Question

Topic: Advertising/PR

Brand Awareness Or Direct Response First?

Posted by drewg2009 on 10/7/2023 at 5:58 PM ET 125 Points
Should a new brand or a new product offering start with direct response or brand awareness?

I have seen arguments for both.

Brand awareness allows you to build trust, familiarity, and a touch point prior to asking for a sale and follows the traditional funnel/customer journey.

However, it can be more costly and require follow up.

Direct response allows you to sell or ask for an action right away. However if the customer doesn't know the brand or be in market, they will just ignore the ad without getting any value.

I am not sure which one is best.

In my situation, I am a musician that has tried both. Although direct response has gotten me leads, the costs are high on a new audience that has never heard my name or music.

In my case it makes sense to me to generate brand awareness first, but it's more costly and takes more time.

What is the best approach in general?
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by mgoodman on 10/8/2023 at 2:28 PM Accepted
    That is an interesting question.

    I suspect that brand awareness should come first in most cases, though it probably depends on the product/market and buyer behavior. And, of course, it depends on the budget you have with which to work.

    If the budget won't support an effective brand awareness campaign, it could make sense to focus on a smaller, more carefully defined target audience at first.
  • Posted by Peter (henna gaijin) on 10/14/2023 at 12:52 PM Member
    Practically, I've never worked with a company that had money to focus on brand awareness up front so the strategy was always to get business. But that is for products that people would buy, mostly B2B.

    And a big part of your brand impression is your product, and people form the part of your brand through consuming your product (and hopefully spreading the word on your product).

    With musicians, seems that most start by getting gigs anywhere they can to build awareness, and hopefully moving to larger and larger venues as people learn about them.
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