To achieve brand salience educate consumers about product category

To successfully develop a strong brand identity, marketers must ask themselves who they are and where their product or service fits into the product category? Only when this is understood are marketers able to successfully build a brand, increase brand salience with consumers, and grow sales. Brand salience is the extent to which a brand stands out from its competitors and it should be the goal of all marketers to increase the brand salience of their product or service. When brands have salience they more easily stand out from competitors.

The more the brand stands out from competitors the easier it is for people to recognize and recall the brand and this translates into increased sales. Brand recognition is critical for products to stand out on busy retail shelves where they are surrounded by competing products. Visual cues are the most prominent elements of brand salience but other brand elements also contribute to customers’ abilities to recall and recognize the brand.

The brand name, logo, symbol, shape, and texture, are also contribute cues that aid consumers in recognizing the brand. Building brand awareness involves combining a series of brand elements that work together to properly represent the product or service. To be effective, these elements must not only communicate the brand essence but also must educate consumers about the product or service category in which the brand competes. When consumers fully understand the product or service category marketers can easily communicate the basic functions the brand provides and how it meets specific consumers needs. This differentiates the product or service from its competitors and increases its brand salience.