Brand Marketing Versus Persuasion Marketing in Regional India
Brand and persuasion marketing have always been seen as different avenues with different pros and cons. However, in regional India, one can’t survive without the other.
Brand marketing has traditionally been associated with products and services in crowded markets. FMCG, hospitality and household supplies all come to mind.
Additionally, in 21st Century India, there seems to be a slight bias against branded advertising in the age of metric-based digital performance marketing. And, for some industries, there is no doubt the latter works better.
However, before we delve into why both are needed in Tier-II, Tier-III and Tier-IV, let’s answer a simple question. What are brand marketing and persuasion marketing, and when do you use each?
When To Brand, And When To Persuade?
Brand marketing is the use of advertising to link your brand to values that may resonate with your users. This Surf Excel advertisement from a few years ago for Rakhi is the best example of selling values, rather than a product.
Persuasion marketing is the use of advertising to push immediate sales. Traditionally, that meant offer coupons in the newspaper and partnerships with credit card companies. Today, it largely means digital performance marketing on Facebook or Google.
[Note: I’ve used the phrase ‘performance marketing’ a couple of times. By this, I am referring to the metric-based digital marketing (such as CPM, CPI, etc.) that focusses on first degree quantitative results only.]
Brand marketing is traditionally used to either introduce a category to a market, or to establish brand dominance among a crowded marketplace. Persuasion marketing is used to leverage this brand awareness into sales.
Plantix: A Case Study
At Lokal, we recently concluded a marketing campaign for PEAT GmbH. They are a German agri-tech firm that helps farmers diagnose the health of their crops through a mobile application called Plantix.
We tried two different versions of this ad campaign. The first, run between Jan 28 to Feb 20, was a basic performance marketing attempt. It led to 1,314 downloads from 20,042 clicks, at a conversion rate of around 6.5%.
The second, run between Feb 21 and Mar 25, worked on implementing a hybrid branding-persuasion campaign. It led to 5,142 downloads from 40,876 clicks, at a conversion rate of around 12.5%.
How did we quadruple downloads, and double both clicks and conversion rate, in a very similar timeframe to the first campaign? We stopped implementing Tier-I marketing standards, and started advertising to Tier-II, Tier-III & Tier-IV India.
As you can see, apart from the last few days (which I’ll get to in a bit), the maximum amount of downloads in a day didn’t really see a drastic spike. Instead, we focussed on increasing the number of average daily downloads for an overall rise.
In the first campaign, we used two techniques. First, we used an inventory called a “Lokal Recommendation.” This is essentially an image card with a link to the download page. Secondly, we published occasional videos explaining the Plantix app, and the advantages of downloading it.
In the second campaign, we continued to use Lokal Recommendations (with twice weekly image changes). However, we drastically changed the content marketing strategy. Instead of creating videos about the app, we published an almost daily piece of content — both videos and articles — on agriculture sponsored by Plantix.
Downloads achieved from the first content strategy are marked by the red line on the graph. Downloads from the second content strategy are marked by the yellow-orange line.
The difference between the two strategies was simple. The first aimed to convince users that Plantix was the best app for diagnosing crop health. The second built an emotional bond between agricultural good practices and the Plantix brand.
The red line shows a confused marketing strategy. Performance-based persuasion marketing (the Lokal Recommendations) was thrown together with similar persuasion-based content marketing. Unsurprisingly, it led to fewer clicks and downloads.
The yellow-orange line shows a synchronous marketing strategy. Performance-based persuasion marketing (the Lokal Recommendations) was married to branding-based content marketing that legitimised this new company in the minds of the users.
When the chance to try a new product from this established brand was given to them, users clicked more and downloaded more. Most importantly, the number of farmers — Plantix’s target group of users — that downloaded the app shot up from 857 to 3,612!
What Happened Between March 23-March 25?
Take a look at that graph again. During the last three days of the campaign, daily downloads drastically increased. From an average of around 150 downloads a day, we received 300+ downloads a day between Mar 23 and Mar 25.
Considering those three days were (by far) the most successful days of the campaign, it is unlikely that they were just random spikes. More likely, and as we predicted, those three days were showing us the true benefits of a hybrid branding-persuasion marketing campaign.
The 4x download increase between the two campaigns can be attributed to consistent, quality brand messaging. However, brand value seems to have only been created towards the end of the campaign. At Lokal, we believe that this is the point when branded and persuasive marketing really blends together.
We have taken a break with Plantix for the moment. We will continue working with them in mid-May, once the South Indian harvest season finishes. As soon as we have some data on that campaign, I will write a follow up article to follow up on this idea!
Tier-II, Tier-III and Tier-IV India does not care about your company. You are lucky if they can even recall your brand name. You need to show that them that not only do you have a great product or service, you are a brand worth trusting. They need to form an emotional bond with your company.
Are you unsure of how to blend branded and persuasive marketing, while maintaining your performance marketing target? Please reach out to me at tarutr@getlokalapp.com, or at malhotratarutr@gmail.com.
If you are uncomfortable talking to me over email, you can DM me on my LinkedIn page or my Twitter profile. I would love to talk to each and every one of you personally!
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