Business of the brand vs. the brand of the business

It’s always the way the story goes; a client sends a brief and expects execution. Numerous suggestions are provided, usually creatively based by teams who know how to draw and execute. The major campaign happens, the amazing graphics run the city, the majestic event gathers everyone who is anyone, and yet no sales. No conversions. No tangible RoI. Enters the era of brand vs. brand marketing or as I like to call it the era where creative consultancy is expected to step up and provide more than implementation: agencies in the big metropolis of the world locate new opportunity, offer a multi-dimensional service of business development, strategy and creative, all blended to make everyone feel good: audiences and boards of directors alike.

A business brief should definitely focus on complete product and channel management, not just the creative briefs. Many agencies work with new business and start-ups in a similar manner, designing the business of the brand to give people a specific, holistic experience. At the same time, agencies must also find ways to solve the struggle between prioritising performance marketing over brand building marketing. Brand building is a long-term investment, and performance marketing is about generating revenue in the here and now. The big bet lies in the balance and in finding ways to measure brand equity – clients might seem excited for awesome creative in the short-run or for a highly emotional storyline engaging audiences, but they won’t sustain their budget for long if numbers don’t do the talking.

The goal of all positioning choices and activation activities is to grow brand equity. To measure brand equity (and in this way to achieve both balance towards performance marketing but also position the business at the centre of operations; not merely the brand), we can employ four main elements to strategise and evaluate our activities: familiarity, the degree to which consumers feel they know and understand a brand, beyond just being aware of its existence; regard, how much consumers like and respect a brand; meaning, the relevance that consumers perceive a brand has to their lives; and uniqueness, the differentiation that consumers see in a brand.

Both performance marketing and fast-track brand marketing (driven by wrongly placed social media content) creates one thing that often misleads clients: the generation of false positives. For example, price-point performance-marketing campaigns may be increasing click-through rates—but with the wrong audience and in ways that work against brand growth with the right audience (as defined by the company’s brand-growth strategy). The consequences are much more grave: large brands all over the world are now heavily investing in the BUSINESS of their BRAND because as Executives feel, their brand has lost touch with their target audience base.

A marketing, comms and PR agency must solve much bigger problems for the business by addressing the totality of how products and services get delivered. In the process, they can train talent to see and think systemically and reverse the short-term preoccupation in the C-suite.

One way to consider business development in your brand marketing is to focus on brand over brand marketing. This means creating marketing campaigns that focus on the benefits of your brand, rather than the features of your products or services. When you focus on brand over brand marketing, you’re essentially selling the promise of your brand to your target audience.

A company with a strong business model which places the brand as a tangible business asset will be able to consistently deliver high-quality products or services that meet the needs of its customers. This will lead to repeat business and positive word-of-mouth, which will help to build the brand over time and create sustained conversion.

On the other hand, a company which considers the brand as a side effect or that pre-occupies itself too much with the brand visuals rather than the brand meaning will struggle to attract and retain customers, no matter how strong its brand is. This is because the products or services that the company offers will not be able to meet the needs of its customers and adapt to the changing nature of the market.

As a result, it is more important for a company to focus on the business of the brand than the brand of the business. If the business is strong, the brand will follow.

• A strong business model can help a company weather storms. When the economy is tough or there is a change in the market, a company with a strong brand model will be more likely to survive. This is because the company will be able to adapt to the changing environment and continue to deliver both practical and emotional value to its customers.
• A strong brand model can help a company grow. When a company has a strong brand model, it can grow by expanding its product offerings, entering new markets, or acquiring other companies. This will help the company to reach more customers and diversify into new markets.

As a key take-away, brand building can have its own KPIs, they are linked to financial performance with high periodicity, and the people responsible for brand-building decisions can be held accountable for them—and rewarded accordingly. At the same time, including brand growth as a metric in performance marketing strikes the right balance in leveraging budgets towards all end: short-term conversions, long-term growth.

Do you want to find out more? See how we help clients achieve meaningful brand growth here