5 Things Brand Marketing Can’t Do
There are literally thousands of books about marketing and if you read many of them one fact emerges: without a brand strategy, marketing usually reflects what is (or isn’t) going on inside the company. What is certain is there is no such thing as a sure thing.
Brand marketing can’t:
- Solve a company’s inability to make decisions. Unfortunately a company with this problem usually retards or destroys its marketing simply by not taking action.
- Reposition a company with lousy products or over the market pricing, particularly in this down economy when people are looking for value.
- Fix a company overnight who has changed its strategy 4 times in the last 5 years. This happens a lot when a new CEO comes in and feels the need to do something different. Often it takes longer to discover the true reasons the company is failing than the board wants to wait so quick decisions are made, usually incorrectly, and then a new CEO takes his place.
- Redesign an entire brand marketing system only using “company staff.” Few marketers inside a company have enough perspective to do all of the brand strategy planning without outside counsel. Many companies try and many companies fail.
- Sustain a program with a low budget. Management says, “What can we do to get this company going?” Marketing proposes a major brand campaign to produce image and leads. But all too often management says “That’s not in our budget.” Of course it isn’t! If it were, you probably wouldn’t be in such deep doo-doo.
What smart marketing can do is analyze a company’s true position, develop a winning strategy and implement a program to raise image and produce leads. But remember, smart marketing takes time and shouldn’t be viewed as a pop-tart.
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Brandon R Allen commented:
I have been at a conference where someone suggested in front of a thousand people that branding was more important than if they had a substandard product. It was classic. Worst advice I ever heard. Great points in your article.
BrandIt-Marketing commented:
Your Number 1 comment rings true with so many businesses, not only with their marketing strategy but the cohesiveness of their operations and directors. Successful branding and marketing means everyone has to be in the same boat, paddling in the same direction, even if that direction is not the ultimate goal. I have seen some member of the team not "buy" in on the vision and end up sabotaging in the long run.
Giles Dickerson commented:
Tom, number 5 resonates with me especially. It's not always fun to be the person that tells an executive that his seriousness about branding and marketing success are expressed in his/her budget but it's true. I come across many startups that have a budget for their product development and not for marketing or the brand. What they fail to realize is the brand is the product and design is as important to product development as it is to marketing. COntrary to popular belief, creative thinking is not a commodity that can be skimmed for cheap.
@brandlessons commented:
Great post. Often times, brand mangers and agencies forget that most problems with companies are their own worst enemy. As a mentor of mine has always said, "A broken internal brand means a failed external brand."
As marketers, we get put into a tough position of trying solve a companies public perception without the "go-ahead" to tell the company that it's their fault their brand is failing.
