Brand recall explained with examples

Brand recall plays a crucial role in getting more customers to stick with your brand as well as to buy your brand repeatedly. When you as a customer buy a certain product, once the product is finished or deteriorated, instinctively you would like to purchase from the same brand, as the experience it has offered you was pleasant.  Also when a brand is out of the market and then it reappears, if you previously had a nice experience you are most probably going to purchase it again.

That is what brand managers call brand recall, a qualitative measure of how well a brand name is connected with a product type or class of products by consumers. Often tested through surveys or interviews, brand recall is tested by asking participants questions such as “name as many car models as possible” or “can you explain what a Kleenex is?”

Brand Recall is the extent to which a brand name is recalled as a member of a brand, product or service class, as distinct from brand recognition. Common market research usage is that pure brand recall requires “unaided recall”. For example a respondent may be asked to recall the names of any cars he may know, or any cigarette brands he may know.

How is brand recall categorized?

Generally speaking, brand recall can be divided into two main categories, namely unaided and aided recall. In terms of aided brand recall, researchers measure the extent to which a brand name is remembered when the actual brand name is brought into discussion. For example, one type of question can be “Do you remember BMW brand?”. Thus, in this example, the name of the brand is mentioned, enhancing the memory in the customer’s mind.

However, in order to remain competitive in today’s highly challenging business environment, managers are focusing more on unaided brand recall, as it would mean a competitive advantage against their rivals. By this we mean that if the customer can remember the brand with out having it previously mentioned, then the brand has a high impact on the customer and he recalls the brand very well.

A brand’s value is directly connected to its presence in the memory of consumers. Quite simply, if a customer remembers a brand, he is likely to buy that brand. If he doesn’t remember it, he will buy the one he remembers. Thus, for a brand, it is important to set itself in customers memory.

Brand recall vs Brand recognition

There are 2 ways to analyze whether a customer will choose a brand because of recall. These 2 ways include analyzing brand recognition and brand recall.

Recognition of brand can happen for example, when watching different movies where product placement has been used. Once you notice the presence of a known product in one of the scenes, you recognize the brand and become aware of the brand immediately. Now when you are in the supermarket, your brain looks at the same brand and immediately takes a decision.

Brand recognition is how we we access information in our memory to identify a brand. It could also be negative: you recognize a terrible ice cream brand just by looking at the logo or by not having very good memories about it. Brand recognition highly influences the decision process of the customers, and the factor that helps in brand recognition include identity, packaging and advertising.

Brand recall is a a different thing compare to brand recognition, as it does not come from external incentive. Consider that your dog food is over and you need to buy a new one. Different brands are going to pop up in your mind. That would be brand recall. However, without brand recognition, there can be no brand recall.

We usually recall brands when we think about some category and these brands come to mind. Therefore, this process is connected with our own memory and not from the environment from around us. The stronger the brand, the easier will be for the customers to recall it.

Brand recall examples

1. When i talk of shoes, you will probably think of Adidas, Reebok or Nike, wherever you are. This is one of the best example of brand recall.
2. When i talk of premium automobiles, you might think of Audi, Mercedes or BMW.
3. When i talk premium clothing, then i am sure all of you must have a different brand in your mind because each person is different.
4. If i ask you your favorite carbonated beverage, more then 50% will say Pepsi or Coca cola.

The above are brand recall examples of the real world which help us take decisions on a daily basis. Thus, for a company to have high brand recall, is the best blessing in terms of the turnover it can obtain due to this one single factor.