Indonesian citizens must be familiar with the local saying; ‘Berbukalah dengan yang manis’ (break the fast with something sweet) and ‘Belum 5 menit’ (5 minutes rule). It is often treated as unwritten rules and even a prophet’s words. Not many realize both iconic sayings are just a result of a hardworking copywriter from the brand Teh Botol Sosro and SOS.
The famous taglines, either directly or indirectly, bring the brands to the top of the brand awareness pyramid. Even now, people of Indonesia still say the taglines casually without the intent of promoting the brand itself, proving how powerful iconic copywriting and massive advertisement can be.
Undeniably, the strategy to reach customer’s top of mind is no easy feat, especially up to the point of public recognition. It will all be unveiled soon, starting with the definition of a top-of-mind brand from the brand awareness pyramid to the amazing tagline stunt by Sosro and SOS.
What is Top-of-Mind Brand Awareness?
From the brand awareness pyramid, top of mind is the peak of awareness a brand can have. It is the point where the public will automatically think of a brand when asked for a specific category, indicating the brand’s prominent ranking within the audience’s consciousness.
Sometimes, the instant brand recall isn’t only related to a specific category, but can also be prompted by a strongly associated word to a brand. For example, when randomly given the word ‘South Korea’, someone might say BTS in return, although the question itself isn’t specifically saying ‘K-Pop’.
This level of awareness comes from a combination of remarkable visuals (in this case logo and colors), an iconic brand name, and a great brand marketing strategy for better public recognition. It is certainly an uphill battle, yet the best journey a brand could have for better growth.
How to Become a Top-of-Mind Brand
Rising to the front of the audience’s mind isn’t something impossible or miraculous, though it certainly raises the biggest question of all, is there a strategy to be a top-of-mind brand?
The answer is through brand marketing, yet it is quite a tricky thing to execute, as it involves a lot more than just trying to sell products. In addition to trying to score a sale, branding cares a lot more about the image of the brand itself. Branding elevates a brand—by extension, the company behind the brand too—in an attempt to maintain the customer’s image of the brand.
Now back to the elephant in the room, let’s start discussing some of the key tips to slowly reach the peak of the brand awareness pyramid.
Don’t be afraid to stand out
To stand out means you need to understand your brand better than anyone else, so start your in-depth research. What’s your brand like? The value it offers? Who are you selling and connecting to?
After finding the answers to all the branding questions you’ve found online, it’s time to be as flashy—or quietly different—as you want and make the brand’s existence known to the world.
Always strive for the best customer experience
The customers are the people that keep the brand alive. It is important to make the audience as comfortable as they can with the brand. Adding a little personalization to after-sales is also a nice way to make them feel important or just be nicely helpful to the customers and your brand image.
Keep communicating with the audience
The easiest way to relay a brand image is through social media, so don’t forget to build an online presence. Investing in some content marketing and campaigns is a great way to communicate brand value to the public audience.
Be consistent
To be remembered for one thing means consistency is on the table. Utilizing the same color palette for all media, advocating for specific things regularly, or keeping the same tone in communicating will make the audience remember the brand more easily. A short, catchy tagline is one of the easier things to be consistent about.
The Tagline Strategy from Sosro and SOS
If we’re discussing short, catchy taglines as a strategy for top-of-mind awareness level, Sosro and SOS are bound to be mentioned. They are basically Nike’s ‘Just Do It’ of Indonesia. Let’s break down what makes each tagline amazing, other than their success in bringing both brands as customers’ top of mind and the nice, catchy taglines.
SOS’ ‘Belum 5 menit’ (5 minutes rule) tagline is particularly amazing because it started during the 90s when viral marketing was a lot more difficult without the internet, yet they managed to stay relevant throughout generations, even to this day.
Massive advertisement aside, this tagline has a lot more to it than just being short and catchy. In all honestly, it’s just a spin of the Western’s ‘5 seconds rule’, yet the twist contains an amazing message. The change from ‘5 seconds’ to ‘5 minutes’ suggests that their cleaning solution works extremely well that even when you drop your food on the floor for 5 minutes, it’s still safe to eat because SOS’ product cleans the floor that well.
As for Teh Botol Sosro’s ‘Berbukalah dengan yang manis’ (break the fast with something sweet) tagline, it just shows that the creative team knows the audience’s behavior really well and took the opportunity.
As the biggest Muslim country, Indonesians took fasting seriously. Sosro knew this and took one of the most famous Muslim prophet’s saying ‘break the fast with dates’ to relate to their product, which is sweet tea, resulting in the change from ‘dates’ to ‘something sweet’. This familiarity makes it easier for their tagline to be easily remembered by Indonesians. In some cases, people are even unaware that the iconic saying isn’t the correct hadith, thinking that Teh Botol Sosro’s tagline is indeed a real hadith.
Both brands share similar characteristics in their taglines, which are:
- Short and catchy taglines
- A twist of something already familiar to people
- Applicable to casual conversations
- Consistently promoted for a period of time to let people remember the taglines
All patterns play with people’s consciousness to keep reminding people of the taglines, which would end with more brand recall for both brands. More brand recall means closer to the top-of-mind awareness level, before eventually bringing both Sosro and SOS as the top-of-mind brand for each of their category.
Collaborate with Branding Experts
Reaching the top-of-mind awareness level needs a mixture of creativity and business understanding, as well as a comprehensive branding strategy across media. If you’re not sure how to get started on the entire branding things, a creative agency will help you set up your business. For those who need to chat about branding-related stuff, Avond Studio is always a great partner for your business.
