As a brand owner, you’ve probably thought about what influences your customer’s shopping decisions. What is that trigger that makes them pick a certain product over another one? Is it the price, is it the packaging, is the brand name, or is it something else?
The field of marketing and branding has been branching out and expanding in recent years. Now, we’ve realized that there are both conscious and subconscious triggers that influence one’s shopping habits. If we know how to tap into the conscious part, how do we access the subconsciousness? Brand salience is the answer.
What Is Brand Salience?
Brand salience represents the level of interest your customers display to your product or service. This term is especially important during the purchase process because it can impact your shoppers’ purchasing decisions. While many confuse it with ‘’brand awareness,’’ even though these two terms are similar in some aspects, they aren’t the same.
Brand awareness describes the more superficial level of familiarity with your brand, product, or service. Brand salience, on the other hand, is what influences customers to choose your product in particular over your competitors’. We can take massive brands like McDonald’s or Coca-Cola as an example. Their brand salience is very high, which is why most of us usually gravitate towards their products instead of Dr. Pepper or Wendy’s.
Let’s learn why brand salience is important.
Why Is Brand Salience Important?
Brand salience is important because it influences how successful your business will be. However, there’s a whole science behind it, and it’s much more complex than one might think. Experts have linked brand silence to memory structures. That means that owners should focus on linking their brands to specific buying situations instead of only brand awareness.
So far, it has been discovered that there are two main types of memory structure that impact brand salience in consumers’ heads:
- Memory Structure Quality – This refers to the relevance of brand associations that influence one’s purchasing decisions.
- Memory Structure Quantity – This discusses specific mental cues that make consumers pick one product over another.
Because brands are always looking for ways to connect with their consumers and boost sales, you should pay special attention to brand salience. A lot of experts state that purchasing decisions are often made subconsciously. So, why not try to tap into that side of marketing? Emotional marketing is a real thing and a very successful one at that.
You can achieve brand salience in two main ways:
- Attention – this is usually achieved by certain visual cues. It includes specific colors and flashy elements but also other cues that are distinct.
- Memory – this represents how and if your customers associate any memories and emotions with your brand. The more of an emotional connection they feel, the bigger their loyalty to the brand will be.
Here are some tips on how to use these two principles to improve your own brand’s salience.
Tips for Increasing Brand Salience
The whole goal of successful brand salience is to make your brand synonym with the product type in customers’ minds. So, if you’re in the business of selling ketchup, whenever your customers hear the word ‘’ketchup’’, they’ll immediately associate it with your brand. This involves a lot of effort and strategizing, but it pays off immensely in the long run. Here are our top tips on how to achieve and maintain brand salience:
- Be unique – uniqueness and authenticity are some of the most important factors for customers when opting for a specific brand. Don’t be afraid to be bold, take risks, and set yourself apart. Always make sure to highlight your uniqueness in your ad campaigns and other communications.
- Don’t fall in a rut – being repetitive will get you nowhere. Not only does it seem like you’re not trying, but it also becomes boring and lazy. Customers don’t like that. Make sure to always test your brand and think of new approaches that can get you more sales and improved brand awareness and salience. Testing will show what works and what doesn’t, which you can easily modify to optimize any further campaigns.
- Use emotional storytelling – whenever possible, always try to play on your customers’ emotions. Humans are emotional people, and we feel closely connected to something that touches our souls. This is especially important for increasing customer loyalty. Coca-Cola’s holiday ads are a perfect example of how emotional nostalgia can rack in millions of dollars in sales.
Conclusion
Brand salience is what sets your brand apart from competitors and what makes your customers want to buy your product. If you don’t work on longevity on your brand, you’ll just become another pea in the pod. Use these techniques to hit your customers’ wishes and intentions and win all those sales for yourself.
