Mahashivratri or Valentine’s Day – What was your pick?
“Does your content lead readers on a journey, or does it merely stuff them as leads into a pipeline?”
– Ann Hadley, Head of Content, Marketing Profs
As a brand agency we work on different ideas and different brands each day. Our job is primarily to make them stand out as business and more importantly to make them resonating & truthful to their respective audiences.
Smarter Branding Goals – are integrated goals. They are not just customer oriented, vision oriented they are created out of a positioning which works for both. Gone are the days when businesses survived on single agendas being talked about in a single manner, a celebrity endorser. The brands need to engage, connect & deliver experience through different channels as per their popularity with the varied target segments.
This is what differentiates branding from advertising. Advertising can target a single goal, it could be around a product, a service or an offering. In an advertisement, you can concentrate on the benefit to the audience.
On the contrary, branding is holistic. It works on the fundamentals of your entity, covering the essentials, the business purpose, consumer insight, competition and also the benefit. It works like on the behaviors, the environment, the brand goals, the brand benefits and works the brand plans that way only.
India celebrates MahaShivratri today i.e., the February 14th, 2018. Yes, the date which is long been commercialized by the marketers & business houses of the past as The Valentine’s Day. Many a times, the client team gets into confusion – as to what to keep and what to miss. It is also complicated because some of the brand owners witness religious posts, other notice the commercial viability of running some campaigns of the globally acclaimed commercial day which offers financial viability and instant impulsive actions from customers of all strata.
Branding and Brand Management revolves around – the brand story. The brand reaches its audience through its content, the channels and visual strategy. In the pre-digital era of branding, the brand collaterals used to be around the Offline Brand Communication.
The offline brand communication channels included:
- Brand Stationary – Business Card, Letterhead, Envelops. Later the floppy covers and CD covers joined.
- Brand Brochures / Work profiles
- Communication Design including the pamphlets, in-store danglers, shopping shelf areas etc.
- Outdoor Media (if any). Print & Radio evolved in the 70s.
What has evolved in the Digital Marketing age?
- Customer Connections
Your Customer has evolved. Your customer is watching you and probably your competitors as well. They are more connected through the smart devices being present every time and everywhere.
- Reach
The outreach has increased multi-folds. Earlier the mode of communication for businesses was only print, outdoor and later on radios & TV. The influx of marketing mediums has sky-rocketed the way promotions can be done. There are new channels on your idiot box and many of them are nicely targeted, henceforth paving the way for the businesses to strategize accordingly.
- Brands & Businesses
Remember Rexona, AIR, Bisleri, Texla and may be Nokia among the new ones. All of these excelled because these were all pioneers. Another reason why they excelled were because there were no distractions – they ruled the customer’s mind and they were on the top of their game.
Reason – Unlike today customers were not bombarded with options, the newer options and the better ones. The loyalties were defined as the advertisements were very good, were more around benefits & problem solving and less around competition & surrogacy.
Products were sold for what they offered.
Like Don Draper said,
“Advertising is based on one thing, happiness. And you know what happiness is? Happiness is smell of a new car. It’s freedom from fear. It’s a billboard on the side of the road that screams reassurance that whatever you are doing is okay. You are okay.
What has changed in the Digital Age?
Speed. The speed of reaching a customer mind, attaining the brand recall and the chances of being overlapped by the competitors. The speed of capturing the mind maps and the speed of losing it has changed the dynamics of Brand Management.
Top of Mind Recall is only possible through the correct positioning. The customers are vocal, brands get a feedback right away, we are in the camera age – click, post & gone!
Coming back to the Brand Strategy – which intrigued this post (Maha Shivratri or Valentine’s Day) How do you stay, recalled & remembered can all be managed through Brand Positioning?
Let us answer few questions for our Brands right away? (You can email the answers here, if you seek more clarity or to meet the Brand Strategist)
- Summarize your target market in one sentence
- Identify and Summarize the three biggest and most critical problem that your target market faces.
- List how you solve these problems and present clients with unique solutions.
- Include the “WOW”! results that you or your clients have achieved.
- List the benefits your clients receive.Now basis the above answers – work on a content strategy that should give you the answer as to whether MahaShivratri or Valentine’s Day is the day that fits your brand calendar.
Happy Branding 🙂
Drop in a message here for speak to the Brand team @30TH FEB.