Brand recognition is a key metric in any brand building strategy. The fact is that people always tend to favour the brands we know in our choices. That is why measuring our brand’s ability to be recognised by our target audience helps us to understand whether the investment we are making to increase brand equity is having the results we want.
Brand recognition is part of a broader set of brand metrics. Today we tell you what metrics exist and how you can measure brand recognition to grow your sales.
Brand recognition is the ability of buyers to identify and remember a brand based on certain visual, auditory or conceptual elements associated with it. It is a key indicator of the level of familiarity and perception an audience has with a particular brand. Its great value is in making sales more likely. The more buyers are aware of the brand, the more likely they are to be chosen.
Brand recognition is equally important in B2C and B2B environments. In the case of consumers this is very clear, as often, when buying an everyday product, consumers do not think too much about the brand, and directly buy the product of the first brand that comes to mind. And if this brand were not available, they would look on the shelf to see which brands they know are available before exploring the ones they don’t know. But in B2B environments the brand is just as important. Colin Flemming, SVP of Brand Marketing at Salesforce mentions in a LinkedIn report that when a software buyer has to choose a vendor, two-thirds of the time they already have a brand in mind. And 94% of the time, they end up going with that brand. So if you’re not part of the initial consideration, there’s no way you’re going to be bought in B2B as well.
Brand recognition through name recognition is the most common. But sometimes there are brands that strive to create brand memories through other types of stimuli:
When assessing the power of your brand to be remembered there are several metrics you can use. They all look similar, but have important differences. That’s why most brands collect the various metrics, because from the differences between them they can find clues about the steps to take to boost brand equity.
Spontaneous brand awareness measures whether consumers can remember a brand spontaneously, without the help of visual or auditory stimuli. Spontaneous brand awareness goes one step further than brand recognition, as it requires the consumer to be able to find the brand name in his or her mind. This difference can be definitive, for example, in the field of online shops. If I remember the name of the online shop where I can buy the product I need, I will not even search the internet for other shops where I can buy it.
Within spontaneous awareness we must also distinguish ‘Top of Mind’ awareness, which is the first brand that comes to the consumer’s mind. In principle, if a brand is mentioned before others, it is more likely to be chosen. Recently, some experts have questioned this relationship, arguing that there is actually no evidence that the order in which brands are mentioned has an impact on purchase choice. As this is a debate that is not closed, we recommend that you do measure the ‘Top of Mind’ and see what results you get against your competitors.
As we have already mentioned, brand recognition measures the proportion of consumers who can identify a brand as known within a list of brand names or other visual or auditory stimuli.
Brand salience is a relatively new term, and in this case it measures the ability of a brand to be remembered in a specific purchase situation. In other words, it is not enough to remember a brand in the abstract, but it must be remembered by associating it with a specific purchase or usage situation. This will make it more likely that when the purchase situation arises, the brand will be the one chosen.
To better understand the concept of brand salience, let’s look at an example.
If we spontaneously ask people for the furniture shop brands they remember, it is highly likely that IKEA will be at the top of the list. Let’s imagine that instead of asking about the furniture shop brands you know, we ask about the furniture shop brands that come to mind when you think of:
Looking at the list, it is possible that in some cases IKEA is at the top of the list, but in other cases it is possible that for many people there are other brands that come to mind first.
The more specific situations – or category entry points – a brand can be associated with, the more likely it is to be chosen in those situations and the higher the sales potential. Therefore, one of the most important missions of brand managers is to increase the number of situations in which the brand can be remembered.
Brand recognition and other brand metrics are measured through a brand research project. If the potential buyer remembers or recognises the brand when it is presented to them, this is a sign that they will have the ability to identify the brand in connection with a purchase. These surveys help to understand various factors of importance to a brand, including awareness, recognition, and other metrics that can be part of the brand funnel. When brand testing is continuous, it is called brand tracking.
The questionnaire for a brand recognition test is simple. It is important to know that we should target consumers of the category, as those who are not consumers of the category will not be able to provide much value during the interview. Once selected, we should ask:
What is the first brand [in the category] that comes to your mind? With this question we will collect the top of mind.
What other brands [in the category] do you know, even if you have never bought them? With this second question we will collect spontaneous awareness or brand recall. This question should be open and not pre-coded, so that the consumer ‘searches his memory’.
Of the brands we are going to show you below, which ones do you know, even if you have never bought them? This is the question that will determine brand recognition, and here we can use images, as it is often interesting to show the name of the brand together with its logo. The consumer should then tick the boxes of the brands he/she knows.
With these three questions we would have collected top of mind, brand recall and brand recognition.
If we also want to collect brand salience, we will have to ask this battery of questions for each of the chosen purchase situations.
Given that with three simple questions we can collect the necessary information, it is important to include the questions whenever we can in our questionnaires, so that we can have evolutionary data to help us understand the impact of the investment in branding.
Especially key will be to measure brand recognition before and after a major campaign. In this way, the difference in brand recognition can be attributed to the campaign. Spontaneous recognition and awareness should also be a block included in brand tracking questionnaires.
At We are testers we have the tools and the team of experts with extensive experience in creating brand recognition surveys. Check how your brand is growing and validate your actions – get in touch to find out more!
Update date 7 January, 2025
