Branding is Everything, a Bulletproof Strategy Framework, & More
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Read time: 3 min
At a glance:
QUOTE: Trust and relationship building does not belong to just one function
IDEA: Branding is everything
TOOL: Campaign strategy framework
ARTICLE: Brand marketing works
QUOTE
“Brand relevance, relationships, trust, should not be left to marketers and communicators and brand experts. That should be the core of any leadership team”
There is so much wisdom behind this quote. Organizations typically silo their functions, but when something like reputation and brand relevance is involved, the entire organization needs to be aligned.
Look at what happened to Southwest Airlines. Culture and branding was probably siloed and left to the marketing and HR functions, because in order to truly fulfill their brand promise of LOVE (their latest campaign being “GO WITH HEART”), it really should mean having the best technologies and systems to make that a reality, which we all know was their downfall over the holidays, canceling over 16,700 flights and forecasting a loss of $875 million.
Trust and relationship building does not belong to just one function.
IDEA
This one illustration garnered 265K views on LinkedIn. I think one of the reasons why it achieved viral status was that it spoke a truth that most understand and feel, but never talked about in the open. Amidst organizational politics and fiefdoms, who dares to claim branding (typically a function of marketing) is everything?
But understanding this one thing has far reaching consequences. How does an entire organization align around fulfilling that brand promise?
TOOL
A simple but highly effective way to frame up any marketing or communications program is the BUSINESS-TO-BRAND STRATEGY framework, adapted from the Nested Strategy from Julian Cole, an ad strategy trainer.
BUSINESS GOAL: What is the business trying to achieve? (eg. Gain 5% market share in 1 quarter)
BUSINESS PROBLEM: What is the business problem we are trying to solve? (eg. Competition winning new accounts)
BUSINESS STRATEGY: What is the business strategy to tackle the problem? (eg. Focus on new accounts where we have a foot in the door)
HUMAN GOAL: What is the decision maker/ target customer trying to achieve? (eg. Physicians are trying to get through the day without total burn out)
HUMAN PROBLEM: What is the underlying problem that is preventing them from reaching the goal? (eg. Being high achievers, they are not willing to half-ass anything)
HUMAN INSIGHT: What is a revelation that no one talks about? (eg. The right technology can half the time without sacrificing their identity)
SINGLE MINDED PROPOSITION: What is the one thing we want the audience to take away? (eg. Show that ABC technology can help them achieve everything without sacrificing anything, including themselves)
ARTICLE
This is about a year old, but the message is very clear: brand marketing works. Early 2022, Airbnb’s CFO talked about their financials from 2019 to 2021. They decreased performance marketing spend by 44% and increased brand marketing spend by 119%, and saw their losses turn into positive profit over a 2 - 3 year period.
My takeaway is that brand marketing works, but it also needs to be balanced with performance marketing tactics. In addition, brand marketing results take time, so set up your measurement and start tracking efforts over the long term.
Ways I can help you:
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