The Importance of Advertising and Maintaining Brand Recognition During Uncertain Times

By: Pablo Rodriguez, Senior Graphic Designer

During times of economic loss or general uncertainty, one might assume that slashing or eliminating your advertising budget would be beneficial to your bottom line. This may be a common assumption, but it is definitely not a proven one. In fact, reducing your advertising budget during an economic downturn may actually be counterproductive to the financial health of your business.

If you have been running a campaign or just generally spending on brand recognition, it is increasingly important to continue these efforts and not lose hard-earned ground. Especially in a world where most of the population is stuck at home and engaging on social media more than ever. You finally have what every advertiser dreams of – an attentive audience for longer periods of time. Advertising done right always has a way of paying for itself and then some. The ‘and then some’ is what we strive for through brand recognition.

Let’s Talk Brand Recognition

What is it and why is it so important? Brand recognition is the extent to which a consumer can correctly identify a product or service just by viewing the brand’s logo, tagline, packaging or advertising campaign. Allow me to share my own recent experience with brand recognition that demonstrates its importance.

The Purple Mattress

I had been teetering on the edge of buying a new mattress for about 2 years now. A top-of-the-line mattress costs a substantial amount of money and requires a good amount of research, which I had been doing for the past few months. When Memorial Day sales started approaching, I decided to bite the bullet and make the purchase. Through my preliminary research, I became familiar with a specific mattress brand – Purple Mattress. The company’s ads have consistently been following me around for months since I visited the website, so I had a high level of brand recognition with the company.

Their brand presence was consistent enough that I remembered them when I was finally ready to make a purchase. The rest is history, and I am now a proud owner of a Purple Mattress. This example highlights the nature of the general consumer’s decision-making process. Brand recognition isn’t about immediate purchases, it’s about maintaining a consistent presence in the life of the consumer. If you stay present, your audience will come to you when they are ready. Otherwise, you risk losing them to your competitors.

Building a Brand Awareness Campaign

Going deeper – how do you advertise to an audience when most of the world’s population is spending more time at home? Lucky for us and you, they all have a nifty little device that they just can’t seem to put down. Currently, digital ad inventory is up, and with access to robust targeting tools, zeroing in on your audience is easier than ever. With an engaging and ever-present brand awareness campaign – your business will stay top of mind. As the common marketing saying goes, “the brand that stays top of mind gets the biggest piece of the pie.”

If your company needs guidance on how to market your business in this new landscape, our team at MassMedia can help. As a senior creative with more than 7 years of experience, I’ve worked with clients across a wide variety of industries to design compelling creative campaigns that convert. To learn how MassMedia can help your business implement a results-driven digital marketing campaign, click here to contact us for a free consultation.