Building and sustaining consumer engagement requires a brand’s promise, experience and communications to be in perfect unity. Every marketer now knows that trust is eroded when a customer’s experience of a brand is at odds with its promise, but they mustn’t lose sight of the vital role communications plays in how that promise is expressed and consumed in the marketplace.
New research into the BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands rankings compiled by Millward Brown over the last 10 years shows that the brands which have grown fastest are those which amplify a strong proposition – one that consumers see as distinctive and unique – with excellent marketing communications.
These ten fast-growing brands – IBM, FedEx, IKEA, Nike, BMW, Colgate, Google, Samsung, Chanel, McDonald’s and Coca-Cola – have increased their brand value 168% over the 10-year period. This compares with just 76% value increase for brands with a strong brand but weaker advertising, and just 27% for those with strong creative but a weaker brand – proving that you can’t amplify what isn’t there!
These successful brands are masters at defining themselves through innovation, differentiation and a clear and relevant purpose, and then using tightly aligned and integrated creative across all channels to build a highly meaningful 360-degree brand experience.
Colgate, for example, produces marketing content that develops a powerful belief in the product’s efficacy while successfully ‘breaking through’ on social media, such as its #BrilliantSmile celebrity campaign, and apps for children based around characters like SpongeBob SquarePants.
Another stronghold is Coca-Cola. Its Share a Coke campaign consummately reflected its core ‘Choose happiness’ ethos, while unifying four product variants under its iconic master brand – and emphasising this with campaigns including one that celebrated the centenary of its famous contoured bottle – totally aligns the customer experience with what the brand stands for.
To sustain its brand in a time of changing consumer expectations McDonalds introduced new healthier options, began sourcing better ingredients more ethically, and improved its restaurants. It then evolved its communications in line with this new experience – creating shareable mini documentary-style videos about the provenance of its ingredients, and launching its Our food, your questions campaign to increase transparency, for instance.
The key takeout for marketers is that both the experience and the communication should be aligned with what the brand stands for. If the ‘collars don’t match the cuffs’ at any point this can damage trust and, in turn, the brand. Global banks for example, which communicate a sense of purpose that they then have consistently failed to live by, have lost 23% of their brand value over the last three years.
There are four steps marketers can follow to achieve this ‘virtuous triangle’.
Start by developing a strong proposition that differentiates your brand, either functionally or emotionally. Even the best creative advertising will fail to drive value if the core idea and purpose behind it are not clear and distinct, or don’t effectively embody a consumer need. What would make your target audience see your brand as ‘unique’ in a way that’s meaningful to them? What difference will the brand make in their lives? When you’ve defined that, you have your brand promise.
Deliver on that promise. The customer’s actual experience of the brand, and of using its products and services, must reflect the proposition. And to build meaning, affection and habit, you need to deliver that positive experience on a repeated basis. For this to happen the brand promise must be mirrored internally through the behaviours of all employees, and all systems, products and processes should be designed through the lens of that customer experience.
Articulate the promise in a compelling and consistent way across all brand communications. This requires an understanding of the full marketing communication system and how the different parts can build and impact on each other through the customer’s journey to purchase.
Test your advertising to learn what will make it more effective in delivering the brand’s promise. Using a very fast turn-around copy-testing tool for multi-channel campaigns will help give marketers the confidence that consumers will receive advertising in the way it is intended, to deliver against brand objectives and sales.
While it’s the consumer’s own experience of a brand that confirms whether it truly meets their needs, the process can be framed and shaped by marketing communication that focuses on positive aspects of what it’s like to use the brand. The more closely aligned this is to the actual experience, the greater the connection with the consumer – and the harder for competitors to displace.
By Amanda Phillips, UK Head of Marketing at Millward Brown.
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