Awareness to Preference: How Consumer PR Drives Long-term Growth

Consumer PR has long been judged on its ability to deliver awareness. How many people saw it? How far did it travel? How much coverage did it get?

Those measures aren’t meaningless – visibility matters. In fact, with discovery increasingly shaped by AI in this era of GEO, it arguably matters more than ever. However, awareness isn’t the sole goal for brands seeking long-term growth, and viewing PR purely as a visibility tool, underplays its true value.

When choice is abundant, customer loyalty fragile, and brand discovery is happening everywhere from generative search to social feeds, brands need to stay front-of-mind, emotionally connected and commercially relevant to their target audiences.

From where we sit as a consumer PR agency working day‑to‑day with consumer brands, this is where we see PR’s real potential – not generating attention for attention’s sake (although there are times when you can make an argument for that), but in making brands memorable and shaping preferences over time.

How memory drives brand growth

One of the most useful shifts in modern marketing thinking has been the move away from persuasion and towards memory. Most consumer buying decisions aren’t made through logical, conscious thought; they’re made habitually and/or emotionally. People choose the brands that are familiar and feel ‘right’.

No single message or campaign can inspire that response. It takes repeated, sustained exposure over time – brands appearing consistently in places that are trusted, relevant and culturally aligned with their audiences.  

While the original research into this subject focused heavily on brand building through advertising, if we think about where people discover brands now, it’s clear that earned and owned channels, from consumer PR to organic social, have a huge role to play.  

What PR does (when it is done well)

At its best, PR can – consistently and credibly – be about building brand presence.

Research by Muck Rack into generative search has highlighted just how heavily AI systems are relying on non-paid sources when answering brand and product questions. Around 94% of all sources cited by generative AI are non-paid, with earned media accounting for over 80% of Al citations.

Owned media still matters too, especially when users are looking for specific information. However, independent, third-party coverage is crucial for discovery, comparison and recommendation.

What PR can do differently

This is where PR comes into its own. It can build presence, not just in bursts but through accumulation. It can put brands at the heart of the conversations and moments that matter to an audience. Editorial stories, human narratives, cultural participation and creator advocacy all help brands communicate what they’re about in ways that feel authentic rather than engineered.

This sustained presence does more than simply rack up the coverage totals. It creates deep-rooted associations, making a brand feel familiar and relevant to the consumer. Behavioural science describes these as memory structures, while marketers may refer to mental availability. Either way, the result is the same – the brand is easier to recall and the consumer is more receptive to it.

While creative campaigns delivering an intentional spike of attention have their place within wider marketing and PR strategies, the need for ongoing, consistent presence has been brought into sharp focus with the evolution of AI-powered search. And, with over half of citations coming from sources published in the last twelve months, it is clear that this presence needs to be consistently maintained so there is a flow of fresh, authoritative content for AI tools to discover.

It’s all about accumulation and consistent activity in a landscape that is rewarding novelty as well as credibility. When consumers repeatedly encounter a brand in contexts that feel positive, trusted or culturally aligned, preference builds almost by default. People may not articulate it as loyalty, but it manifests in their choices.

Why PR is often misunderstood

Marketing departments are always under pressure to demonstrate return on investment. Budgets are being stretched as channels multiply and PR’s impact is notoriously difficult to quantify. The truth is that while metrics and KPIs can be tracked in both the short and long term (for instance spikes in search, web traffic, enquiries or sales in relation to peaks of activity), the true scale of what PR can deliver often emerges more slowly. It is cumulative and takes persistence and commitment to maximise its impact.

Achieving stronger share of voice, improved consideration and greater brand resilience in times of economic pressure won’t happen overnight. But that doesn’t equate to consumer PR being less commercial than other elements of a brand’s marketing toolkit – it makes it the foundation on which other activity is built.

By building familiarity and trust, PR can make everything else a brand does work harder.

A final thought for consumer marketers

If the goal is long‑term growth then awareness is only the starting point. What matters far more is what people remember, trust and feel comfortable choosing.

Strategic consumer PR helps brands do exactly that: it builds familiarity; it creates emotional resonance; and it strengthens the memory structures that influence choice long after the moment of coverage has passed.

The brands that win aren’t necessarily the ones shouting loudest – they’re the ones people care about and think of first. That’s not just a communications outcome. It’s a commercial one.

The author: Jane Ainsworth is managing director of WPR. She has over 20 years’ experience in developing and delivering communications strategies for consumer brands including Dunelm, Tesco, Mothercare, Greene King, John Lewis, Bullring, Beaverbrooks and Westfield.