Every month there are several brands popping up on the market and several locking the gates, the erraticism in the pattern is noteworthy. Why is it though that few names stick better than another?
Some say that it is the quality of the brand campaign, the company’s ability to look past conversions of available leads and focusing on building a relationship with the customers that allows them face the blow of the competition. Instead of forcing the product in an already cluttered market, it is introduced with ease and awareness overtakes sales as the end result.
The thing though is, in reality, not every company can build a brand solely based on such campaigning.
Even though, with the advent of the digital age, branding for upcoming brands with low financing has become more feasible than before, they still suffer due to lack of efficiency.
Why?
In the simplest of words, lack of Strategy
Imagine going on the stage in front of an audience consisting of at least a million and not knowing what to speak, the only thing you are there to do is make yourself visible on the stage. You manage to do so successfully, but the audience starts to boo you off the stage; so now they know you, but as the person whose antiques, they were not particularly impressed with.
Running a branding campaign without having a strong strategy in place can be similar to that experience. A strategy is a long term plan and definitely not just the objectives, but also the path that leads to their attainment. Therefore, a good brand strategy starts at envisioning what the brand should look like to the potential customers, a perception that the company wishes to create in the minds of the customers. This vision sets the course for the decision makers, once you know what you want your brand to be, you can work towards making it happen.
Having in place, a brand strategy is quite similar to having a topic and a structured speech to entice the audience in the previous example. While an orator uses witty one-liners and catch phrases to make his speech effective, a marketer uses a strategy for his campaigns.
While a lot of planning goes into a brand campaign, it should never be confused with a strategy. It is vital to comprehend the difference between the two terms, often used interchangeably at many occasions. Planning is contemplating the actions required to complete a particular task while strategizing is coming up with a long term action plan to achieve said objectives. The scope of strategizing is far wider than that of planning.
Why Strategize?
- GPS
A strategy can act like a GPS for the marketer and guide them throughout the campaigns and ensure that they stick to the fundamentals. A strategy is the marketer’s best bet when they find themselves stuck at a certain point during the campaign. The futuristic thinking and preparedness pays off when an obstacle is faced as you already know the turnaround.
- The Mile-marker
A strategy defines the brand objectives, which make it easier for a marketer to rationalize the campaign and measure its effectiveness. At the end, if you don’t know where you wish to go, you will never know where you have reached.
- Efficacy
It is no surprise that a long term strategy, not only lays down a clear path for the campaign but also ensures effectiveness in the communication process. It provides an approach fit to deliver a message, carefully drafted to be told to customers, not chosen on random but rather based on critical factors.
- Eye on the price
A brand campaign can become derailed due to the tiniest nudge in the wrong direction and therefore it needs the focus a strategy brings to the table. When a brand campaign is devised around a strategy, it allows little to no distraction for the marketer.
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