Brand first or Marketing first?
“Some people are far behind in the race that they actually believe they’re leading.”
That sounds like a harsh statement, but every year, once you start looking at your marketing plan, the reality check kicking in: The product presence in terms of its recognition, the brand recall, and its competitiveness presence in the marketplace.
The world today is flooded with goods and services which we do not even know their existence. If your product is not the one and only one in the marketplace, you will find it hard to market your product and services.
Marketing is promoting the goods and services to reach out to the customers, creating demand for your products and services. Channels and sales mechanism form the foundation of marketing hustling. But there is always one common hurdle to cross, trust. Trust is the critical factor that leads to purchase decision.
Branding is the signage directory system that directing traffic of purchase decision, The customers are following the signage and finding their way to reach the destination of purchase. Ask yourself when you went to super market, how do you find the goods and decide which product to buy. The brands, most of the time, are beckoning the customers, the rest are subject to final alignment of qualifying the trust value proposition, to finalise the purchase decision. (you may not even compare much about other goods next to it.)
If you have work on branding before marketing, you will find your plan is much easier to execute. Here are some good check list to see if you have done the right thing.
Is the name becoming a brand ?
Is the brand associated with a brand statement ?
Is there a brand identity in design for the overall brand presence ?
Is there a consistent expression across the brand packaging design ?
Is your brand stays relevant to your target audience ?
Is the brand active in the digital marketing ?
The Brand will become the marketing ambassador, the promoter for your business. It is important to investment in branding, the initial down payment will become a windfall in long run.
In case you still have doubt, the answer is Branding first. It is the longest overarching project management in business development.
Despite the fact that, there are as many brands as goods around the world today. The brand world is segregated into different segments of brand value propositions. There are different target audience at different segments. The real concern of branding is not about too many brands to choose from, it is rather about choosing the right brand, a true brand. Is your business developing a true brand, growing a right brand.
Today’s consumers are sharp to judge and educated to differentiate, especially the one are growing up in this millennium. The brand of tomorrow will need to be truthful with their offers on the table, the alignment of brand and business core has to be genuine, and consistent. The true friends are the one who shares your values of the world, shares the unique moment of life journey. Brands will be examined in the same way as a true chair, true shirt, true partner, true Brand.
Elon Musk’s business exemplifies this passion of Truthfulness.
The true brand has a clear message that starts from the core, the heart of the business value proposition. It supports a cause that is genuinely beckoning other supporters sharing the common cause. The brand exudes the passion chasing of this cause. The followings of true brand is “sticky” as Warren Buffet commented on Apple. The brand value alignment becomes the natural inherent marketing drive.
The true branding will be the apriori of successful marketing. The brand positioning will always align your business with the needed relevance to the target audience and the market place. Set your business apart from others, choose to working with a creative agency with branding perspective.
At Delitier, we offer a full fletch solutioning to your business development with our passionate believe in Branding first. We audit your brand, pivot your brand to accelerate, supported by data analytics and in the digital marketing.