Brand and Marketing: Two Peas in a Pod
Like peas and carrots, brand and marketing go hand-in-hand. In some cases, the two terms are written together; Brand Marketing. Think McDonald’s and “the golden arches”. We all recognize them, even these small children: https://vimeo.com/144579332. It may, however, be difficult to identify whether we know these two so well as a result of a strong brand or of strong marketing efforts. That’s because the two are so closely tied, it can be difficult to distinguish any causal relationship between them.
Since brand is the identifying features of your company or offerings, and marketing is the effort expended to reach your target audience with messages to promote your company or offerings, it is important to know where you stand with respect to key brand dimensions (the Pillars of Branding to use our language) to insure your marketing efforts are optimally effective. Effective and efficient marketing efforts enable the use of brand, as a marketing “wind at your back” to get more done with less effort.
Audience Knowledge = Effective Marketing
Brand measurement research evaluate audience knowledge and perception of your brand, and your brand’s standing in the marketplace. The resulting data can tell you whether customers believe your product is well-priced or costly, reliable or insufficient, luxurious or cheap, a one-time purchase or an updatable purchase, innovative or a few steps behind, competitive and top-of-mind or falling to the wayside.
Understanding what customers think and feel about your product, and how you compare to competitors will help you to identify the optimal messaging and positioning for your marketing efforts. For example, you may find that your product is priced higher than a competitor’s, but your research shows your brand is associated with reliability. Based on this data, your marketing team may run a campaign centered on how competitive products are faster to break, more difficult to repair, and potentially cause daily frustrations. The big “but” here is that your product doesn’t do these things. You present a solution to these problems. Sure, your product may cost more, but in the long run it saves your customer valuable time.
Finding the Right When, Where, and What
To put this in context, imagine you sell a line of $40 headphones that your customers find consistency reliable. Though your headphones might be pricier than the $15 pair you can buy at the convenient store, they’re far more likely to last the lifespan of a tablet or smartphone. Headphone users who purchased those $15 headphones at the corner convenience store on the way to the work may find themselves losing volume two weeks to a month later, and having to bend the input cord just right to catch the sound again. This audience may be persuaded to splurge on your $40 headphones, but you have to know where and when to catch them, and what to say when you do.
Data from high quality brand research will provide to you this information. Acting on that data can help you design a marketing campaign that reaches your friendly commuter on the subway or the bus to say, “hey, are your headphones doing that annoying thing again? Here’s a reliable solution that saves you money in the long run!” The most effective marketing will reach your audience where they are, when they need you, with the solution you provide. Primary market research data of this kind can help you meet all these criteria and improve the effectiveness of your marketing efforts.
Actionable Solutions
We have been helping our clients improve their marketing efforts through brand measurement research for over 15 years, providing them with actionable data and recommendations to design optimal marketing campaigns. Please feel free to reach out and schedule a brief, no-obligation call today or any time. If you’re interested in learning more about the benefits of brand measurement research, subscribe to our blog and stay up-to-date with our latest series, and keep your eye out for our upcoming Ebook, “The Three Pillars of Brand Measurement.”
