6 Hurdles Sabotaging Your Brand & Market Strategy

Did any of you grow up watching Fresh Prince of Bel-Air? It seemed that no matter how grave a situation, Will and Carlton were able to get out of or fix any situation within the episode no matter how complex.

How about Happy Days? Do you remember the Fonzie Touch, when The Fonz’ would snap his fingers and whatever he was hoping for just worked instantly without any effort??

We could go further back to Bewitched, where all that was needed was a twitch or two of Samantha’s nose and magic would happen, often keeping Darrin out of trouble!

Is all of this reminiscent of your organizational brand and market strategy? At a? snap of your fingers or wiggle of your nose things just work out exactly as you envisioned with exactly the results anticipated???

Of course not, marketing strategy doesn’t work that way, but for some reason there's an expectation that building a brand and staying in growth mode is easier than it really is. Brand recognition and market penetration requires research, strategy, consistency, and use of metrics, all of which are equally as important in the modern digital world when retention and loyalty are in focus too. As human interaction with technology evolves and we become more immersed in a digital life, brand and market strategy becomes increasingly more complex.? ?

Here are 6 of the biggest hurdles that an organization must overcome before developing a cohesive digital strategy that'll have the ability to evolve rather than react to market conditions or competitor circumstances:

?“We are already industry leaders; we don’t really need help.”?

Brand strategy must evolve as existing clients and future clients are “pitched” day & night by a multitude of brands. When an organization is in growth mode (which is baffling to me when I hear a company isn’t – how does that work?), they should stay deeply rooted in growth mode and be strategizing the next campaign, product release or service. The right time to rethink and re-strategize is actually right now.?

It’s ALWAYS right now.?

If a leading organization refuses to strategically evolve and remain in the forefront, there will eventually be a decline.?

“There is very little insight anyone can offer, we all have a sales and marketing background.”?

There is so much more to the research and strategy components of marketing when developing a brand or marketing campaign. Often it’s lost internally while organizations and sales teams are pushing for brand awareness and conversion: reach doesn’t mean connection, and connection doesn’t automatically mean conversion.?????

Often organizations maintain a marketing team, or person, that is overloaded with website details, social media, IT administration, amassing images, organizing information, developing all of it into calendars for release, and trying to track ROI along the way. And this is only a small portion of “marketing” – in all of this there would be very little time for research, customer experience and creativity.?

“We have an internal marketing group, we don’t need external insight.”?

This is one of the push backs that often are seen, which are fueled by? a multitude of reasons: people are scared to speak up, or no one wants to feel or look inadequate within their role, or maybe fear for loss of position. Is there validity to some of these concerns??

Maybe – but external marketing and branding groups are not intended to replace internal groups, rather, they should enhance them.?

Internal marketing groups of organizations are often focused on pushing brand and creating recognition, but this often leads to less effort in understanding the market research (if research is actually performed) and where the company sits amongst its competition. If there isn’t an understanding of the ‘why’ within the strategy, the strategy is essentially an? old-fashioned guess and test.

“No one knows our company better than we do.”?

Believe it or not, your brand strategy isn’t about the internal focus of your organization. Knowing your company also means knowing your current clients as well as the potential clients your marketing strategy isn’t reaching.?

The starting block for any short term or long term market strategy needs to start with understanding the client need set, and how or if their needs are currently met.??

“We are a highly recognized brand and are social media phenoms, who could showcase us better?”?

Unless your conversion rate increases at a level beyond your social media empire growth, your organization is focused on entertainment (or your client base sees you as such). Social media for corporations is a platform through which you can increase the brand share of voice; more importantly, it should have your brand loyalists also sharing your voice because they believe in your product, service, culture, stewardship, or all of the impacts your organization makes. Your loyal clients should be champions of your branding campaign, sharing their experiences with your organization, product, or service.?

These are the ones that showcase your organization better.

“We don’t believe that marketing or a digital strategy is important to our organization.”?

The entire world is interconnected and the majority of people within the world use the internet for almost everything they do. The days of the yellow pages are long gone (thankfully, so are corded telephones).?

If people or other businesses cannot find you, or they are unable to connect with your offering as the digital media portrays, they move on to a brand they feel is easier to reach or more relatable.?

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There are always hurdles to overcome in the marketing strategies and digital presence of an organization, recognizing and overcoming hurdles is what elevates the greatest brands. One of the most important lessons that can be learned in life and business: conversation often doesn’t cost much more than time. Yes, time is valuable, it’s true once time is spent it can never be regained, though time properly invested pays back multiple times over. Engage in meaningful conversations that will lead to better process, strategy, and efficiency of your business and people. The best time to rethink, evolve internally and focus on external marketing strategy is now.?

It’s ALWAYS right now.??