sure the reach and target demographic align with your goals. For the purpose of increasing brand awareness, this metric (measure of value) is key.