Creating a brand isn’t an easy task. It requires thinking outside the box and coming up with fresh ideas that your target demographic will find appealing. Your marketing brand should be no exception to this rule. You must first identify your business’s best assets to create a memorable brand. After all, not every business has the same value proposition or attributes that target customers want from their company in exchange for their money. To find out your business’s assets, you need to list them (I use the technique of Asset Mapping) to see which ones are worth conserving and which can be replaced with something better.
In the Book, How Brands Grow 2 Revised Edition: Including Emerging Markets, Services, Durables, B2B and Luxury Brands 2nd Edition by Jenni Romaniuk and Bryon Sharp, the authors discuss three areas of concern:
- Consider the Environment: Where are you going to be using the asset?
- Consider the brand’s history: What have you built in the past?
- Consider the metrics to make your choice evidence-based
When thinking about assets, the first thing to do is to consider the environment. Your asset should be in the right “place” for your target market. The environment in which marketing assets are used can greatly impact their effectiveness. For example, if the asset is going to be used in a store, then the marketer needs to consider the store’s layout, lighting, and other factors. If the asset is used online, the marketer needs to consider the website’s design and how users will interact with it. Taking the time to think about the environment in which the asset will be used can help marketers create a more effective and successful marketing campaign.
Another example supposes a company is trying to sell a product in a country where the culture is very different. In that case, the marketing materials may need to be adapted to be more effective. Additionally, a country’s political and legal environment can also impact the use of marketing assets. For example, if a country has strict advertising regulations, companies must be mindful of these when developing their marketing materials.
As you figure out what assets to preserve, ask yourself what your brand’s history has been. Have you been around long and built much trust with your target audience? The company brand’s history is its track record of commitment to its customers. Or have you just started marketing your business, meaning there isn’t history yet? Depending on the kind of assets you want to conserve, this could determine whether they are worth preserving or not.
For example, if your brand is still new and doesn’t have many assets to conserve, it would be best to consider creating some unique assets that will appeal to your target audience. On the other hand, if your brand has a long history and plenty of assets to conserve, it would make sense to focus on preserving older assets that might not be as effective anymore.
If you’re having trouble figuring out which assets should stay and which ones should, think about how your marketing efforts affect potential customers. If potential customers don’t notice anything unusual about your company’s branding or marketing efforts, then think about whether those current methods deliver the desired results. Suppose they’re not delivering results quickly enough or are ineffective in reaching people who would benefit from them most (like older demographics). In that case, you may want to consider changing these current methods before it’s too late.
Before you start your brainstorming, consider the metrics that are important to you. Some key marketing metrics to think about before starting your brainstorming session include leads, conversion rate, web traffic, and social media engagement. It’s important to clearly understand what you want to achieve before starting your brainstorming session to focus on ideas that will help you reach your goals. Once you’ve collected all your ideas, it’s time to narrow the list to the most feasible and practical ideas. Finally, present your ideas to the appropriate people and get feedback so you can fine-tune your plan. For example, if you are looking for a marketing brand with many social media followings or an active blog community, those would be assets worth conserving. These metrics will help you decide on assets to conserve and what else can be replaced with something better.
Using these three areas provides a clear path and an excellent way to start mapping your assets. In a later post, I will discuss Marketing Asset Mapping. It entails mapping out the organization’s marketing assets and resources to create a more organized system that makes accessing relevant data and executing marketing activities easier.
Amazon Affiliate Link: How Brands Grow 2 Revised Edition: Including Emerging Markets, Services, Durables, B2B and Luxury Brands 2nd Edition by Jenni Romaniuk and Bryon Sharp