Are You Happy With Your Branding on LinkedIn: Episode V | Brand Performance

Today I am celebrating my new brand awareness campaign from Healthy Career Nurses - a fast-moving Generation Z health and fitness brand - that promotes well-being through videos, courses, and merchandise - (app soon to come 2025) Plus more innovations are in the pipeline.

Rather than tell you how to build a global brand on LinkedIn, I will tell you how I am doing it, and hopefully, you will find some useful points.

?? DOES THAT SOUND GOOD?

Brand Performance

Brand Performance is a strong mixture of creatives and what the consumers feel about the brand. There is a heavy divide and debate about the real definition of brand performance, however, I am talking about and evaluating it from how Healthy Career Nurses is evolving. I know for instance that I am indeed increasing the value of Healthy Secrets through leveraging brand equity measures - simple short-form content that resonates with Generation Z. I have gone above that measure also from what is known as service empathy:

"Service empathy refers to the extent to which service providers are seen as trusting, caring and having customers interests in mind." (Keller et al, 2008)

I love the fact that I am investing in research into how my consumers (Gen Z) are thinking about their health. What are their concerns? What stresses are they going through? These questions help me to increase the brand performance under the element of service empathy.

This is great news for brand building yet it is by far not the only measure I am looking at: Service effectiveness and Service Efficiency.

Service Effectiveness

Am I getting through to how Healthy Secrets is helping customers? Is the brand aiding young teens, for example, in understanding emotional intelligence and mental well-being better? These are the questions that help me steer the ship, making sure I'm doing my best to satisfy my consumers and helping the brand perform as well as possible through a good grasp of marketing, not just predictions.

CLOTHES SHOP NOW OPEN:

Service Efficiency

I will be using two metrics to identify how Healthy Secrets is delivered:

1) Speed - How fast can we help our consumers?

2) Responsiveness - How quick are our consumer's reactions to our brand?

I do believe that Service Efficiency is going to be one of the hardest to sustain in terms of brand performance. It's not the effort - it's seeing how content and actual belief align with each other. This goes back to understanding how brand building can and not be the same as brand performance. The alternative question is: Is brand building the same as brand performance? Are they different? Do They complement each other - as suggested by Diana Haussling - SVP - GM Consumer Experience & Growth - 高露洁 ????

That said - it does leave me and many other brands with that golden question: Does a marketing campaign success solely rely on the performance of the Ad? However, it does not take into consideration building those mind-share moments.

More importantly agreeing with Diana at Colgate-Palmolive we do need to put the customer at the center of the brand:

1) Revenue Growth Insights

2) Data & Advance Analytics

3) Traditional Media Analysis

The reason I feel that this approach to brand performance works - let's call it the honest approach - is it simplifies and includes the work you're doing and is not solely based on how many impressions you might get.

Brand experience can more unshapely unfold increasing the brand equity when more than love happens through the customer's eyes. Of course, I as the founder of Healthy Secrets will have to see what field we play in first.

What I talking about here is where a brand first starts as one thing and ends up another - you have to play the full 90 minutes of the game - plus extra time if needed. (English Football) - Then you will know if you have won! (Product-market fit)

I do love the way Dianna was able to tell the brand touchpoints at Colgate and illustrate how important is to make them more exceptional - this leans well to service effectiveness. Therefore, when I look at Healthy Secrets today as a humble startup not even two months old - I still need to evaluate the different touch points being: 1) 1st moment of truth - 2) 2nd moment of truth ( actual product consideration.

I will not be able to explain all my marketing mix here as today's article is big enough - however, I do feel healthy secrets can win relevance by backing up what products I offer at those different touchpoints.

"Every touch point in marketing is performance driving. Every touch point in marketing should be brand building, and if you don't think about it that way then you're not thinking from a human or consumer lens." Diana Haussling

Part II | How Brand Building and Performance Marketing Can Work Together

Hopefully, now you have a build-up of knowledge around understanding the basics of brand performance on the outside - meaning entities like introducing Service Effectiveness and Service Efficiency. Are they complex - well, yes and no - yet they both interact with your core brand-building activities?

"But many executives worry that performance marketing is crowding out brand-building activities—such as novel packaging, new products, distinctive services, innovative distribution, and creative advertising—aimed at enhancing customer awareness of, attitudes toward, and affinity for their companies’ brands."

Havard Business Review - Great assessment from Cait Lamberton

I believe modern marketing needs to go beyond relying solely on data analytics. It should embrace a new framework that I've been honing for years – I call it "humility marketing." This approach prioritizes understanding over raw data and focuses on delivering the right content at the right moment for long-term success.

You cannot always leverage the power of creatives for paid Ads in every single Ad campaign that might fuel some sales - instead, leverage the brand equity which is elements like authenticity.

As well illustrated in the HBR article - you not should invest solely in brand performance as it takes you away from the core purpose of your brand.

Does Marketing Talent Matter for Brand Performance?

I don't believe marketing always achieves its full potential when it plays it safe. Taking creative risks can lead to stronger alignment with consumer values and enhance the brand's worth. While this approach might ruffle some feathers in the C-suite, playing it safe and sticking strictly to the brand brief could leave you vulnerable to competitors.

Healthy Career Nurses is new young, and in startup land, so we can move fast and take big risks. We don't have C-Suite to ask permission to post content - as in me - meaning I drive the ship of our own brand performance.

In my view, prioritizing brand building over performance marketing is key. When you enjoy crafting your marketing mix, you ultimately cultivate a brand that resonates with your audience and supports a robust business strategy. While the return on investment in brand building isn't always immediately measurable, it's crucial for long-term success. As a founder, CEO, or marketer, it's essential to embrace this and find comfort in the process.

Four Key Steps to Brand Performance Building on LinkedIn:

1) Identify the core marketing principles that you as an owner want in the Business Strategy and do not move in too fast on performance marketing metrics.

2) Build data cycles of information on potential clients that you trust that can also leverage the brand capabilities.

3) Trust your gut more when acting on the news to leverage ROI on the performance of a brand through unique creatives that win on relevance.

4) Do not overestimate the value of consumer-centric conversations for the sole purpose of brand-building versus over-investing in performance marketing.

I always say to lean back into the Business Strategy if you feel a marketing initiative does not feel right. Data cannot tell you all you need to know sometimes even how much the consumer values your brand.

LinkedIn Brand Performance Check List

The art and dance of brand building and performance marketing are not easy to shape and design. I think every brand will need to create their unique frameworks based on a couple of things:

Recommendations,

1. Start with the logo and images of the brand essence that at the very least align with your target market.
2. Build marketing metrics including the performance of Ads that all stakeholders understand allowing a transparent brand to emerge into the market.
3. Allow the brand to connect to ideal users more naturally through brand-building elements you first decided in the original Business Strategy.

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SEE YOU TOMORROW HOPEFULLY ??