Branding? Brand Equity? Advertising? Design Thinking? Performance Marketing?
Marketing lingo and concepts certainly can take on a life of their own. We might be a teeny-tiny bit guilty of getting caught up in our own language and use fluffy marketing words at times, so we thought we could help shed some light on some of the key Marketing concepts that inform the Pascal Satori creative marketing process.
Marketing = the CUSTOMER
Marketing can be understood as the practice of understanding consumers needs, wants, desires and delivering concepts, ideas, services or products that offer these consumers value. Underpinning the whole concept of great modern marketing is human-centric design that always places people, or our customers at the centre of our thinking. This deep understanding, immersion, and empathy with the people we are designing for, will help us recognise whether the solutions we design are truly serving their needs.
According to Forbes, ‘Marketing is about connecting the right customers to the right product’ achieved via ‘deep customer knowledge and insight’
Think of Marketing as the umbrella term or ‘the whole enchilada’ encompassing the activities that help build a Brand and grow a business. Research, Advertising, Public Relations, Events, Social Media, SEO, Brand Building are all functions of marketing.
Branding and Brand Building = YOU
This is where it’s all you baby! Branding/Brand Building/Brand Awareness is all about your business, your brand, your story. What do you stand for? What are the elements that make your Brand and business unique? What can you offer your customers? By understanding what it is that sets you apart you can then begin to learn more about who your customers might be, how they currently feel about you and how you want them to feel about you. Only then can you start engaging and building a meaningful long-term relationship.
A Brand relationship in many ways, reflects our ideal kind of romantic relationship. We want a relationship built on mutual respect, with a partner (brand) who is honest, acts with integrity and is a clear communicator. In return, we hope for a partner (customer) who is engaged and loyal, who absolutely understands and connects with us, over others (competitors). This is far better than any kind of one night stand right? It might be fun and flirty, but at the end of the day our deep-down needs aren’t being met, and we will go elsewhere to find this.
Switch up your thinking to start integrating your Brand into your overall business strategy. Consider and define your Brand identity, who you are as a Brand and Business and how you want to be perceived. How can you become valuable to your consumers and connect with them?
Your Brand Identity should inform all of your decision making and help define your strategic direction. Remember that every single touchpoint works to build your Brand Identity and reflect who you are and what you stand for. All the little details tell your story, from your logo, colour palette, business cards, shopfront, uniforms, website, social media pages, ads, videos right through to the dialogue you have with your customers. All of these elements curate your identity and make people feel a certain way about you.
Brand Equity = what YOU mean to THEM
This is the value a consumer places on your brand, determined by consumer’s perception of your brand, and their personal experiences with it. We take a closer look at Brand Equity here (link to Summers brand equity blog) essentially, Brand Equity can be can be both positive and negative. The goal is to build Positive Brand Equity where over time consumers have built a great relationship with you through positive experiences and interactions. It can be as simple as delivering on your word or brand promise. Being truthful and honest in your interactions. Surprising and delighting your customers. Most importantly, being consistent over and over again. Brands with strong equity have greater longevity, with loyal, repeat customers and are far more likely to stand the test of time and be successful and profitable.
Advertising = SOMEONE ELSE
Advertising is often incorrectly used interchangeably with marketing, these are definitely not the same thing. Advertising is the part of marketing that’s about ‘someone else’. Advertising is paying someone to tell your story .
Once you have established who you are and how you want to connect to your customers, you are then ready to start telling your audience all about yourself.
An advertisement creatively communicates the key selling points of your Brand, and you pay a third party to run it on their platform. This might be via Google, Social Media, TV, Magazine etc etc.
Often businesses assume that advertising is the only way to reach an audience but it’s important to remember that this just one part of your whole marketing strategy. Multiple marketing activities should be used to effectively communicate and expose your brand to your consumers. Canva uses the tried and true analogy of advertising as ‘1 slice of the whole marketing pie’ If advertising is the only piece of the pie your using (eating!) to market your business, you’re missing out on a heap of opportunities to elevate your brand and connect with consumers (eg getting to eat the whole pie!).
Performance Marketing = SOMEONE ELSE
It’s a form of advertising. The term given for online marketing campaigns where marketers pay for certain agreed results, such as clicks, specified actions (eg survey response, email sign up) or conversions to be achieved, using a third-party online platform. The content can be easily monitored in real time to track performance metrics and marketers have the ability to optimise and tweak campaigns based on these results or performance – hence ‘Performance Marketing’.
Design Thinking = YOUR challenges OUR thinking
This is what grounds our creativity and ideation here at Pascal Satori. We talk more about Design Thinking and Design Strategy in previous blogs but it’s worth defining again here, as it’s one of the key concepts that informs all of our marketing strategy. Design Thinking is a creative approach grounded in consumer-centric thinking. It’s creative problem solving that helps us uncover the complexities of our marketing challenge (eg how to make your business/brand a success), and how we can design strategies and plans to uniquely position brands for success, innovation and differentiation.
ROI (return on investment) = YOUR dollars
Return on Investment (ROI), is the way in which we measure actual dollar value of a marketing investment. What is the financial gain from your marketing efforts and investment?
ROI isn’t a simple equation anymore. Measuring success needs to consider your overall marketing and brand building efforts and include both quantitative, performance metrics in combination with more qualitative aspects such as how consumers perceive your brand, how it makes them feel, or the connection you have with your consumers. Successful brands will look at ROI (link to ROI blog) as multitude of measures.
These are just some of the concepts and thinking that help create successful brands. Marketing is never a one size fits all approach. Every business represents a new set of challenges in which Design Thinking can be applied to find creative, strategic solutions to help build a successful business. Let the experts guide you and ensure the right combination of tools and thinking is setting your Brand Journey off in the right direction.
