We now live in a brand first economy, how can we succeed in it?
Meaningful brand engagement trumps blanket advertising in driving awareness of business - To truly differentiate in the market is becoming increasingly more difficult.
It’s time to consider more than just what you do.
We are living in a new era of business. An era that has evolved past being just about the bottom line. An era that customers need to understand your businesses beliefs, purpose… It’s brand.
In fact, in such a noisy and congested world it is more difficult than ever to differentiate from your competition. Brands need to do more to put their business on the consumer’s radar.
61% of UK consumers are not aware of any new launches in the last 12 months. This supports findings in an earlier study that 40% of new product launches fail and points to a lack of awareness amongst consumers as a contributing factor.
On top of this 78% of consumers have never shared information about a launch either online or on mobile.
So who can succeed in this congested world?
Dollar Shave Club
Shaving is the epitome of a boring routine, right? Well, for me obviously it is!!!
If you answered “of course” then you obviously haven’t seen Dollar Shave Club’s now legendary launch video “Our Blades Are F***ing Great”, which threw the notion of this being a drab, button-up industry out the window.
Today this company has over 3 million subscribers, boasts $200 million in sales within five years, and has snagged almost 7% of the U.S. shaving market. Their promotional video has been viewed over 25 million times, and the company was acquired for $1 billion by Unilever.
Deadpool 2
The Marvel anti-hero crashed the covers of classic Fox films, featured movie posters billing the bloody action flick as a romantic Valentine’s Day comedy, a Tinder profile for the him, and even a LinkedIn profile for the infamous Peter W; Regional Sales Manager at Excalibur Cutlery (who gained 9,000 connections in the under 2 months alone).
The film had the second biggest R-rated opening ever, behind the original Deadpool, with $125 million at the US box office and another $176 million internationally, according to ComScore.
Most film launches are pretty straightforward. However, the Deadpool 2 campaign has been far more than that. It takes a holistic approach to demand generation: a continuously inventive stream of content and experiences across formats and platforms that raises awareness of the upcoming film, but also demonstrates what’s unique about the Deadpool franchise itself.
Nike
“Just do it” is perhaps the most famous slogan in marketing history and, 30 years on, it is a message that is still making history with its new work featuring Colin Kaepernick.
The American football star, who has refused to stand for the US national anthem in protest of police brutality and racism, is the face of Nike’s anniversary campaign. Kaepernick has not played in the National Football League since last year and is suing the organisation on the grounds that team owners have blackballed him because of his activism.
The ads show Kaepernick with the slogan:
“Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.”
While it is both fashionable and easy to dismiss brand purpose as little more than brand vanity, Nike’s campaign underlines the power of standing for something bigger than your bottom line. When two-thirds of Nike’s consumers are under the age of 35, taking this risk could pay off.
After an initial dip immediately after news broke of the campaign, Nike’s online sales soared 31% from the Sunday of Labor Day weekend through to Tuesday, compared with a 17% gain recorded for the same period in 2017, according to Edison Trends.
So what’s the common link?
Winners adopt a brand first approach for marketing their business. - They understand that we’re not going to get the chance to get people to remember much about us, so we need to be really clear on what we want them to know about us; about our brand; about our Why.
Dan - danwillis@whydigital.net
