Defining Demand Gen
I’ll start this post by stating the obvious, but there are more nuanced points to follow… businesses make money by offering a product or service that solves a problem for customers.
Therefore the need or demand for that product/service is derived from the presence of a problem. These problems can range from craving a burrito (solved by Chipotle), to a leaking pipe causing water damage in your home (solved by a plumber). Regardless of how big or small a problem may be, problems drive purchases. This is a similar notion to the jobs to be done framework. People hire products/services to perform a specific job (and that job solves a problem).
With that in mind, we can begin to reevaluate how marketers use the term “demand generation.” It’s often used synonymously with brand awareness, but this can limit the breadth and scope through which “demand gen” campaigns are created.
For example, if a tire shop owner wants to generate demand, they go up the road and dig a pothole. They don’t run Facebook ads.
Generating demand is actually generating problems.
This can be done creatively and ethically, but it is very difficult to accomplish. However, understanding that what most marketers intend to run as “demand gen” is actually branding can be a helpful paradigm shift. The type of content (video, blog, etc…) that marketers use in their branding efforts isn’t as important as what they’re saying through those mediums. I often see strategies being shared that encourage using some of the below in ads targeting cold audiences:
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While there is nothing wrong with weaving thought leadership, social proof, and product marketing into a branding strategy, it can be beneficial to root these tactics in messages that identify problems. By highlighting a target audience’s core problems in the beginning of an ad, an organization can make that audience feel understood. Having thousands of five star reviews won’t do a potential customer any good if they don’t know what solution is being reviewed. Effective branding campaigns focus on what problem(s) the company is solving. This provides clarity in communication.
A great example of a company that’s invested heavily in branding, while also demonstrating success in their specific tactics, is Airbnb. Over the course of 2022 the company made it public knowledge that they were shifting budgets away from traditional performance marketing and more toward branding efforts. If you visit Airbnb’s YouTube page you’ll find some great examples of content that drives brand awareness by focusing on sympathizing with customer’s problems.
This video is only 15 seconds long, but manages to identify the target customer’s problem (empty nesters unsure what to do with the extra space), and showcase Airbnb’s solution to that problem (renting out extra rooms).
By focusing brand awareness efforts on the problems that a product/service solves, future customers build an immediate understanding of what that brand can do for them. Follow up interactions can dive into how the company solves problems, why their approach is better, and what other people are saying about their solutions.
To bring each of these points home, businesses make money by solving problems for customers. Those problems result in demand for a solution (taking the form of a product or service), so creating demand would actually be creating problems. This means “demand gen” initiatives are most often actually branding initiatives, and the performance of these efforts can be improved by taking inspiration from proven branding strategies. Highlighting the problems that a business solves in its branding campaigns can be an effective way to introduce potential customers to the organization.
This customer-centric approach to branding introductions can be applied to any business, regardless of size or vertical.