The good folks from Branding Strategy Insider invited us to write a guest post which outlined the factors that shape brand experiences today.
Emotion in B2B branding is often overlooked so we were more than happy to write a guest post for our friends at Branding Strategy Insider on the topic.
The best brands don’t compete based on what they do. They compete based on how they do what they do. This boils down to their brand experience. Savvy brand marketers use customer journey maps to explain the experiences they want to deliver. Are you in that club?
Interaction is powerful because it helps strengthen brand associations in memory. The more your customers interact with your brand the stronger the connection between your brand and its category becomes, i.e. increase in synaptic efficacy. This is why ruthless consistency and repetition is key. Coca-Cola and happiness is a classic example.
A brand strategy driven purely by price indicates a short-term mentality that is frequently shaped by shallow customer insight.
Values are important because they influence our beliefs, which in turn influence our behaviour. Brands try to influence behaviour by aligning with key stakeholders’ values.
Branding tends to be perceived as a soft, fluffy and elusive craft that lacks scientific rigour. Nothing could be further from the truth.
An earlier post outlined the important role part of our brain (the limbic system) plays in influencing choice via brand-related feelings recalled from memory. This part of the brain also deals with things like metaphors, intuition and stories.
Most marketing executives employ a flawed brand performance model. They agonise over financial metrics like ROI, profit, EBITDA, revenue, etc. These are important but more informed marketers consider employee and brand metrics. Why do they take a more holistic and balanced approach?
Brand strategy and more specifically brand building isn’t a piecemeal task. It’s a holistic and integrated process that requires careful thought, planning and organisation-wide engagement.