New research into successful brand DNA, Ignite Research’s Mark Nolan writes
For marketing to be effective, it must grow brands. Marketers work hard to develop plans to unlock growth and push hard to activate them effectively, but we cannot be sure we are planning and activating effectively unless we first define growth. For marketing to be an effective catalyst for growth, marketers need to know what growth means, be clear on what growth is possible and how marketing can unlock potential growth.
What exactly do we mean by growth?
Marketing should grow a brand by driving sales and building for the future. It is a dual-pronged task which marketing needs to address – sales and affinity. The idea is not new and has been brought back into consciousness courtesy of the widely read IPA paper on effectiveness by Binet & Field, ‘The Long and Short of It: Measuring Campaign Effectiveness Over Time’. Some questions come to mind for marketers.
Do we clarify and call out what we define as growth before we plan? Are marketers clear on how best to go about achieving growth today and for the future? Do we know how to be effective in driving and delivering growth before we begin? Hopefully, the answer to all three questions is yes. But things are not as clear as we would like. The choices and decisions made may not be as strong as they could be at planning stage.
We may be setting ourselves up for mediocrity and ineffectiveness through no fault. Enemies of clarity of thinking are lack of time, a dearth of mental bandwidth, group think, thinking what worked before will work again, and ego trap (“me, wrong?”), among others. Even with the time, headspace and capacity to think clearly, do we have the information and insight to allow us think effectively about how to unlock growth?
Ignite Research have spent time working through these basic questions around growth and effectiveness. We recently carried out an extensive study of over 5,000 surveys to identify the key characteristics of growing brands – sales and affinity. We also measured how some of the more popular assets in our industry marketing toolkit cultivate and build the overall profile of growth-orientated brands.
Decoding DNA of growth brands
The agency set out to identify what motivates consumers to buy a brand, and separately clarify what encourages them to want to get closer to a brand. These are the dual components of growth described above; sales and affinity. We studied 47 of the most commonly researched brand dimensions and tested each to assess its strength in urging consumers to buy a brand and strength in building affinity towards a brand.
The most important brand dimensions were statistically identified which drive growth (that is, promote sales and affinity). The shortlist of 22 comprise the DNA of growth-orientated brands.
Ineffective growth
Effectiveness is an exercise in knowing what does not work and avoiding it, as well as understanding what does work and focusing on it. It is useful to look at which brand dimensions failed to make the effectiveness short list before looking at the DNA of growth-orientated brands. Loudness: brand noise and visibility perform poorly on growth. “A brand I hear a lot about” typifies this, performing at minus 32 per cent below the high effectiveness threshold. Noise without purpose is meaningless and does little to drive brand growth.
Innovation without purpose: “is more innovative than other brands”, “is modern/up to date” and “surprises me with new ideas” all failed to make the cut. Just because we can, does not mean we should. Many new tools and techniques are emerging. Rather than jump on new things for fear of being left behind, we need to think about how we can use new tools to deliver something relevant and meaningful to our target audience.
Self-absorbed: dimensions such as “is a very successful brand/company” and “has a bright future” do little to inspire and motivate people. Unsurprisingly, consumers do not get excited hearing about how great we think we are. Although having a place in reassuring and building credibility, talking about how great brands are themselves does little to encourage consumers to want to buy from you or want to hear more from you.
These are hygiene factors, not growth drivers.
DNA of growth brands
The most effective dimensions within the DNA of growth-orientated brands are… cares about its customers; gives me more for my money; treats its employees well; is reliable and consistent and has good quality products/services. It is striking how basic and routine these key drivers of growth are. It can be easy to forget simple truths. We’ve identified three macro themes of growth-orientated brand DNA, encompassing all 22 dimensions, including the top five above. These are what brands need to consider to drive real growth:
How you treat me: people want to be respected and valued in an authentic way. Feeling that they matter is critical. “Cares about its customers” and “rewards people for their custom” top the list. We need to ensure we value customers as individuals and that we show this in practical terms – in how we interact with them in a genuine way. Saying you are customer centric does not make you authentically customer centric.
What you stand for: having a clear sense of purpose and meaning is important for growth. Consumers want to interact with brands who are not just in it for the money. “Treats its employees well” and “exists for more than just making a profit” come through strongly here. With employee’s wellbeing a strong influencer on consumers, it is no surprise to see an increasing focus on employer branding in recent years.
What you do for me: benefits consumers derive from a brand fuel growth. “Gives me more for my money” is top here, but a timely reminder that it’s not just about low cost is the strong performance of “has good quality products/services” and “is reliable and consistent”. What has been less discussed in the value versus quality equation is the worth consumers attach to consistency and how in itself it is powerful in driving growth.
These are the baseline rules for brand growth at an overall level. As we delve into different categories and different segments of the population, there are shifts in what most effectively drives growth which are too detailed for an article like this to outline now. Let us look at the issue of unlocking growth effectively.
The final part of our research focused on 36 marketing tools and techniques commonly brought to bear to drive growth. We assessed how each performs in building each of the 22 dimensions of growth-orientated brand DNA. We identified which marketing tools are most effective when seeking to build growth through the targeted brand hotspots. The most effective categories of marketing tools to drive brand growth:
Sponsorship and events: local community sponsorships are most effective, but many other sponsorships perform strongly. Sponsorship connects well with people in their world and demonstrates corporate values, provided the right sponsorship property is selected and organised appropriately.
Recommendations and endorsements: advocacy and positive endorsements from independent sources are almost as influential as well-executed sponsorships. What others say about your brand has real impact with consumers. It is not the media channel which matters here, but more the source and authenticity of the endorsement. It highlights the power of public relations and CSR in driving effective brand growth.
Media advertising: above the line advertising has strong influence in building growth for brands. Yet, it must be tempered with the cautionary warning that being noisy for noise sake is not effective. Having a compelling brand message, based on the criteria known to promote growth, should inform how marketers choose to deploy these media influences. Relevant context, timing and placement are where media reach and frequency turn from being low impact noise to highly potent drivers of brand growth.
Digital advertising: undoubtedly, a company’s website is the most influential digital channel in building growth-orientated brand DNA. There is also strong performance for search engine advertising and a brand’s own social media profiles. Effectively driving consumers to brand-owned assets along with strong search presence are battlegrounds to build growing brands digitally.
Direct advertising: by no means a low influencer category. Direct advertising by email or post can cut through and have strong brand building impacts. A relevant personalised communication can cut through and show customers are understood by brand owners and are valued. We identified which components of a brand will most effectively drive growth and isolated which combination of marketing tools will be most effective.
Mark Nolan is managing director of Ignite Research
