What is the underlying formula that unites successful brands in today’s ever changing landscape?
It’s grit and determination.
It’s not easy to appear swan-like when your legs are frantically paddling underneath; keeping on top of the latest technology, new platforms, future trends, the insight that engages the right audience, connecting a campaign to the nuances of the brand, understanding a brand’s footprint and connecting its digital ecosystem...
We’ve looked at five ways in which successful brands are having to work far harder than ever to keep up.
Now, brand and business strategy are more closely aligned than anyone ever thought would be the case. The wave of disruptor brands emerging since 2010 prove the importance of brand and business working in synergy. Brands such as Airbnb, Uber and Deliveroo have re-written the rulebook on the importance of the seamless and consistent join needed between the two.
These brands understood that there was a customer-driven need, and the rest of their business was created around that. They were innovative, daring and new, and because of that their businesses could thrive. They had an entrepreneurial start-up mentality and that’s something that has stayed with them ever since. Their brand and their business were never separate entities – and they remain one and the same thing.
Thankfully, senior executives are now more accepting of brand and business strategists working together, with 90% of marketers feeling they will significantly influence business strategy by 2020. This reflects a much wider acceptance from all areas of business that marketing is no longer what your customers see on the outside. Great brands are built from the inside out.
Social media has fundamentally changed both our culture and the media landscape. It has undoubtedly influenced the daily conversations that a brand has, meaning its behaviour has evolved to be more human and less corporate. Brands have much to gain from the desire to think and act more like people, developing identifiable personas as extensions of their brand. They are becoming their audience - speaking like them, behaving like them and being human, like them.
This is customer-centricity at its most advanced - not just ‘knowing’ your audience, but ‘being’ your audience and ensuring that this manifests itself across all communications, particularly through language and tone of voice, but more globally as an inherent feature of brand behaviour, and at every interaction, regardless of channel.
The need for brands to be transparent and more aware of how they behave and interact has never been more important. No longer a series of one-off experiences on detached channels, they’re now part of an open dialogue that customers have – both with brands, and each other. The job is no longer just to market and sell - it’s to be part of a two-way relationship; an active and impassioned community built around the brand. Great brands are immersing themselves in their customer’s mind-set, and empowering customers to define and shape their future.
It’s no longer enough for a brand to simply engage its audiences. Brands have to be the story themselves, and that story has to grow and evolve, to give customers a reason to stick with them as they weave through every chapter. By letting audiences play more than just a watching role and letting them take part, consumers feel empowered and start to care more and more about how things turn out.
The plots cannot be set in stone; stories have to be willing to change and adapt and divert from course. If audiences get bored, brands are required to do something different to grab their attention. Plot twists, a different narrative, whatever it takes to keep customers emotionally engaged.
Successful brands are using data and insight to understand and organise their capabilities around what individual customers need, not the other way round. They realise that customers seek not just to buy something, but also frequently to buy into something. They go beyond insight to know and understand their customers on a personal level. This enables them to directly shape authentic stories that are relevant to their audience, to connect emotionally and build trust.
Brand stories are no longer marketing materials. They’re not ads, and they are not sales pitches. As Harvard Business Review puts it, what constitutes a strong brand is now ‘more dependent on customers’ direct experience with an offering, and their relationship with the firm that produces it.’
Faced with a dizzying array of conflicting messages and lack of meaningful differentiation, customers are now disconnecting, turning to more relevant communities or ignoring communications altogether. Cutting through the immense noise and competition for customer’s attention is now more challenging than ever.
While repetition of messaging was once believed to be the key to successful brand and marketing campaigns, marketers have realised that savvy use of customer data helps to cut through the noise. Successful brands are those tailoring their communications to carefully consider demographics, interests, location or even purchase history, not only helping to increase the reach of the messaging due to relevance, but to develop a deeper and more meaningful relationship with customers, on customer’s terms. They deliver insight, timeliness and relevance in a creative way to make interactions more memorable.
The fragmented media landscape means customers interact across multiple channels and devices, often simultaneously, and as a result expect their interactions with brands to be seamless. Creating a consistent experience and tone throughout the journey enables the customer to be immersed in the brand story that is narrated across media, becoming more meaningful and likely to achieve cut through.
Playing it safe is no longer an option. With so much marketing trying to be seen, it’s the brands thinking smarter and more creatively that are driving far greater and deeper impact.
Genuinely new and brilliant ideas require an element of daring in order to create more provocative outcomes. An element of risk is required, but stepping out of the box, experimenting with different messaging and tone, designs and medium to make something truly unique, when executed well, can lead to remarkable results.
Whether a brand engages with the latest digital trend depends largely on the company’s voice. Brands shouldn’t be scared to move away from a current style. There’s always room for reinvention, and ultimately, a test and learn strategy is always going to be more successful than a stagnant brand.
In the not too distant past, branding was something that companies acted out. Logos and product design, coupled with massive advertising and mass distribution, created brands that consumers learned to buy and love.
Brands today are no longer products or services, but communities of people that surround them. Consumers prefer experiences, so today’s brands must be social and participatory, created not by companies but by consumers themselves.
The fact is, brands now have to work much harder and be braver in order to cut through. There’s never been a greater need for boldness and disruption. It takes real grit and determination for both marketers and brands to constantly evolve.