Good marketers don't define brands
Many marketers have an unhealthy obsession with brands. Some of us spend an inordinate amount of time creating, managing or owning a brand. As an industry, we spend an awful lot of effort ranking or awarding the most popular brands. We raise the top brands on a pedestal of demigods and then spend sleepless nights fretting whether our own brand will one day become a Nike, Google or an Apple. This is a monumental waste of time.
Brand marketing is based on a fallacy. Advertisers and marketers don't define brands, your customers do. If you think Nike is defined by the "Just do it" campaign or their logo, you're wrong. To get the real backstory, I recommend reading Shoe Dog by Nike creator Phil Knight. The slogans came much after the killer product met the customer needs.
What does this mean for B2B marketers?
I've been leading Sievo's marketing team for two years now and I haven't made any efforts to define Sievo's brand. We've gone through a sizable visual re-branding exercise, and we have slogans we use to differentiate our value, but these are not our brand.
Our brand is defined by the stories our customers and employees tell each other when we're not around. Our brand is the candid opinions customers share on referral calls, or the way our employees describe us to friends at the pub.
Acknowledging that marketers don't define brands doesn't mean you shouldn't invest in branding. Quite the opposite. Once you drop the assumption that your job is to define brands, you're free to start the real work, and all worthwhile work endeavors usually start with a good story.
People remember stories, not taglines
In most cases, people don't remember brands, they remember good stories. Let me give a couple concrete examples from the past year specifically related to our event marketing at Sievo.
When we participate at procurement related events, we've often gone for the lowest cost, smallest booth options. We also don't invest in pre-event emails, sponsorships or other advertising to attendees. We're comfortable knowing that other software vendors invest 10x to get larger booths, prominent logo visibility and their branded swag shared out in goodie bags. Instead we invest in creating quality content.
Our big content theme for this year was "Procurement Loves Finance." We wrote a whole guidebook on the topic and printed out high quality stickers to share our pride and love for procurement. This campaign took a lot of content planning and development but the results were pretty outstanding. Almost in every procurement related event we ran out of books to share and over the course of the year have given out over 2000 printed copies. We're on our fourth print-run for stickers, and we're soon going to reach 10,000 stickers handed out. The ultimate endorsement is that other marketers have started to come to us because they have heard about our stickers and books from their sales-folks and customers.
At the same time, we've never run out of marketing pamplets or printed case studies at any events. Sales collateral still serves a purpose, but I don't expect anyone to keep hold of these materials long after the event or a meeting. It's emotions and stories that people remember, not words printed on marketing materials. Just look at the picture below and consider how many pamphlets you'll remember tomorrow.
Who will be our Chief-Executive-Storyteller?
So, let's get to the beef of this story. If customers define brands and stories are hugely influential in shaping your message, then it makes sense to invest in content marketing.
Effective content marketing can do more to define a brand than any advertising campaign, logo or slogan. Even if your corporate competitors have 100x your advertising budgets, you have nothing to worry about. Real brand value is something money can't buy.
At Sievo, we recently started recruiting for our first Content Marketing Specialist. If we find the right candidate I expect they can do more to develop our brand than anyone else in Sievo's 15 year history... more than both of our founders and a heck of a lot more than me.
The key question is who should we hire! Who could be the brave storyteller to lead Content Marketing for an eclectic set of b2b-marketing hoodlums and procurement sector misfits?
You've got until the 19th of December to give us a hint, tag a friend or send over an application. ;-)
Connecting Skip Hire and Waste Management company owners looking to exit with Private Equity/Investor buyers and vice-versa! | Experienced Waste Industry Managing Director | NED | M&A advice | Interim MD | SME exit
6 年Great article Lari, for me your brand is defined by what your customers think of you. By gaining a strong brand through delivering the promises in your proposition, they’ll tell colleagues, associates, their clients etc. This will bring the next customer to our door, on a recommendation which is now summed up in one word...brand! Max Martin
I turn scattered Brands into Movements—Storytelling, Action, Growth, & Adventure. Clarify Your Message, Get a High-Conversion Website, and a Plan for Idea to Influence in 100 Days—or less. | INTP/ENFP, 5w6
6 年I've seen the branding pros talk like this a bunch, allowing the customer experience and feedback to drive the brand. It seems like you have to start *somewhere* with a brand, so defining something, core values, your 'why', your ideal culture, is important. But after 6months, reevaluate based on feedback. Dont be so married to your first idea that you alienate your existing audience. Or on the other hand, redefine the audience you're engaging with vs the ones you want to grow into. Good food for thought, Lari
Marketing and Communications professional / Content Producer / PhD / Writer / Open for new opportunities
6 年Well said Lari. I’d like to think that when speaking of successful content marketing and brand building it is a matter of mastering and understanding certain skills, knowledge, values and attitudes - and especially see the whole from the customer’s point of view.
Marketing Business Partner @ CGI | Driving Cybersecurity, Hybrid IT, & Cloud Transformation | Strategic Thinker (INTJ) | Storyteller & Writer | Passionate About Books ??
6 年Thank you for this blog post. It is very motivational for us who would love doing marketing with stories instead of advertising brand slogans etc. Let's keep producing quality content in the future and maybe we can change the world :)