By now you know that Building a strong brand isn’t just about having a great logo or a catchy slogan. You can choose and register a trademark in a moment of decision, but for this trademark to become a brand, it requires weeks, months, and years of effort. The result of your efforts will be the creation of an asset around your brand: your audience and customers will recognize it, become loyal to it, look for it in stores, search for it online, talk about it, debate and argue with others over your brand, and that's when you created Brand Asset. This asset is the share that your brand occupies in your audience's mind. The larger and better the position you secure in the customer's mind, the more successful your brand can be considered. When effectively developed and managed, these assets become symbols that spark recognition and trust. They act as shortcuts in customers' minds, reminding them of their experiences with your brand and helping you stand out in a crowded marketplace.

So how can we measured and evaluated our Brand's Assets? One of the methods is to measure our Brand's Awareness.

What is Brand Awareness? The Gateway to Customer Loyalty

The most general definition of brand awareness is that customers are aware of our brand's existence and consider us as an option in their purchases and decision-making. While brand assets are the visual tools in your branding toolkit, brand awareness is the outcome of how effectively those tools are used. It’s about how familiar and recognizable your brand is to your target audience.

Many brands pursue advertising with this very motivation.

What are the Indicators of Brand Awareness?

1. Brand Recognition: The customer or audience should immediately recognize and identify the brand when they see its signs. By recognition, I mean that they conclude, "I have seen this brand before and have been exposed to it", that’s it! not giving further more information about the brand, just if they recognize it.
2. Brand Recall: When you think of a specific need, product, or service, which brands come to your mind? Can you name a few make up brands? Typically, which brands come to mind when the topic of beauty products is mentioned? Can you name a few fast food chains?
3. ‍TOMA: Top of Mind Awareness or TOMA is a level stricter than "brand recall" because it examines the question: "In a specific category, am I the first brand that comes to the customer's mind?" what is the first brand comes to your mind in mobile phone brands?

Most managers use marketing and advertisement to increase their brand's awareness; so measuring brand awareness after marketing campaigns is necessary to determine the effectiveness of the campaign.

If you remember, in the Brand Positioning post, Al Ries and Jack Trout emphasize that branding means establishing your position on the highest rung of the ladder. They believed that if you can't stand on the highest rung of the ladder, you better create a new ladder. This can also help your TOMA; If you understand in which category your brand can be the number one name that comes to the customer's mind, you created a successful brand awareness.

Consider a brand like Maserati. If Maserati tests its brand recall in the "automobile" category, it probably won't achieve a high score. That is, it's unlikely to be listed among the top three brands in the automotive field.

So, Maserati can go one level deeper and see if the audience recalls the brand in the "luxury cars" category. If it still doesn't score well at this level, it should go another level deeper and assess itself in the "Italian luxury cars" category.

When we talk about the power of a brand, the first element that often comes to mind is brand awareness. However, the value and strength of a brand are not limited to brand awareness alone. Another key element of brand strength is Brand Loyalty.

Brand Loyalty

Brand loyalty is not just about getting customers to buy from you more than once. It’s about creating an emotional connection so strong that customers choose your brand over others, even when alternatives are available, sometimes even when they are cheaper. Brand loyalty goes beyond reason; it taps into the emotional core of your customers. It's what makes someone say, "I always buy Apple products" or "I only drink Coca-Cola."

If everyone knows your brand and easily recalls it, but only buys from you once and has no desire to make a repeat purchase, your brand will not create significant economic value. The reason for this is clear. We have all heard and know that the cost of acquiring a new customer is much higher than the cost of retaining an existing one. If brand loyalty is low and the customer churn rate is higher than usual, there won't be much profit left for you. This is because a significant portion of the business's revenue, instead of turning into profit, must be spent on acquiring new customers and compensating for lost ones.

Think of brand loyalty as the ultimate goal in your customer relationship journey. It’s like winning a fan who supports their favorite sports team, no matter what. Loyal customers don’t just buy—they advocate, recommend, and even defend your brand.

Measuring Brand Loyalty: How Do You Know It's Working?

Brand loyalty can be measured through several metrics, here are some ideas:

• Repeat Purchase Rate: The percentage of customers who return to buy again.
• Net Promoter Score (NPS): A score that indicates how likely customers are to recommend your brand to others.
• Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): The total revenue you can expect from a single customer throughout their relationship with your brand.
• Customer Retention Rate: The percentage of customers you retain over a specific period.

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Choose a brand that you are loyal to, and consider what behaviors or characteristics have made you loyal to that brand?