Build Your Brand for Response

Defining and building a brand is an ongoing process and it’s a process that is being rewritten everyday. In the past, brand was developed by the marketing department and communicated to the target audience through advertising in a one-way conversation.

From a marketing perspective, brand was meant to create perceptions, not necessarily create action. Sure, brand marketers liked to measure awareness, perception and persuasion, but were not willing to measure a direct correlation to sales or even leads.

Today, consumers interact with brands in many different ways, and the brand advertiser can track much of this interaction. This ability to track has advertisers thinking about using brand to create perceptions over the long term and create action immediately – even if the action is not necessarily sales. Some of the keys drivers in this mind shift are:

• First, the proliferation of analytics and, in the case of online marketing, instant response feedback. Measurement forces marketers to be held to analytic and ROI standards that weren’t possible before.
  
• Second, the customer isn’t waiting to hear from you. They are in control of where and when they seek information about your product or service. Now that they control the sales process, all of your brand’s messaging has to recognize its role in the sales process from lead generation down the purchase path to the sale.
• Third, media proliferation has the affect of requiring the “brand” to work in a variety of different media and non-media channels all at the same time. That means providing the most appropriate message and call to action regardless of when and where your brand is accessed by a prospect.

What are the implications of these changes? It causes us to look at the components of a brand from some different perspectives:

• Emotional branding, described above, is no less important than before. In fact it can be a critical differentiator in crowded, multi-channel, multi-media categories. That goes for B-to-C and B-to-B.
• Experiential branding is how every touch defines your brand. What does the customer experience at your site, when they call, when they search, see you online or in the mail, and when they respond to an offer in any channel? Your brand needs to be reinforced, better yet, proven with every customer or prospect touch.
• Call to action branding is the part of your brand that relates to the offers you make, the information you provide and your calls to action. What is it about your brand that enhances a prospect’s desire to take action? Your brand needs to enhance the reason why, or at least provide a communications shortcut that raises the response of your direct marketing efforts.

At Wayfinder Response Marketing, we align our clients’ brand attributes with their response goals. We’ve seen time and time again that this approach leads to valuable insights, motivating communications, and lowered cost per response.