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Working Differently To Build A Brand That Matters…
Take note, we emphasize the word revolution as closer to the events occurring in marketing strategy, more so than evolution. There’s no time anymore for incremental-ism -- toe dipping in the new strategy pool. Rather, it’s time now to immerse yourself in an entirely new go-to-market platform. One that is built on a foundation of relevance and personal engagement, replacing the command and control model that secretly believes brands can dictate consumer behavior at will.
The Old Model
The original school of thought in marketing practice about brand building continues unabated in many categories. It follows a well-worn path carved out of E. Jerome McCarthy’s seminal work to define the “Four P’s” – Product, Place, Price and Promotion. P-think helped usher in another paradigm that remains entrenched 48 years later – that marketing is actually advertising. Today the ongoing act of religious devotion to interruptive communication and the parallel emphasis on tonnage in media spend is, “the equivalent of trying to add water to the ocean,” exclaims Church of the Customer authored by Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba. Consumers now barraged with over 3,000 messages a day? The illusion: “But surely my message will break through because testing shows consumers understand it and like it, and I’m also spending competitively to get it in front of lots of carefully defined eyeballs.“ Hmmm. How do we actually decide between 165 cereal products and 85 different breakfast bars? By raising the noise level?
Deploy Media = Get Sales
The entrenched command and control approach works in lockstep to push “buy me” solicitations at the consumer through any transactional media channel that can deliver the right eyeballs. The assumption going in: whatever the message, and however it is artfully presented -- will in turn be consumed, comprehended and acted upon by the target. Behavior thus successfully manipulated, sales will go up and up and we can all go home and watch the dollars roll in. I carefully plan location, reach, frequency of spend, therefore I get – share, volume, dollars, margin. Times have indeed changed so what’s new in the controller toolbox? To name a few: More media vehicles (digital), snazzy techniques (ad/web integration) and adjustments to the mix (ad/viral video). In the end, however, the same premise exists -- push the message out repeatedly and then consumers will do what they’re supposed to do – buy early and often.
Courage Needed
In a recent address at the ANA Brand Innovation Conference, Claire Bennett, CMO of American Express implored marketers to soul search and reach deep to find the “courage to move in the opposite direction” of strategies that work to overwhelm consumers with uninvited communication.
The ultimate goal: to be invited by the consumer into a reciprocal relationship founded on engagement, relevance and trust. Summarized and defined, Bennett below describes the leap –
From intrusion to invitation…
From transaction to relationship…
From disrupting to empowering…
Moving beyond “talking at” in repetitive cycles, the new strategy platform comes at the brand-building proposition from an entirely different mindset – one based on principles that feel eerily human. The first level of focus is relevance to consumer lifestyles.
- What do I really know about the target consumer’s interests, passions, desires and investments of time?
- How can my brand help be an enabler of these things and find ways to facilitate the passions a core consumer is drawn to?
- How can I start a conversation based on treating the consumer as an equal and invite them into my “house” as a true partner in product development?
- How can I talk with and engage rather than talk at them from a distance?
- How can I bring the brand up as close as possible in ways that are meaningful?
- How can I assure the experience of interacting with both my brand and my organization are user-friendly, inviting and in sync with one another?
The Entrenching Fly Paper
To a large degree business itself is predicated on positive sales results delivery in a hurry. The stock market rewards companies for performance now not later, for profitable growth that continues quarter-to-quarter, year in and out. This condition may help encourage the old-school illusion of turnkey manipulation, a formulaic (scientifically guaranteed to work or your money back) view that purchase decisions are transacted through applications of dollars (more is better) in paid media channels and test-verified messages. Yes the cause of awareness may indeed be served through this process, but persuasion and decision that exists outside the bounds of habit (perhaps the most reliable condition for ongoing performance in many CPG categories) require a different alchemy than “build spot, spend and then repeat.”
Marketers who’ve shown keen interest in creating truly remarkable products that literally glow with natural allure and meaning are often the same ones to understand the power of relevance and who exhibit the courage needed to break with the past. As stated above, courage is a prerequisite to change.
Mattering
Sure there is utility -- I use it regularly, therefore I need it – but does your brand really matter to its user. Not the thing, the brand itself. Your either a commodity today, are on a path to become one, or your brand is truly meaningful to a core group of people who find more value in it than just the utility thing alone.
As shown in the illustration (source: Tom Asaker, A Clear Eye for Branding) brand strength can be assessed by ranking uniqueness in comparison with relevance. In this analysis the more unique and relevant you are, the stronger your brand gets thus flying away from the gravitational pull of commoditization.
Building a brand that matters requires the upending of command and control thinking in favor of relationship building. Much of the grist that goes into successful human relationships plays out nicely in this example: We run towards people we like and feel are genuinely interested in us; and we are often repelled by those who treat us in a transactional manner. The methods, tactics and processes used to build a more human model of brand interaction do not spin solely on the head of the advertising pin. A more holistic view of communications focused on experience, relevance and credibility is the better starting point. And once having taken this new marketing medicine, clarity can occur that may also revolutionize how the traditional tactics of media and communication are better applied in earning the consumer’s respect.
The revolution is already underway. Time to jump in the pool. And yes the water is fine…
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