Ding, dong, brands are dead.
Brand marketers, be warned. Branding simply doesn’t matter anymore. It fails to translate into significant sales and can be neither defined nor measured.
These are just a few of the bombshells author Jonathon Salem Baskin drops in his book, Branding Only Works On Cattle. Baskin asserts that marketers are missing the boat when it comes to branding. It’s behaviors, not branding that really matters.
“Forget thinking about thinking,” Baskin says. “Behaviors, not of brands but in life, are what matter. Maybe we can stop defending our typical answers about branding, and start asking new questions,” Baskin says. He asserts that the industry’s current definition of branding is outdated, irrelevant and costly. His advice is to dump the brand strategist, put all those image expenditures on hold, and get the entire management team involved in exploring the brand as an outcome of business practices, not just the creativity of the marketing department.
In looking forward to re-define branding strategy in the future, Baskin’s book provides insights on a number of key marketing issues:
On Measurement:
Historically, marketers have defined brands in unmeasurable ways. New metrics must be developed to address behaviors. Branding may help build awareness but there are no effective methods for measurement.
On Search:
Search is not the friend of branding. Consumers are increasingly using search to locate product information and more search means less brand. “If behavior is the ultimate statement of brand, then search is the tool that transforms moments of consumer contemplation into action,” Baskin said. Moving forward, search will change dramatically requiring consumer trade-offs between knowledge of past customer behavior and better, quicker search results.
Alternate forms of search will also be added to the mix including vertical search which will provide the consumer with faster and deeper results, and social search which will help organize product rankings based on input from real people. This element of search will tie into the importance of social media which will increasingly be focused on how and what consumers learn, and motivating them to take action.
On Next Steps
In order to move into the next new world of branding, Baskin suggests that marketers re-focus their strategies and approaches to brand campaign. Specifically, he offers the following suggestions:
· Ban the B word. “Brand is the 800-pound gorilla that crushes every conversation about itself,” Baskin explained. “There’s no consensus about what it means. As long as conversations focus on an it of brand instead of the what of behaviors, you’re doomed. Talk about behaviors instead.”
· Ditch references to customers. “The customer is a stupid, make-believe idea just like the B word,” Baskin said. Instead, marketers should focus on developing behavioral plans to understand the behaviors of people prompted by both internal and external factors. Toss out the notion of managing your customers.
· Accept what’s not possible. Common sense dictates that there simply are some things which can’t be measured. Baskin says it’s time the marketing industry recognizes and accepts this limitation. “People are just people and the desire to monetize and measure what they do is flawed. Some things just defy quantification.”
· Nix the next branding activity as delivered by your agency. “Letting agencies control creative and media is like letting real estate brokers design houses and then tell you where you should live,” Baskin suggests. “Just say no.”
· Make marketing and finance trade staff. There’s a real need to better link these two organizational functions. Baskin suggests designating a junior staffer in each area and swapping them, assigning each of them specific responsibilities.
· Don’t assume 20-somethings have the answers. “Don’t do the next thing because someone younger than you tells you no,” Baskin cautions. “Replace the next `cause you have to’ with research on real behaviors.”
· Buy moments, not channels. “Don’t pay to tell people things; pay to provide them with prompts to do something,” Baskin suggests.
· Shave 10 percent from your branding budget. Set aside the money for use in responding to a new opportunity in the marketplace. You may not even miss it.
For more information on Baskin’s theories of branding, download the recent AMA Radio Show in which he discusses cutting-edge ways brands are being invented.
Other Related Resources:
Dim Blog
www.baskinbrand.com