Watch our latest updates on brand strategy from our webinar last week. It packed a punch!
- Richard Buchanan offered five principles that organisations can use to rethink how their brand fits into the new reality, showing how there had been a shift away from performance marketing in favour of building brand.
These include reflections on the inevitability of digital transformation and the need to adapt to omnichannel communications with customers. He also highlighted the growing importance of “baked in goodness” – building purpose into brand as consumers begin think more and more about the purchasing choices they make.
His examples spanned a range of companies including Airbnb, Adidas, Stella McCartney and even tennis tournament Wimbledon.
• Annabel Venner, Marketing Consultant at Annabel Venner Consulting, explained the importance of differentiation in the digital space.
She said that being overly focused on user experience and getting a site visitor through from the landing page to checkout can lead to homogenised experiences online, with the brand getting lost.
The solution is for brand teams to work hand in hand with the teams for acquisition and performance marketing. Most crucial is to start with the customer rather than with the channel or the solution.
• Jessica Ellis, Group Head of Marketing, One Savings Bank emphasised the importance of purpose, saying that this is “the heart and soul of any brand”.
However, she emphasised that if this purpose is “inauthentic” then it will fail both with consumers and a company’s own employees.
• Eleanor Metcalf, Brand & Marketing Lead, Tred, brought a challenger perspective, arguing for the importance of being adaptable when a company doesn’t have huge funds to invest in segmentation.
She added that the goal of challengers is ultimately to “change shape”; as the customer base grows, so the brand will have to grow to accommodate different markets.
