How to measure a brand’s success and know if it will survive a crisis?

I have been always fascinated with brands and companies that have managed to carve their names in the consumer's brains and establish a very strong position in the market.

Nowadays in such an oversaturated market where new businesses are opening every day, it is not an easy mission to build a brand that is so influential, sticky, and life-changing (in a way) that consumers will remember and will want to use and engage with it even when all gone to seed.

Where marketers get trapped?

Most of the times companies use page views and clicks as key measurements to evaluate the success of their marketing campaign. And they take these numbers and metrics to measure their brand impact and reputation in the market. The reality is that today someone looking at their screen for 2 seconds without even moving a mouse will be considered as a page view. But did you knew that around 40% of views are fraudulent? Based on statistics from lmperva 2020 Bad Bot Report almost 40% of website views or clicks in 2019 came from bots or click farms!

Measuring the success of brand performance by website unique views or page clicks won’t give you an adequate number of the real coverage and interest in you as a brand! Even more, these are not the metrics you should evaluate if you want to understand the real impact and relationships you have with your customers.

• So what marketers should focus on?
• What really stands behind brands' success?
• And which brands are remembered when things go side-wise?

Now, even more than ever (this post is published on the 28th of April 2020 #covid-19), we can see how the engagement and interest have declined for all those brands that were capable of satisfying customer needs for the product/service when the economy was doing okay and consumers were interested in trials, experimentation, and diversification of their choices. But did not invested any brainpower in building something more than just a product or service.

What should marketers focus on instead?

The future and success in the digital media industry are not based on high numbers of page views that impress C-level executives, but it is built around people who are part of that brand's community that means something to them. A community that they are loyal too, a community that makes them want to jump on the plane to hang out with. A community that they will proudly want to wear their t-shirt.

The brands that will be left standing are the ones that transact on true human attention.

After researching what some Venture Capital firms consider when investing in brands, turns out they ask some of the following questions:

1. Would you want to buy your own brand t-shirt? How much would you pay for it?
2. Would you get on the plane to visit this community? To be a part of this brand in some way.
3. Would you let this brand curate a significant part of your life?
4. Can this brand further expand in different offerings, products, and experiences?

This is not something that is easy to do, nor it is easy, especially for any small business out there. But by learning and understanding these things, you will be in a much better place when making any future business decisions.

Here are some of the examples from different industries to learn from and get inspired.

1. Salesforce.com, Inc. is an American cloud-based software company. It provides a customer-relationship management service and also sells a complementary suite of enterprise applications focused on customer service, marketing automation, analytics, and application development.
2. Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company. It designs, develops, and sells consumer electronics, computer software, and online services.
3. Nike, Inc. is an American multinational corporation that is engaged in the design, development, manufacturing, and worldwide marketing and sales of footwear, apparel, equipment, accessories, and services. 
4. GoPro, Inc. is an American technology company. It manufactures action cameras and develops its own mobile apps and video-editing software.
5. Harley-Davidson, Inc., H-D, or Harley, is an American motorcycle manufacturer. It was one of two major American motorcycle manufacturers to survive the Great Depression, along with Indian. 
6. Girlboss Media is a community of strong, curious, and ambitious women redefining success on our own terms.
7. Barry's is a boutique fitness brand offering high-intensity interval workouts consisting of alternating sessions of cardio and strength training.

You can see, that based on the examples above it does not matter which industry you are in, it is more so what is your message, what problem are you solving, how are you building relationships with your customers, are you creating groups/communities/meet-ups around your product/service and how you are showing up in the ever-changing world.

• Are you closely listening to what your customers want? - Because it will be them (your customers paying for your product/service).
• Have your customers in the centre of everything you do.
• Develop campaigns that speak to people. And stay to this day and what is happening in the world, their lives.

To be continued...