Brand channels used to be defined by their ability to reach target audiences at scale.
But now with an almost infinite number of touchpoints businesses can use to engage with consumers, the ability to reach them isn’t the issue – it’s what happens when you do that counts.
The rules of engagement have changed so quickly and with such dramatic force it’s no wonder that over 60% of Australian marketers lack confidence in the touchpoints they use, according to Kantar figures.
We hear every day the struggles marketers face. They are challenged to effectively manage the vast number of touchpoints. They grapple with which touchpoints to place the greatest effort and resource behind. And they are under pressure to do more with less.
The fact is every touchpoint has the potential to influence but not all of them do.And increasingly it’s the consumer that decides whether, when and where they will engage with brands.
Brand opportunities are thus defined by the state of mind of the audience, not the fact that the audience is there.So where does this leave marketers?
Moments that matter make memories
Brand memories are the cumulative effect of all the moments that matter in our experiences of them – seeing advertising, having conversations, seeing them in shops, using them – compared to other brands. Any of these moments can be leveraged by brands to update or strengthen those memories. Creating meaningful memories in the moments that matters leads to brand growth.
With effective touchpoint management tools, it’s possible toidentify the moments that matter most and ensure you’re reaching the right touchpoints at the right time.
Doing fewer things excellently
To define the right brand-building opportunities, it is critical to have an approach that provides insights into touchpoints, not just about the quantity of contacts (reach) but also about their quality (engagement).
Effective touchpoint management begins with understanding that in most cases, 80% of impact on brand is delivered by only 20% of touchpoints. Most brands could stop doing 10 things and no one would notice.
The trouble is, each brand is unique and the touchpoints with highest impact for one brand may be completely different for another, or to that brand in a different market.
It's about uncovering what works uniquely for your brand, being able to confidently strip away activity that is only delivering marginal impact and focus on the 20% of touchpoints that meet your organisation’s goals.
Consumers don’t experience your brand in silos
Consumers expect a seamless experience regardless of where they choose to interact with a brand yet most businesses are still organised in silos. When marketing controlled the image of the brand through advertising, this wasn’t a problem. But now that consumer interactions with the brand are managed by many of these different touchpoints, it is increasingly difficult for siloed businesses to offer a consistent and coherent brand experience.
In order to make smart choices about the touchpoints a brand is looking to build memories through, companies need to break down siloes internally and pool insight from across the organisation.
They then need an integrated approach to delivering experiences through those touchpoints that meet both sales and brand agendas.
Building brands across channels and devices is no longer simply a creative challenge – or a media buying one. It’s also an exercise in organisational change. Brand marketing isn’t what it used to be – and the departments that deliver it can’t stay the way they used to be either.
The brand and audience imperative
What gives a brand its competitive edge isn’t just the ability to reach more people; it is the ability to create more unique and influential brand memories.
Effective brands know how to select the touchpoints that do this most efficiently – and they know that the right choice of touchpoint depends on both the brand and the audience.
In this webinar series, we have shared our insights into what it takes to obtain a holistic view across all brand touchpoints so marketers can better prioritise spend and maximise ROI.
The touchpoint revolution is here. And marketers that intimately understand where their brands have highest value to achieve brand equity and sales outcomes, will be best placed to come out on top.
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