Quality vs quantity: which is a better goal to chase in brand communication?
Lakshmipathy Bhat
SVP - Global Marketing & Communications | Robosoft Technologies - The Experience Engineering Company
I was invited to chair a round table discussion at the India Communication Summit, organised by the team at ET Brand Equity recently in New Delhi. The topic given to me was 'Quality over Quantity: The Right Move for a Brand?' and the panel included accomplished marketing & communication professionals. The panel included Lloyd Mathias, Independent Marketing Consultant, Amit Sethiya, Head - Marketing, Syska Group, Rajnish Wahi, SVP - Corporate Affairs & Communication, Snapdeal, Sanghamitra Bhargov, AVP - Corporate Communications & Brand Marketing, BYJU'S, Ishita Mukherjee, Communication Consultant, True North, Samir Kapur, SVP & Branch Head - Delhi, Adfactors PR, Ravi Virmani, Founder & CEO, Credihealth and Sanjay Tripathy, Founder, Agilio Labs.
When I first heard the topic I thought it was a no contest as quality would always trump quantity and was wondering why it warrants a discussion for one hour. But I was looking forward to different perspectives from the discussion. I began by quoting what the founder of Trikaya Advertising (later Trikaya Grey and then Grey), Mr. Ravi Gupta used to say in the agency credentials:
'Don't outspend competition, outwit them.
It would open doors as all marketers would love to be more effective than the competition at a lesser cost. But not many realise that it puts a lot of pressure on the quality of thinking, creative and media planning & buying. More importantly it tests our ability to say 'no' - to practice 'less is more'. However, all communication goals have a laundry list of things to achieve and ads pack in a lot in terms of messaging. Moreover it is not easy to create the one outstanding commercial, back it with less media spends compared to competition and still expect better results than a higher spending competitor.
The panel included a mix of PR, marketing and corporate communication stalwarts and they all brought in their perspectives. Some of the key points include:
There has to be a threshold level of visibility for a brand, be it in traditional media, social or PR. In the clutter of media and information overflow, a regular presence in media is mandatory. Very rarely do we find a situation that a brand can afford to publish that occasional or rare communication that is discovered and becomes popular. It would imply that the quality of that communication is outstanding. A few B2B content marketing companies advocate this approach of not chasing number of blog posts or other content assets but aim for depth, quality content even if it is occasional. I personally believe that it is a far more effective approach. The mantra for brands should be:
Don't add to the noise.
A panelist pointed out that the focus on quantity is relevant during 'transactional' messaging - e.g. an e-commerce brand announcing a festival scale. The same brand could opt for a corporate messaging on it being a great place for talent and that may require a focus on quality - i.e. appearing in the right medium with the right message even if it is just once.
It must be pointed out that the focus on quantity can lead to a check-list approach where one is keen on present on all platforms irrespective of it being relevant to the brand or not. Some brands do not use the key strengths of the platform well either. Brands also suffer from FOMO during occasion-led or topical advertising, clamouring to force fit their brand with events like Women's Day etc. A senior marketing professional emphasised on the need for consistency in brand messaging and the need to invest behind a communication theme for the long term. However, he cautioned brand owners should avoid trying to force fit that theme into tactical or occasion-led communication.
One of the panelists made the relevant point that while engineering a hashtag on Twitter is not a wise move, millennials do follow what's trending in social media and get their 'news' from such. The efforts should be in creating content which is so compelling that it does not require disproportionate media firepower to gain visibility.
Creating newsworthy content which is relevant to the audience, has a fit with both the brand and the medium should be the key goals for brands to chase. A minimum threshold level of visibility and hence quantity being as important as quality was the conclusion. Your views?
Founder @ Pavan Java Studio | Creative Ideation, Brand Communication
6 年A very relevant note in traffic of unnecessary information these days. Challenges we face regulary, now penned by you ??– clearing our thoughts and insights. I guess every brand personality is different; A specific strategy helps to find the right balance quality and quantity, in the long run.
Marketing | Advertising | Brand Management | Brand Strategy | Integrated Marketing Communication
6 年Echoing the views shared, specially the FOMO regarding topical communication. While it topical advertising provides the benefit of riding on an existing wave, it makes sense to be judicious about it. Force-fit can create more harm than good. I have an additional point of view on hashtags. While engineering them for a particular campaign, we mostly take into account the campaign duration only and thereby let go of the larger opportunity of leveraging a hashtag for a larger and more sustainable conversation. We need to remember that hashtags outlive campaigns, so they need to be fed for a longer duration to make them actually relevant. Views?
Crafting Compelling Stories for Brands to Grow. Love to Read and Write.
6 年Thanks for the article sir. Will we reach a point of social media saturation as more people seek to spend lesser time on Facebook and Twitter? In rural areas in India as well as developing countries in Africa where internet connectivity is feeble or negligible, how do brands reach out via traditional media? Compelling content - Instead of creating content and pushing it down the throats of users. Will seeking for topics that users would like to read, then create the content, and share it with them - work as a strategy?