How does brand marketing work - the key stages to engagement
My friend and fellow MD2MD speaker Barnaby Wynter always challenges my thinking.
He suggests that many businesses are today burning the bulk of their marketing spend on outdated, demographically inspired media. Very few businesses can have a real Unique Selling Proposition when the web has given consumers much more choice. It's suggested that average consumer now receives an average of 18,000 marketing messages every day.
Today it’s about psychographics, not demographics. We want to buy from people like us that we can relate to. We need a clear Emotional Value Proposition – How will buying this improve my quality of life and a story that makes the prospect think I need this more than I need to keep the money in my pocket. Brand is Key is the experience that is key to the relationship between a product or service and its consumer. To say ‘I’ve heard of you’ simply isn’t enough any more.
He suggests that customers develop an affinity for a brand step by step through six stages in a refinement of the widely used AIDA model as set out below and with more detail further down the page. There is even more detail if you’re interested in his book: The Brand Bucket : Make Your Marketing Work
- Awareness – I’ve heard of you and recognise you.
- Image match – I relate to you.
- Facts match – I know what you can do for me
- Test drive – You do what you say
- Usage – I am happy I bought from you
- Loyalty – I don’t want to go anywhere else
And as a tiny but powerful aside that I love he also says: We should never stop treating customers as prospects. Competitors will be treating them as prospects so you should be too. They are paying prospects!!