Increased Brand Awareness via PPC and SEO - No Brand, No Notice
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Brand advertisers try to get people (and especially consumers) to specifically recognize, identify, trust and use a certain entity. That entity is usually a trademark, product/service, company, supplier, manufacturer or service provider of some sort, but could also be an individual like Michael Jordan, for instance. As the latter implies, a brand is always identified by at least one distinct name; there is no brand without a brand name and that name plays a key role in consumers’ purchasing decisions. As Bob Marley humorously stated, "I have a BMW. But only because BMW stands for Bob Marley and The Wailers and not because I need an expensive car."
What’s Good About a Brand?
So what’s so good about a good brand? The organizations or individuals who do the branding enjoy not only recognition by consumers but also loyalty, which translates into return customers and increased sales in general. For example, Coke continues to strengthen its brand not only to lure new cola drinkers and get existing ones to drink more and more Coke, but also to keep everyone from moving over to Pepsi. Consumer benefit from brands by enjoying a greater sense of security and reliability when purchasing a well-known, branded product or service. Specifically, return customers know what’s in store for them (think of going to McDonalds). New customers don’t know what’s in store for them but are still somehow influenced by the brand or by others who have already purchased the brand.
Things Used to Be Simple
Before the marketing world became so sophisticated (not so long ago!), marketers didn’t invest as much effort into branding as they do today. For example, in the early 1970s some people were drinking vodka. What in the world could be “identified,” “known” or “trusted” about vodka? Well, in the late 1970’s, Absolut, the Swedish vodka was branded as "smart, showy, sassy, sophisticated, and stylish." Along with that message and a newly-styled attractive glass bottle, Absolut became one of the hottest-selling vodkas in the U.S. market.
Absolut is such a major brand in the vodka arena today that it can not afford to not show up within the top results of Google when a user searches for “vodka.” And guess what, indeed it does (regardless of the fact that it’s displaying a very unethical SEO code of ethics –- check the home page’s source and you’re in for a hell of a surprise!).
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