When you spend years wearing the same type of clothes and having the same haircut, people recognize you even when they do not see your face. If you are smart, then you use that high level of recognition to generate revenue in some way. But when you change your clothes and cut your hair, no one recognizes you anymore and the magic is gone.
Consumers like to be able to recognize the companies they use instantly and there are several things you can do that make your company instantly recognizable. Once you have achieved a high level of recognition, all of your marketing efforts become more productive and your revenue starts to go up.
The very best logos can be recognized almost instantly and immediately associated with their respective companies. Nike, Coca-Cola, and McDonald’s all have logos that consumers can recognize immediately and that does wonders for increasing sales.
For example, when you and your family are on a long driving trip and you want to stop for lunch, if you see those Golden Arches, then you know you are stopping. A recognizable logo becomes something everyone can agree upon and something that brings in business all on its own.
If you work in the computer industry and you see something in the colors of blue and white, then you instantly think of IBM. If you like drinking soft drinks and you see a cup with red and white on it, you automatically think of Coca-Cola. It does not matter if IBM or Coca-Cola have their logos in plain view. What matters is that these companies have worked hard to associate their organizations with those common color schemes in the minds of consumers.
Kentucky Fried Chicken became so popular that two could be having a conversation and refer to Kentucky Fried Chicken as KFC and they would both know what restaurant each other was talking about. When your company becomes so popular that consumers start abbreviating your company name and making it part of conversational dialog, then you know that your marketing work is effective.
You may have never heard of a company called Kimberly-Clark, but you probably use a product called Kleenex every day. The facial tissue known as Kleenex is so popular that most people do not realize that the product is actually called facial tissue. Most people call all facial tissue Kleenex and that makes Kimberly-Clark a very wealthy company.
A company has to make a lot of decisions when it comes to marketing. The right decisions could lead to a product becoming a household name, while a wrong decision could put a company out of business. The worst thing any company can do is cut its marketing budget, even when the economy takes a turn for the worse.
Good marketing creates images that are burned into consumers’ minds and result in ongoing sales. When your marketplace starts referring to generic products by your company’s brand name or when consumers shorten your company name into a nickname because they refer to your company so often, then you know that your marketing is effective. Take the time to develop the four most important parts of your company’s marketing image and you will see returns several times over for years to come.
