Using Marketing To Build a Stronger, Sustainable Brand

The difference between sales and marketing is simply that sales is mostly immediate and short term and marketing is for the long run. Yes, one of the core functions of marketing is to boost sales. After all, why invest in a business if you’re not making profit at some point right?

But, marketing is also a great tool for simple brand building. A strong brand won’t just make you rich, but will also ensure that you get sustainable returns in the foreseeable future. So how does marketing work for pure brand building? Let’s discuss.

If they can’t empathise with your brand, they won’t buy your brand

You cannot survive on product quality alone. There are plenty of good products on the market. Successful brands are ones which manage to have excellent communication with their target audience.

Yes, people do care about awards and accolades and reviews and all of that. But, beyond all of the bells and whistles, your products have to make their life better than what it is. And of course you have to convey this in an appropriate manner. You have to be able to answer this question - why are your customers, your customers??

And no, it’s not simply because you have a better product. It’s a bit more deeper than that.

Using marketing to be one of ‘those’ brands

At any given moment, within any given niche, people will only remember a handful of brands. Soft drinks? You’ll probably think of Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Mountain Dew and maybe one or two more brand names. Fast food? There’s McDonald’s, KFC, Burger King,? and a few others. People won’t go through a long list of brand names before making a selection. No one has that much time.

This is true for most industries, and especially true for cheap to mid-range products. As the price goes up, people become a bit more choosy. For example, people might do extensive research if they have to buy a high-end laptop.

The point is, you have to be one of these few top brands. That’s a huge goal but it’s also the only way. And how do you do that?

To start with, identify your ideal buyer and then target people who are similar to that ideal buyer. Prepare a persona and then filter your audiences. Offer tons of value. Give them a reason to participate and recognise their contributions. Don’t reinvent the wheel, but find out new and unique uses for that wheel.

In short, give them a reason to give a f***.

Prepare customer lists. Using digital marketing, you can quite easily target similar people on the internet. Keep your promotional messages relevant, your call to actions clear and your creative attractive & eye-catching. Give them a reason to click, share, like, subscribe, download, buy & visit.

Be memorable.?

Yeah. Easier said than done right?

But there’s just no other way to say it. You have to make a place for your brand in people’s memory. What do you think about if someone says ‘I’m Loving It?’ McDonald’s of course. RedBull gives you wings has now become an iconic tagline. A simple tick mark has become a global symbol for Nike. Show that logo to anyone in the world and most, if not all, people would know what it stands for.

I’m not saying that having a good logo or a catchy jingle or a tagline is the secret to immortality. No. But it helps.

It’s always going to be easier to market a brand with a great logo, catchy jingle and a memorable tagline. Invest in things that you know have a higher chance of working out. Marketing isn’t gambling. You take calculated risks based on hard data.

Point is, give them something to remember. Also, make it easy to understand and relevant to make sure that it sticks there for the long run.

Reduce their anxiety

Anxiety about what?

Anxiety of parting ways with their hard-earned money of course. No one likes to spend money. What we like is getting new stuff. Which is why people like free stuff so much. You don’t lose anything but gain a lot. Simple calculation right?

What you have to do is to improve the net value of your product.

Make them think that they’re actually getting a lot more than what they’re paying for. Not saying you should lie but you should be able to make them think that for sure. You should be able to take away that fear of losing money or at least reduce it a bit.?

This fear is proportional to the price of a product. If the price goes up, so will the fear.?

So if you’re selling a premium product, then what you have to do is offer more value. Sell them an experience instead of just the core product. Do you think Apple simply sells a phone? No. Because people can get a phone anywhere. So they’re not selling just any phone. They’re selling an ‘iPhone’.?

A phone is well, just a phone. An iPhone is a lot more. It’s a part of a whole ecosystem. You buy into a worldwide community of Apple users, which include tons of different benefits and features that are unique to that community. Which is why they can easily sell these phones at a highly inflated price.

Bottom line

Yes, marketing is necessary to improve sales. But Marketing is also quite essential for building a brand. It’s all intertwined. You don’t get good sales with a weak brand and then again you don’t build a strong brand with poor sales.

You have to constantly keep working on your brand and keep innovating and exploring.

Brands also aren’t built overnight. They require a lot of time and of course patience. To end this, I'll just say this. Always market to those people who have a higher chance of buying from you.

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Hey there. I’m Abhishek Samant. I’m a digital marketer. If you liked what you just read then do subscribe. Helps a ton. Thank you!

LinkedIn — https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/abhishek-samant-digital-marketer/

Web — www.msmw.in

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