I wanted to give a quick and dirty description of Brand Recognition and Brand Awareness. There is a significant difference between them and you should be aware of both so that you can act to improve both or either accordingly.

Brand Recognition is the degree to which consumers can identify and recall your company from its visual symbols and products. How ingrained is your brand in the customer’s mind? Think Nike, everyone and their mama knows what that swoosh is.

Brand Awareness is how much the public can recall information, emotions, or general impressions about your brand. We’ll stick with Nike, their brand is all about individual strength, courage to keep going, keep competing and keep improving. That brand compels us to believe that their shoes and running shorts are tools that won’t fail us on our way to the top. They support our journey after all!

A great example of a brand with good recognition and but bad awareness is IBM. We all know what IBM makes, we recognize the logo immediately, but we know little about their WHY. What do they believe in? Why do they do what they do? Why should we care to buy their product over another? Most of us have no idea what any of those answers would be and to make a buying decision we feel good about most people need to know those emotional aspects of a brand.

So, in closing, make sure you know if you’re letting your potential clients know your name or if you’re letting them know your name and you’re WHY.