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Brand awareness, which refers to the extent to which a company is recognised by its target audience, is not an end in itself. Long neglected by brands in favour of a form of performance marketing, working on brand awareness is nevertheless a business objective in its own right.
To question the brand awareness of one’s brand is also, above all, to ask whether the brand is firmly established in the minds of its total addressable market, especially at the moment of purchase.
According to the 95-5 rule, which stems from numerous empirical observations, 95% of your target audience is not in the market to purchase at the moment “M,” but will be at some point in the medium to long term (from several months to a few years).
The challenge of brand awareness is precisely to ensure that your company is at the forefront of this vast majority of buyers when they decide to change service providers or suppliers. Brand awareness, therefore, guarantees a pipeline that will be fed in the relatively near future.
Brand awareness is also a trust builder and a business facilitator, as a lead or prospect will inevitably be more receptive to a sales or marketing approach if they have already heard of the company.
In a context where B2B is recalibrating between branding and short-term actions (lead generation and direct marketing), we have chosen to dedicate a dossier to the question of brand awareness and its direct impact on overall business performance.
On the agenda: analyses and practical advice from branding experts at Infopro Digital, practical guides, insights from Marion Cousin, Director of Infopro Digital Stories & Studies, and our infographic on the best speaking strategies in 2024.
1. Brand awareness and branding are gaining traction among French decision-makers.Â
Enhancing brand awareness remains a top priority for French B2B companies in 2024, as highlighted by our latest marketing budget study.
💡​Indeed, two out of three decision-makers (66%) plan to implement an action plan in this regard, with a higher representation from medium-sized companies (81%). While all sectors are involved, commerce and distribution (80%) along with industry (75%) will be at the forefront of this dynamic.
French decision-makers view brand awareness not just as a vanity metric, but as a tangible, concrete, and measurable driver of commercial performance, at least on three levels:
- As mentioned earlier, anchoring your value proposition and/or brand in the minds of your total addressable market ensures sustained pipeline feeding and secures future revenue for the company;
- Building brand awareness also provides an additional argument to stand out from the competition, especially considering that the gap between different value propositions tends to narrow and offers can appear similar to a certain extent;
- Lastly, brand awareness is a key factor for successful lead generation. It intuitively signals quality and reliability, alleviates fear of the unknown, and reduces stress and responsibility for the buyer.Â
đź”— The first episode of our feature is dedicated to the context, challenges, and role of brand awareness in the B2B marketing toolbox.
2. How do French companies plan to enhance their brand awareness in 2024?
More than 70% of prospects prefer discovering a brand they are not familiar with through useful content rather than frontal advertisements ii.Â
Therefore, the focus on brand awareness must rely on marketing content that is substantial, profound and adds value, and French companies have clearly understood this. According to our study on investments in 2024, 80% of marketing departments intend to invest in content creation, with a peak among industrial companies (90%) and IT firms (87%).
This year again, diversity in formats remains key, with a blend of highly specialized and rigorous content in the traditional B2B vein (ebooks, whitepapers, in-depth articles, expert insights…) alongside more playful, digestible, and even entertaining formats, even in historically conservative sectors (videos, infographics, light-hearted LinkedIn posts, etc.).
The integration of these more ‘fun’ formats meets two challenges:
- 64% of B2B buyers are millennials or belong to Generation Z. They have grown up with the web and expect a certain level of entertainment in the content they consume, without compromising on usefulness and added value ;Â
- According to LinkedIn’s survey 87% of B2B buyers, believe that content can be both intellectually rigorous and easy to consume.
đź”— In the second episode, we took a look at the key formats that French B2B companies will be using to raise their profile.
3. The art of speaking to enhance brand awareness
The era of information overload is far from reaching its conclusion. It is likely to intensify, driven by AI-generated content.
Blogs that regurgitate each other, generic content, and neutral corporate discourse do not contribute to your strategic objectives. Decision-makers who boldly speak out to share their experiences, express strong opinions, and provide practical and immediately actionable advice inevitably find a high-quality audience and succeed in bridging the gap between content and business.
Speaking effectively, by saying interesting things to the right people, is not only about enhancing your branding and visibility, but also about demonstrating your legitimacy, humanizing your brand, and multiplying business opportunities.
đź”— This is the subject of the third episode, which we have also condensed into this infographic.
