The power and reach of social marketing is transforming the capability of brands large and small to reach and communicate with audiences in ways that were never possible before the birth of this medium.
At the same time, brand intelligence through big data is facilitating one-to-one personalised dialogue with consumers and indeed, enabling brands to deliver ‘made for me’ messaging.
These tools enable deep analysis of social media chatter and identifying the hot-spots within them are proving super-valuable in segregating the important from the superfluous in relation to brand sentiment and consigning traditional, mass market communication channels to the bin.
Hence conventional broadcast media seems largely outdated – other than for mass market product where everyone is a potential purchaser – or a manufacturer of high value products such as automotive – this still relies heavily on television advertising augmented by outdoor media and conventional direct mail – such is the need for these brands to gain market share at the expense of a competitor.
These super-commercials adopt sound marketing principles and no-one, other than perhaps the beauty industry, understands more, how important brand image is in converting a potential purchaser into a brand die-hard by creating emotive connections.
BMW famously said ‘What you make people feel is as important as what you make’.
How true – we all know that the difference between a brand and a commodity are the intangible attributes of how owning or using a particular brand makes us feel and what we believe it tells our world about us.
Away from luxury, high value goods what can other brands learn from these principles and in particular, how can they capitalise on the ‘always on’ aspect of social media and our insatiable appetite for always being connected.
So some of my recent work has led me to coin the phrase Brandketing.
Brandketing is the creation of holistic marketing concepts inseparable from the brand itself.
The essence behind the brand powers the marketing thrust and provides the platform for exciting, disruptive, engaging and behaviour-changing communications.
Unlike conventional marketing, Brandketing demands the creation of brand concepts and stories ‘with legs’ which can readily extend from the brand into marketing rather than the creation of marketing ideas which are often abstract and only relate to the brand itself through association.
It requires deep analysis of the brand proposition, positioning, competitors and target audience. It requires clarity and precision. It requires layering of product and brand facets, with each attribute reinforcing the other.
Brandketing offers a cost-effective, efficient, highly engaging vehicle to both launch and establish a brand. A way of creating a super-strong relationship with an audience which resonates with the very DNA of the brand, providing a rich vein of ideas for creating, tailored, one-to-one dialogues with a mass audience via social media channels.