How is building a successful brand different in the digital era?
In today’s digital centric world, it’s important that brands learn how to quickly adapt and adjust while staying true to their brand values and DNA to become successful.
Technological advancements are constantly shaping brand goals and redefining the consumer experience. Successful brands drive benefits from technology, instead of letting technology define them. With new channels for reaching and engaging consumers shifting as rapidly as customers’ expectations, strong brands always have the ability to launch products, reach new audiences, and build awareness with great speed and efficiency.
Therefore, the million dollar question today for any brand personnel or marketer is: “How do we transform and what areas do we focus on to create a breakthrough brand?”
In my opinion, to excel we need to understand and focus our efforts in these areas:
Brand - First and foremost focus on the brand, meaning your brand needs to stand out in order to breakthrough. To do this, the core values and mission of the brand should run through all aspects of its on and offline existence, from customer experience and brand messaging to the overall look and feel. The brand promise and differentiators should be consistent, clear and fully integrated into all content and messaging throughout a digital ecosystem. Websites, applications and emails must align with this promise, and the experience at every single touch point should deliver on it. Establishing a unique and distinguishable aesthetic across all channels is also important. Brand look and feel plus the brand values go hand in hand to strengthen the consumers desire to interact and associate with the brand. However, at the end of the day consistency in brand marketing and awareness efforts will play the most important part in developing a phenomenal brand.
Audience – Successful brands maintain high level understanding of their customers and how they will behave. With today’s consumers existing in numerous digital spaces at once, understanding the customer journey and every relevant touch point with your brand is the new requirement for a successful brand. Customer’s journey mapping and segmentation is crucial to understand the overall customer base to be able to divide them into specific and relevant targets. To be able to study the purchasing process and post-purchase behavior which will allow a marketer to anticipate for future consumer decisions and turn customers into advocates. Mapping the customer journey and timely messaging across all touch points can help build an emotional connection with a consumer for the brand. It is also vital to build programs for early on customers to build their loyalty. As well as create authentic one-to-one messaging and experiences with them as this is what the modern consumers crave.
Communications – A strong communications strategy not only drives brand visibility and sales, but also strategically connects the brand with its target audience and segments. Great products and services can only go far with a properly defined and executed communications strategy. One may need a good mix of paid, earned and owned media to help outstanding brands break through.
Technology – Last but not the least, brands need to leverage on technology to adapt to the ever-shifting priorities, instead of letting technology define the constraints of how brands engage with their customers. Breakthrough brands need to know their customers across devices and channels. They should not only measure touch points across their ecosystems, but should also derive insights and make actionable decisions with ease. This is not about leveraging on complex and expensive analytics platforms, but it is about defining and focusing on relevant KPIs across the entire customer journey.
The customer should be at the forefront of every technology decision made in the organization. Technology serves as a competitive differentiator in providing a superior experience and empowering the brand to better connect with audiences. No brand can thrive without prioritizing its user experience across all devices. As mobile has overtaken desktop usage, its not enough to create experiences that are mobile-centric, they also need to be fast and made for the on-the-go consumer. Technology needs to anticipate and enable the multichannel customer-first experience. Today’s customers expect a seamless and thoughtful experience throughout their entire interaction with a brand – from research to purchase to customer service – breakthrough brands deliver on that promise in any medium.
Digital has forever transformed the traditional strategies, structures and economics of marketing. Modern consumers armed with ample choices expect to interact with brands as easily as they can call for an Uber ride. They don’t just expect customer service to treat them well, they expect the brand to be a customer service organization. Yes it is different to build a successful brand in today’s digital era as it requires authenticity, optimizing every touch point and putting the customer first consistently as well as have the ability to leverage upon current technology, prepare for change and balance innovation with core values.
It is very difficult to say what the future will demand. Technology is growing at a very fast pace, meaning the norms of today will soon become outdated. Augmented and virtual reality are at the verge of going mainstream. Artificial Intelligence-powered messaging is being refined, enhanced and used more and more frequently to better connect brands with consumers. Bespoke products, 3-D printers and the entire shared economy is transforming not just the customer journey but what’s at the end of it. Change is the new constant, and brands that can capitalize on new developments, adapt to them, and learn to get ahead of what’s coming next while staying true to their DNA are the brands that will be successful.