CHANGES IN USE OF MONEY, BUT NOT RESULTS.
Brands increase their marketing budgets and/or move a larger chunk of it towards digital channels. At the same time an intensified focus on content marketing, real time marketing and investment in owned channels. But will it result in better outcomes?
Not necessarily. In reality these changes means increased investment in banner advertising, search, advertising in social media and production of content. This on top of content already being produced published and distributed by mass media and people through social media.
If we take a look at the development in the market- and media landscape these changes in marketing investments are reasonable. The big drawback here is that people in their everyday life will experience that brands still talk about themselves — but more and in more channels than before. Claims about own excellence have its natural place, but all too often published and distributed at the wrong time in the wrong place and at best, people end up ignoring it. An increase in marketing budgets or change in the channel mix will not alone produce better results.
Good results are dependent on the right goals.
The first priority should be to challenge yourself and your ad/media agency to utilize the existing budget more effectively and document this internally. With better and proven results it is easier to justify an increase in the marketing budget.
There are surprisingly many brands that do not have well enough defined Goals and KPIs when it comes to business-, communication goals and each individual market activity. Without clear goals it is very difficult to identify how the marketing budget has delivered towards the business goals such as sales, market share and profits. When constructive business and communication goals are in place it is important to associate each marketing activity to these by identifying the right things to measure per activity.
A Marketing department has different goals they need to deliver towards, but silos apart, they all eventually should aspire to document the business value of the marketing activities. ROMI is just a measure of efficiency of media allocation (if you do the activity well), but not that you did the right activity. If you however are able to calculate the net profit on the market activity, you´ll have the documentation needed to show marketing success, or failure.
If you do not have the possibility to calculate the net contribution to profit you´ll come a long way by making sure that your marketing department daily measures every single marketing activity, how these affect the defined communication goals and how this contributes to achieving business goals. It will be easier to get an increase in marketing budget when such a regime for tracking of marketing efforts is in place. And only then it is time to increase the marketing budget.
Great stories create great results.
For brands to achieve better effect of the changes in their channel mix, including production and distribution of more content, it requires a change in how the brand communicates. Which also leads to a natural change in brand communication in traditional media such as TV and Radio. But that´s another story.
Great stories have an effect. This is documented by the extensive research and analysis done by Peter Fields and Les Binets, showing that awarded creative communication is 11 times more effective in the form of increased market share than average communication.
Content that becomes a social currency.
To be perceived as more prominent and relevant than the competitors, it is essential to create content that people perceive as useful or a possible social currency. The danger is that most publish content that focus on the products attributes. Many brands are skilled in sales and customer service, but the same departments seem to be behind a flow of very little interesting storytelling, which at worst may harm the brand. Especially when it comes to production and publishing of content and real-time marketing. Brands can in theory make their own TV-ads, but understand the importance of working with professional creative storytellers to achieve the desired effect. The same understanding is often not present when it comes to storytelling in social media and own channels.
The Macintosh TV-spot from Apple in 1984 did not contain a word about the functionality and did not show the product. After viewing it people got interested. Interested in knowing more about the product and its features. In 2014, it would in addition to word of mouth IRL also been massively shared commented, liked, fav´ed, retweeted, remixed and commented on. It would definitely achieved reach due to the brand story becoming part of the stories between people. In other words a social currency. The TV-spot created interest in learning more about the products and its features. It sold.
Add value
Brands do not need to act, have a tone-of-voice and personality as a human being. The old thesis that brands are like humans should be thrown away – focus on how the brand can help people. By daily observe what people do, how they are interrelated and how they come into contact with others, you can identify how your brand can lead and add value to people’s everyday lives beyond the product itself.
Red Bull helps people to passionately pursuit their interest for high-energy sports by creating events and producing content about these activities. NIKE help people to succeed in sports – and being perceived as attractive mating partners due to the signal sent by wearing a Fuelband or having NIKE post to your Facebook profile about your running achievements.
Content that is useful or valuable to build identity
Content in the form of storytelling that people find useful, or is used to tell something important about himself or herself, is what achieves greatest effect. There are 3 billion new participants in the media landscape that can potentially be transmitters of, and help to develop, the brand story. It should be of no surprise to anyone that great stories that create interest results in brand growth on a business level.
The changes that marketing directors are about to implement in their marketing budgets will not lead to better results unless they continuously measure all of their activities and tell stories 365 days a year that creates interest in the brand´s products or services.
