Marketing 101: Think About Your Brand First
Okay then! Let's take it from the top! I know, I know, what can I say that has not be said and done before! Yet! The same repeated and repackaged content gets served to you every time! and depending on when and how you start your online research you are left to go back and forth and try to understand and make a link out of what is being said, was this only relevant for 2007 or 2014 or does it apply now? (October 2017)
Well, that is the thing with the digitization of marketing. And the pace! Phew…. def. only few can catch up and keep up… but then what the point of applying advanced marketing strategies when your audience is still figuring out what you really meant by the last 'stunt' that your brand pulled. Where is your story going?
And perhaps, the agency dealing with you does care about your brand or your audience! But, imagine a team of 5 running 20 brands online on a daily basis! You think they are strategizing everything and monitoring the latest trends and scheduling their production line and handling client meetings and the internal creative meetings and begging the designers to finish their client’s work first before the other member bribes them for the other client’s work while answering messages on their Whatsapp and playing the consumer online to test the competition! It's not a rat race anymore. It is Super Sonic (the hedgehog) on the Temple Run (the mobile game) race. The minute you stop tapping - you fall! (think clickbait)
Well, welcome to Marketing 101: Branding in 2017!
First of all… step back and take a good look at your brand… Not the marketplace. Not the digital marketplace. Not the hoarding. Not the print. Not the agency. Not the TVC. Not the team. Not even the Logo and the Identity. But the Brand/Product/Service that you are trying to build.
And look if there is a distinct positioning you see for your brand? Yes, Positioning! In this over-communicative society, this is more relevant than ever.
Do you see all your past marketing efforts as disjointed bursts or is there a story building through the years?
‘Coz if you want to survive the digital marketing era… then the frequency, the channels, the visuals, the contests, the influencers, the click baits, the banners, the activations, the SEOs and SEMs - they cannot be the first priority! These are just tactics not a strategy for a long-term brand survival. If you are told otherwise, you are just in for a ride!
Do not be fooled by flowery language of including everything that’s ‘the power words’ of today to build your positioning. Most brands like to keep a ‘broader’ audience in mind and hence steer clear of building their marketing message on a single conceptual idea!
Think ‘performance’ and you know we are talking about BMW. Think ‘Feelings’ and that's what Coca-Cola (“Taste the Feeling”) is doing currently (was ‘Open Happiness’ before that).
Your brand story, your distinct position in comparison to your peer brands - that’s what your focus should be first! And then, only then should you start adding the legs to your campaigns in the permutation and combination that is best suited according to your message, audience, and channel.
Start with that one word/phrase that plants and roots your brand's main message on your audience’s mind. Then use the magic of the interactive medium and watch your consumers build on it, with associative words that can pave the way, for nurturing your brand story.
‘Positioning’ is not a formula its a way of thinking that needs to trickle down to all your marketing communication.
#BrandStory #BrandStrategy #BrandingMiniSeries #DigitalMarketing #SocialMediaMarketing
Credit: Some of the above ideas come from Al Ries's writings on Positioning