What is Brand Salience? [+How Do You Measure It?]

While branding can feel like a vague concept, it is one of the most important elements of a marketing strategy.

Did you know that consistently presenting a brand across all platforms can increase sales by up to 23%?

Also, brands that are consistently presented are 3.5 times more likely to have great brand visibility than brands with inconsistent branding.

In fact, 82% of investors say brand awareness is an important factor that guides them in their investment decisions.

What does it all mean? Well, consistent branding leads to increased brand awareness, which can then help attract investors and increase your company’s sales. Needless to say, branding is important to the success of your business.

In this post, let’s take a look at what brand salience is, how to increase your brand visibility, and how to measure it.

When you have high brand exposure, you have strong brand exposure that consumers will recognize and think of when they need a product. If you have low brand awareness, consumers may not know your brand exists and so will not think about your brand when they have to make a purchase.

In essence, brand awareness is a similar metric to brand awareness, except that it focuses on measuring awareness during the actual buying decision rather than overall brand visibility.

For example, when someone wants to have a cup of coffee and drives around, which brand do they think of first? Probably Starbucks. If you want to buy handkerchiefs, think of Kleenex. If you want to search for something online, google it.

All of these brands got past the notion of being a random company and are now household names in their own right. Most people think of these brands and know them whether they have been there or have used these products before.

These brands have a high brand presence. To achieve high brand exposure, your customers need to look at your brand as the first solution to their wants or needs when making a purchase decision.

The concept of brand salinity is actually psychological in nature. According to a study by Jenni Romaniuk and Byron Sharp, brand salience is “a brand’s propensity to be noticed or come to mind in buying situations”.

This means that you need to grab people’s attention and be memorable enough so that consumers can remember your brand when they buy.

For example, when a consumer has a selection of brands to buy, they rely on both their memory and attention. That means they remember well-known brands and then see what catches their attention.

This process is actually scientific. People who studied brand salinity studied the human brain – how do people remember information and how does a brand associate a positive memory structure with its product?

To increase your brand exposure, some of your marketing campaigns likely won’t even focus on getting consumers to buy your product. The goal of many branding campaigns is to constantly strengthen the positive association with your brand. Familiarity is important. Constant marketing messages from a brand ensure that the brand is in the foreground in the consumer’s purchase decision.

Brands create high brand exposure by using distinctive brand values ​​that grab attention and create positive memories for their audiences. This means that your marketing assets will fuel positive storytelling and create meaning associated with your brand. By promoting your values, you set your brand apart from the competition and increase brand awareness.

To create campaigns that increase brand awareness, consider the emotional impact of your assets. Your campaigns should be meaningful, authentic and represent your values ​​as a company.

All of these will help customers build a positive association with your brand and remember your brand when it is time to make a purchase.

For example, let’s say I want to buy some chewing gum. When I think of chewing gum, the first thing that comes to mind are the Extra commercials. I never forgot these commercials because they were emotional and created a positive experience for me.

When I think of chewing gum, I usually buy extras, even though that brand has never been my favorite chewing gum company (I bought Orbit). But since those commercials, I’ve been leaning towards Extra because of the positive association and it’s one of the first brands I remember because of those commercials.

Ultimately, brand salience is a combination of brand awareness, familiarity, relevance, frequent communication and emotional connections between brand and consumer.

Now you might think “That all sounds great, but how can I measure it and prove its effectiveness to my superiors?”

Let’s dive into that below.

How to Measure Brand Presence

Brand salience is more of a conceptual nature. Unfortunately, it’s not a math metric that can be easily measured. So what do brands do?

Well, one of the only ways to measure brand awareness is through surveys and focus groups. It’s important to ask your customers when they think of you, what they associate with your brand, and if they remember your company when making a purchase decision.

You can ask customers if they remember or notice your brand compared to competitors. Then ask if your brand is just being thought or searched to see how positively your brand is being rated.

Your survey can include descriptive assets to help track your brand’s distinctive assets. For example, what tone, logo, color or slogan do users think of when they think of lemonade? You might say red because they associated Coca-Cola branding with lemonade in general.

To measure this, you can present survey participants with a randomized list of clues and attributes by asking them which brands they associate with each statement. These can be questions like “if I want to eat something fast and healthy” or “I know that I won’t pay too much”.

You can use a survey or focus group to determine how high your brand exposure is compared to your competitors.

Now let’s look at the brand salinity model that you can use to strategically plan your brand positioning.

Branded salience model

In his book Strategic Brand Management: Building, Measuring and Managing Brand Equity, Kevin Keller developed a model for brand salience that has become popular in digital marketing.

In the graphic below, Keller is creating a pyramid of building blocks to look out for when trying to increase your brand exposure.

Image source

This model focuses on building deep, broad brand awareness by creating an identity that customers will remember. The foundation of the pyramid is visibility, which you can increase by defining your brand in detail, communicating frequently with your audience, and using creative assets to tell a story.

Then create meaning and authenticity to set your brand apart from the competition. And then use frequent messages to generate positive, approachable responses from your customers. And then you create loyalty by building a relationship and emotional connection with your audience.

This model can help you increase brand awareness, increase sales, and even attract investors. While this isn’t the easiest metric to track, science proves that focusing on branding will help your business become a household name with your customers.