The 'Marketing Elevator' theory

"The marketing elevator" theory revolves around the concept of elevating a brand or product through strategic marketing efforts to reach new heights of success and visibility in the market. Just like an elevator takes you to different floors of a building, marketing strategies can propel a brand to different levels of recognition, customer engagement, and overall success.

Level 0 - Ground floor - understanding the market

Before stepping into the elevator, and assuming you are a B2B firm, you should have an understanding of the market including size, value, competitors, target audience, trends, opportunities and threats, as well as organisational buyer behaviours.

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Level 1 – 1st floor - brand positioning

The first floor represents the starting point for the firm’s brand. Here, the brand establishes its positioning, unique value proposition, and brand identity to differentiate itself from competitors.? Overtime, as you grow within the market, it is likely your brand positioning will shift.

Level 2 - lower floors - building awareness

?As the elevator ascends, the firm focuses on building awareness through various marketing channels. The chosen channels will depend on the market, the firm’s budget, and the marketing strategy.

Level 3 - middle floors - engagement and conversion

Now, we’re on our way towards being able to tell a convincing tale and convert awareness of a firm or brand into leads and sales. Conversations may continue for some time before heading into a sales cycle – it will be different for different firms with lower value products typically completing a sales cycle much faster than a complex, enterprise technology solution.

Level 4 - upper floors - brand loyalty and advocacy

So, the sale is complete, but it is here where marketing and brand must focus on nurturing relationships with customers and turning customers into loyal advocates who promote the brand through word-of-mouth and referrals.? It is key that the customer has an excellent perception of your brand. This is the point where marketing has moved from new business marketing to account based marketing.

Level 5 – top floor - innovation and expansion

The top floor level is as far as you can in terms of where you are in the overall market before starting to descend again and this is the continuous cycle of innovation, adapting to market changes, expanding into new markets or product lines, and staying ahead of the competition.? As we know, elevators skip stops so it will depend on your strategy as to how long you stay at level 5 before dropping back down to re-evaluate where you need to be on your marketing elevator journey.

How to use "the marketing elevator" theory

Strategic planning - ?Like a sales funnel, this theory is an easy to use visual tool.? It can be used to guide strategic marketing planning by identifying which "floor" the brand is currently on and what steps are needed to reach the next level (or if you need to go back a level or two to re-evaluate.

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