Brand awareness

Brand awareness refers to the extent to which customers are able to recall or recognise a brand.
Brand awareness is a key consideration in consumer behavior, advertising management, brand
management and strategy development. The consumer's ability to recognise or recall a brand is
central to purchasing decision-making. Purchasing cannot proceed unless a consumer is first
aware of a product category and a brand within that category. Awareness does not necessarily
mean that the consumer must be able to recall a specific brand name, but he or she must be able
to recall sufficient distinguishing features for purchasing to proceed. For instance, if a consumer
asks her friend to buy her some gum in a "blue pack", the friend would be expected to know
which gum to buy, even though neither friend can recall the precise brand name at the time.

Different types of brand awareness have been identified, namely brand recall and brand
recognition. Key researchers argue that these different types of awareness operate in
fundamentally different ways and that this has important implications for the purchase decision
process and for marketing communications. Brand awareness is closely related to concepts such
as the evoked set and consideration set which describe specific aspects of the consumer's
purchase decision. Consumers are believed to hold between three and seven brands in their
consideration set across a broad range of product categories. Consumers will normally purchase
one of the top three brands in their consideration set.

Brand awareness is a key indicator of a brand's competitive market performance. Given the
importance of brand awareness in consumer purchasing decisions, marketers have developed a
number of metrics designed to measure brand awareness and other measures of brand health.
These metrics are collectively known as Awareness, Attitudes and Usage (AAU) metrics.

To ensure a product or brand's market success, awareness levels must be managed across the
entire product life-cycle - from product launch through to market decline. Many marketers
regularly monitor brand awareness levels, and if they fall below a predetermined threshold, the
advertising and promotional effort is intensified until awareness returns to the desired level.

Importance of brand awareness

Brand awareness is related to the functions of brand identities in consumers’ memory and can be
measured by how well the consumers can identify the brand under various conditions. Brand
awareness is also central to understanding the consumer purchase decision process. Strong brand
awareness can be a predictor of brand success. It is an important measure of brand strength or
brand equity and is also involved in customer satisfaction, brand loyalty and the customer's brand
relationships.

Brand awareness is a key indicator of a brand's market performance. Every year advertisers
invest substantial sums of money attempting to improve a brand's overall awareness levels.
Many marketers regularly monitor brand awareness levels, and if they fall below a
predetermined threshold, the advertising and promotional effort is intensified until awareness
returns to the desired level. Setting brand awareness goals/ objectives is a key decision in
marketing planning and strategy development.

Brand awareness is one of major brand assets that adds value to the product, service or company.
Investments in building brand awareness can lead to sustainable competitive advantages, thus,
leading to long-term value.

1. Being Proactive Through Technology and Social Media

Because we are in an era of constant advancements in technology, brand awareness is especially

important for every business. This is because people always have some type of computer in their
hand, whether it’s a smartphone, a tablet, or an actual laptop/desktop, which means they are able
to quickly communicate with others in a matter of seconds.

This could either work in favor of, or against your business. It all comes down to how you go
about using it and adapting to these many technological advances. Being proactive in brand
building through social media will lead to a better brand experience for existing customers while
turning prospective customers into loyal brand followers.

2. The Drive For Repeat Purchases

According to ISPO news, “90 percent of all purchasing decisions are made subconsciously. We
use mental shortcuts to skip the process and avoid being overwhelmed by the number of
available options from competitors.” With a good marketing campaign focused on your brand
and business model, you will more effectively narrow in on your target audience and encourage
them to feel connected to and empowered by your brand. Brand awareness affects perceptions
and attitudes, which drive brand choice and even brand loyalty. This means that without brand
awareness, repeat purchases are less likely.

3. Increased Market Share and Sales

By building brand awareness, you can also increase your market share. If you are the first to the
punch in getting your brand fused into customers’ minds, you will raise the barrier to other
companies that are trying to enter the market. According to the Strategic Planning Institute,
“Aggressive marketing and advertising, are the key factors in increasing brand awareness and
converting awareness into market share.” Brand awareness does not have a financial value on its
own, but it is part of the collective marketing effort that drives incremental sales.

There are many ways you can go about boosting brand awareness amongst consumers, and
making a brand mean something to consumers when they look at it is just as important as a sales
pitch. Your marketing strategies may vary year-to-year, but a consistent brand message will help
make your business top-of-mind when your target market is comparison shopping.

Brand Equity
Brand equity refers to a value premium that a company generates from a product with a
recognizable name when compared to a generic equivalent. Companies can create brand equity
for their products by making them memorable, easily recognizable, and superior in quality and
reliability. Mass marketing campaigns also help to create brand equity.

When a company has positive brand equity, customers willingly pay a high price for its products,
even though they could get the same thing from a competitor for less. Customers, in effect, pay a
price premium to do business with a firm they know and admire. Because the company with
brand equity does not incur a higher expense than its competitors to produce the product and
bring it to market, the difference in price goes to margin. The firm's brand equity enables it to
make a bigger profit on each sale.

Understanding Brand Equity

Brand equity has three basic components: consumer perception, negative or positive effects, and
the resulting value. Foremost, consumer perception, which includes both knowledge and
experience with a brand and its products, builds brand equity. The perception that a consumer
segment holds about a brand directly results in either positive or negative effects. If the brand
equity is positive, the organization, its products, and its financials can benefit. If the brand equity
is negative, the opposite is true.

Finally, these effects can turn into either tangible or intangible value. If the effect is positive,
tangible value is realized as increases in revenue or profits and intangible value is realized as
marketing as awareness or goodwill. If the effects are negative, the tangible or intangible value is
also negative. For example, if consumers are willing to pay more for a generic product than for a
branded one, the brand is said to have negative brand equity. This might happen if a company
has a major product recall or causes a widely publicized environmental disaster.

Effect on Profit Margins

When customers attach a level of quality or prestige to a brand, they perceive that brand's
products as being worth more than products made by competitors, so they are willing to pay
more. In effect, the market bears higher prices for brands that have high levels of brand equity.
The cost of manufacturing a golf shirt and bringing it to market is not higher, at least to a
significant degree, for Lacoste than it is for a less reputable brand.

However, because its customers are willing to pay more, it can charge a higher price for that
shirt, with the difference going to profit. Positive brand equity increases profit margin per
customer because it allows a company to charge more for a product than competitors, even
though it was obtained at the same price.

Brand equity has a direct effect on sales volume because consumers gravitate toward products
with great reputations. For example, when Apple releases a new product, customers line up
around the block to buy it even though it is usually priced higher than similar products from
competitors. One of the primary reasons why Apple's products sell in such large numbers is that
the company has amassed a staggering amount of positive brand equity. Because a certain
percentage of a company's costs to sell products are fixed, higher sales volumes translate to
greater profit margins.

Customer retention is the third area in which brand equity affects profit margins. Returning to the
Apple example, most of the company's customers do not own only one Apple product; they own
several, and they eagerly anticipate the next one's release. Apple's customer base is fiercely loyal,
sometimes bordering on evangelical. Apple enjoys high customer retention, another result of its
brand equity. Retaining existing customers increases profit margins by lowering the amount a
business has to spend on marketing to achieve the same sales volume. It costs less to retain an
existing customer than to acquire a new one.

Types of brand awareness

Brand recall

Brand recall is also known as unaided recall or spontaneous recall and refers to the ability of the
consumers to correctly elicit a brand name from memory when prompted by a product category.
Brand recall indicates a relatively strong link between a category and a brand while brand
recognition indicates a weaker link. When prompted by a product category, most consumers can
only recall a relatively small set of brands, typically around 3–5 brand names. In consumer tests,
few consumers can recall more than seven brand names within a given category and for low-
interest product categories, most consumers can only recall one or two brand names.

Research suggests that the number of brands that consumers can recall is affected by both
individual and product factors including; brand loyalty, awareness set size, situational, usage
factors and education level. For instance, consumers who are involved with a category, such as
heavy users or product enthusiasts, may be able to recall a slightly larger set of brand names than
those who are less involved.

Brand recognition

Brand recognition is also known as aided recall and refers to the ability of the consumers to
correctly differentiate the brand when they come into contact with it. This does not necessarily
require that the consumers identify the brand name. Instead, it means that consumers can
recognise the brand when presented with it at the point-of-sale or after viewing its visual
packaging. In contrast to brand recall, where few consumers are able to spontaneously recall
brand names within a given category, when prompted with a brand name, a larger number of
consumers are typically able to recognise it.

Top-of-mind awareness

Consumers will normally purchase one of the top three brands in their consideration set. This is
known as top-of-mind awareness. Consequently, one of the goals for most marketing
communications is to increase the probability that consumers will include the brand in their
consideration sets.

By definition, top-of-mind awareness is "the first brand that comes to mind when a customer is
asked an unprompted question about a category." When discussing top-of-mind awareness
among larger groups of consumers (as opposed to a single consumer), it is more often defined as
the "most remembered" or "most recalled" brand name(s).

A brand that enjoys top-of-mind awareness will generally be considered as a genuine purchase
option, provided that the consumer is favourably disposed to the brand name. Top-of-mind
awareness is relevant when consumers make a quick choice between competing brands in low-
involvement categories or for impulse type purchases.

Marketing implications of brand awareness

Clearly brand awareness is closely related to the concepts of the evoked set (defined as the set of
brands that a consumer can elicit from memory when contemplating a purchase) and the
consideration set (defined as the “small set of brands which a consumer pays close attention to
when making a purchase decision”). One of the central roles of advertising is to create both
brand awareness and brand image, in order to increase the likelihood that a brand is included in
the consumer's evoked set or consideration set and regarded favourably.

Consumers do not learn about products and brands from advertising alone. When making
purchase decisions, consumers acquire information from a wide variety of sources in order to
inform their decisions. After searching for information about a category, consumers may become
aware of a larger number of brands which collectively are known as the awareness set. Thus, the
awareness set is likely to change as consumers acquire new information about brands or
products. A review of empirical studies in this area suggests that the consideration set is likely to
be at least three times larger than the evoked set. Awareness alone is not sufficient to trigger a
purchase, consumers also need to be favourably disposed to a brand before it will be considered
as a realistic purchase option.

The process of moving consumers from brand awareness and a positive brand attitude through to
the actual sale is known as conversion. While advertising is an excellent tool for creating
awareness and brand attitude, it usually requires support from other elements in the marketing
program to convert attitudes into actual sales. Other promotional activities, such as
telemarketing, are vastly superior to advertising in terms of generating sales. Accordingly, the
advertising message might attempt to drive consumers to direct sales call centres as part of an
integrated communications strategy. Many different techniques can be used to convert interest
into sales including special price offers, special promotional offers, attractive trade-in terms or
guarantees.

Percy and Rossiter (1992) argue that the two types of awareness, namely brand recall and brand
recognition, operate in fundamentally different ways in the purchase decision. For routine
purchases such as fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), few shoppers carry shopping lists. For
them, the presentation of brands at the point-of-sale acts as a visual reminder and triggers
category need. In this case, brand recognition is the dominant mode of awareness. For other
purchases, where the brand is not present, the consumer first experiences category need then
searches memory for brands within that category. Many services, such as home help, gardening
services, pizza delivery fall into this category. In this case, the category need precedes brand
awareness. Such purchases are recall dominant, and the consumer is more likely to select one of
the brands elicited from memory. When brand recall is dominant, it is not necessary for
consumers to like the advertisement, but they must like the brand. In contrast, consumers should
like the ad when brand recognition is the communications objective.

Brand dominance occurs when, during brand recall tests, most consumers can name only one
brand from a given category. Brand dominance is defined as an individual’s selection of only
certain brand names in a related category during a brand recall procedure. While brand
dominance might appear to be a desirable goal, overall dominance can be a double-edged sword.

Measuring brand awareness

Just as different types of brand awareness can be identified, there are a variety of methods for
measuring awareness. Typically, researchers use surveys, carried out on a sample of consumers
asking about their knowledge of the focus brand or category.

Two types of recall test are used to measure brand awareness:

 Unaided recall tests: where the respondent is presented with a product category and asked
to nominate as many brands as possible. Thus, the unaided recall test provides the
respondent with no clues or cues. Unaided recall tests are used to test for brand recall.
 Aided recall test: where the respondent is prompted with a brand name and asked whether
they have seen it or heard about it. In some aided recall tests, the respondent might also
be asked to explain what they know about the brand e.g. to describe package, colour, logo
or other distinctive features. Aided recall tests are used to test for brand recognition.
 Other brand-effects tests: In addition, to recall tests, brand research often employs a
battery of tests, such as brand association tests, brand attitude, brand image, brand
 dominance, brand value, brand salience and other measures of brand health. Although
these tests do not explicitly measure brand awareness, they provide general measures of
brand health and often are used in conjunction with brand recall tests.

To measure brand salience, for example, researchers place products on a shelf in a supermarket,
giving each brand equal shelf space. Consumers are shown photographs of the shelf display and
ask consumers to name the brands noticed. The speed at which consumers nominate a given
brand is an indicator of brand's visual salience. This type of research can provide valuable
insights into the effectiveness of packaging design and brand logos.

Obviously, most marketers aim to build high levels of brand awareness within relevant market
segments, giving rise to a continuing interest in developing the right metrics to measure brand
effects. Metrics used to measure brand effects are collectively termed AAU metrics (Awareness,
Attitudes and Usage).

Creating and maintaining brand awareness

Brand advertising can increase the probability that a consumer will include a given brand in his
or her consideration set. Brand-related advertising expenditure has a positive effect on brand
awareness levels. Virtually anything that exposes consumers to a brand increases brand
awareness. “Repeat brand exposure in stores improves consumers' ability to recognize and recall
the brand. Increased exposure to brand advertising can increase consumer awareness and
facilitate consumer processing of the included information, and by doing this it can heighten
consumers brand recall and attitude towards the brand.
To increase the probability of a product's acceptance by the market, it is important to create high
levels of brand awareness as early as practical in a product or brand's life-cycle. To achieve top-
of-mind awareness, marketers have traditionally, relied on intensive advertising campaigns,
especially at the time of a product launch. To be successful, an intensive campaign utilises both
broad reach (expose more people to the message) and high frequency (expose people multiple
times to the message). Advertising, especially main media advertising, was seen as the most cost
efficient means of reaching large audiences with the relatively high frequency needed to create
high awareness levels. Nevertheless, intensive advertising campaigns can become very expensive
and can rarely be sustained for long periods. Alhaddad (2015) indicates that advertising
awareness plays as a good source of meaning and identity for a brand by enhance brand
awareness and brand image in social media.

As new products enter the market growth stage, the number of competitors tends to increase with
implications for market share. Marketers may need to maintain awareness at some predetermined
level to ensure steady sales and stable market share. Marketers often rely on rough and ready
'rules-of-thumb' to estimate the amount of advertising expenditure required to achieve a given
level of awareness. For instance, it was often held that to increase brand awareness by just one
per cent, it was necessary to double the dollars spent on advertising.

While advertising remains important for creating awareness, a number of changes in the media
landscape and to consumer media habits have reduced the reliance on main media advertising.
Instead, marketers are seeking to place their brand messages across a much wider variety of
platforms. An increasing amount of consumer time and attention is devoted to digital
communications devices - from computers and tablets through to cellphones. It is now possible
to engage with consumers in a more cost efficient manner using platforms such as social media
networks that command massive audiences. For example, Facebook has become an extremely
important communications channel. Moreover, social media channels allow for two-way,
interactive communications that are not paralleled by traditional main media. Interactive
communications provide more opportunities for brands to connect with audience members and to
move beyond simple awareness, facilitating brand preference, brand conviction and ultimately
brand loyalty.
 CHAPTER – 3
ANALYSIS AND
INTERPRETATION
Research Methodology:

Research Methodology is the basic framework, which provides guidelines for the rest of the
research process and a way to systematically solve the research problem. It is a map or a blue
print according to which the research is to be conducted. The research methodology specific to
this project is as follows.

Type of Research

Research type for this project includes surveys and fact-finding enquiries of different kinds. The
research aims at gathering information about the brand awareness of cake on time.

Research Requirement

A research design is master plan specifying the methods and procedures for collecting and
analyzing the needed information. Here is our project we adopted the descriptive (sample survey)
and analytical research method.

Research instrument

There is various way of research instrument of collecting primary data, the various methods are:-

1. Questionnaires.

2. Psychological tools.

3. Mechanical Devices.

4. Qualitative Measures.

From the above mentioned research instruments I had used only Questionnaires technique to find
out the various information about the brand awareness of Cake on Time among its customers.

Sampling Plan

Like in many marketing research project where making a census study of the entire universe
would be impossible an account of limitations of time and money. Hence sampling becomes
inevitable, in the study also, sampling is done to gather information from the market place.
However the success of the sample truly represents that of the universe.
Sample size

An intergral of component of research design is a sampling plan. Sample size which was taken
for the research .

Sample is 50

Data collection Method

Data collection is an elaborate process in which researcher makes a planned search for all
relevant information. Here in this project we have used both the primary and secondary data.

Primary data is data that is collected by a researcher from first-hand sources, using methods like
surveys, interviews, or experiments. It is collected with the research project in mind, directly
from primary sources.

Secondary data refers to data which is collected by someone who is someone other than the user.
Common sources of secondary data for social science include censuses, information collected by
government departments, organizational records and data that was originally collected for other
research purposes.

Primary data: Questionnaire

Secondary data: Internet

Q1. Do you consume cake?

S.NO. CATEGORIES NO. OF PERCENTAGE

RESPONDANTS
1 Yes 47 94%
2 No 3 6%
Q2. How often do you consume cake?

S.NO. CATEGORIES NO. OF PERCENTAGE

RESPONDANTS
1 Special Occasions
2 Several times a month
3 Once in three months
4 Several times in a
year
Q3. Which flavor of cake do you prefer?

S.NO. CATEGORIES NO. OF PERCENTAGE

RESPONDANTS
1 Pineapple
2 Black Forest
3 Red Velvet
4 Chocolate
Q4. Where do you typically buy cakes from?

S.NO. CATEGORIES NO. OF PERCENTAGE

RESPONDANTS
1 Online
2 Bakery
Q5. What are your priorities while purchasing a cake?

S.NO. CATEGORIES NO. OF PERCENTAGE

RESPONDANTS
1 Taste
2 Packaging
3 Freshness
4 Price
Q6. Which price range do you consider for buying cake?

S.NO. CATEGORIES NO. OF PERCENTAGE

RESPONDANTS
1 201-300
2 301-400
3 401-600
4 More than 600
Q7. Do you change the brand if availability of preferred cake is a problem?

S.NO. CATEGORIES NO. OF PERCENTAGE

RESPONDANTS
1 Yes 33 66%
2 No 17 34%
Q8. Are you price sensitive consumer?

S.NO. CATEGORIES NO. OF PERCENTAGE

RESPONDANTS
1 Yes 28 56%
2 No 22 44%
Q9. Have you heard of Cake on Time?

S.NO. CATEGORIES NO. OF PERCENTAGE

RESPONDANTS
1 Yes 18 36%
2 No 32 64%
Q10. Will you buy anything from Cake on Time in future?

S.NO. CATEGORIES NO. OF PERCENTAGE

RESPONDANTS
1 Yes 20
2 No 30
 CHAPTER – 4
LEASON LEARNT
 RESEARCH FINDINGS
 Overall performance of Cake on Time does not show results when it comes to brand
awareness many of the have not heard about Cake on Time.
 When consumers where asked about what brands comes to their mind if they want to buy
cake only 10% said Cake on Time.
 Costumers and confused related to the meaning of the brand some of the them take brand
as a name of a good company few think it means a standard product.
 People were asked that they know about Cake on Time many of the customers does not
even heard the name Cake on Time.

LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

 I was not able explore all the customers.
 Many individuals did not fill their answers. So, the actual figures can be somewhat
different.
 Some of the customers who knew about Cake on Time did not give exact answers. Like
they did not talk much about answers of the questions.
 CONCLUSION & SUGGESTION

As we seen in the data collected about 80% does not even heard about the Cake on Time. It
needs to build it customer base so that more people know about Cake on Time. Many of the
customers of have neutral opinion about Cake on Time and it needs covert unsatisfied people.

SUGGESTIONS

Based upon the time spent by me in the market, useful suggestions of the customers and findings
from the survey. Following suggestions can be made for increasing the brand awareness of Cake
on Time.

 Marketing & advertising services should be improved in order to improve awareness

level of the customers.
 Company should introduce new product range.
 Cake on Time should improve public relations.
BIBLOGRAPHY:
 https://www.cakeontime.com
 www.google.com
 Research Methodology –C.R Kothari
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brand_awareness