2024 Marketing Strategy: Emphasize the HOW

The general marketing playbook over the past decade or so for emerging brands has been relatively straightforward: find the right WHO (agencies or internal team), target the appropriate WHAT in unsaturated emerging media channels (Meta, Google, TikTok, etc.), test, iterate, and achieve your WHY with a 3x+ ROAS. Get investor and board approval, rinse, and repeat knowing those investors and board members are repeating something similar with other companies.?

As more competition came to market with new entrants and deep-pocketed corporate incumbents, which drove marketing costs up, this formula was no longer effective and left many teams asking themselves: HOW do we adjust?

We started Ember Advisory because we have seen a similar cycle play out many times over the years, often with disastrous outcomes: Inspiring new brands and founders addressing real market needs that get caught up in the “strategy wave” of the times and aren’t prepared for what happens after the crest.?

This has happened with:

• Domestic manufacturing → Globalization
• Distributors, Wholesale and PR? → Decline of department stores
• Specialty Retail → Mid-tier mall/retail decline
• And now DTC → Saturation of digital media

Each time, the supply and demand fundamentals shifted, markets became saturated, and superficial strategies became over-utilized. However, those who were prepared thrived and achieved long-term success by pursuing their own “against the herd” path.?

The solution? Develop a comprehensive HOW. So many times we have heard advisors and boards superficially discussing WHAT to do – ex., “let’s try influencer marketing, we need a Meta strategy, etc.” without a fully thought out comprehensive marketing and distribution plan, HOW do you integrate influencer or Meta into a broader marketing and brand strategy? And how does that further integrate into the overall business value chain?

Today’s competitive dynamics require brands to think about every marketing content and sales distribution channel in a holistic way that provides maximum flexibility to ensure standout results. It’s vital for leadership to address the hard, multi-layered questions and find deeper insights and answers to those questions, including:

• How do we build a flexible marketing infrastructure so we can quickly deploy content, technology, resources, and dollars in and out of the most effective strategies that bring us closer to our consumer? How do we adapt when everyone starts to do the same thing?
• How do we ensure our inventory, merchandising and product mix is appropriately planned?
• How do we need to adjust our operations to accommodate?
• How is the team and agency ecosystem incentivized to identify and act on the issues and opportunities before it’s too late?
• How do our data capabilities and management reporting empower us to make quick and informed decisions?
• How should we be capitalized to function well in a more fluid environment?

The late Charlie Munger once said “Mimicking the herd invites regression to the mean.” What worked for several years prior is now the “mean” so it’s time to stand-out: don’t be average and chart your own path to success.