Farm for the Future
68% of businesses say that brand is a major
contributor to revenue
Seven Reasons You Need Brand Marketing
To grow sustainably into a viable long-term proposition takes forethought and forward planning (brand marketing!). We help you map out the journey, stake the territory, and build the brand assets and infrastructure needed to meaningfully connect with audiences and create communities which support strategic long-term growth.
Upstream marketing, focused on strategy, insights, and brand development, sets the foundation for downstream marketing’s tactical execution. A strong, well-defined brand created upstream ensures correct positioning, cohesive messaging, and targeted campaigns downstream. Aligning the two amplifies long-term business success (a compounding effect).
Without alignment and a strong brand foundation, downstream efforts (for instance, promotion, leads and sales efforts) risk inefficiency, inconsistency, limited impact and wasted money. Avoid these common “do nots” if you wish to grow from a business surviving to a business thriving:
1. You don’t consider economic, psychosocial and cultural contexts
Failing to understand economic, psychosocial, and cultural contexts leads to mismatched messaging, poor band identity, ineffective targeting, weakened trust, missed opportunities, and wasted resources, ultimately undermining campaign effectiveness and damaging brand reputation (e.g. by risking offending or alienating key audiences).
2. You don’t have a clear idea of how you are positioned in the market
Positioning is how you carve out a unique identity and valuable place in the market. Without a clear and well-defined positioning, customers find it difficult to understand who the business is or what it stands for. This confusion dilutes the impact of marketing efforts, and is one of the primary reasons paid media fails.
3. You don’t align marketing messages and aren’t consistent across touchpoints
A brand with strong positioning provides a guiding framework for communication. Without it, marketing messages can become inconsistent, weakening trust and reducing customer engagement. In addition, a misaligned and/or inconsistent identity confuses your audience and makes it harder for them to pick out your offer amongst the plethora of competing offers.
4. You don’t have an emotional connection with your audience
Strong brands create emotional bonds with their audiences. Without a strong marketing hook, marketing messaging focuses solely on features and benefits, failing to connect on a deeper level, solve consumer challenges, or align with their personal values, all of which encourage audiences to seek out your offer over all others.
5. You don’t stand out in a crowded marketplace
Marketing campaigns without a clear messaging and positioning struggle to stand out in a crowded marketplace. Your business risks appearing generic or interchangeable with competitors (made all the worse by excessive focus on performance over creative marketing, or AI-generated material). This makes you a commodity rather than a brand, with charging lower prices becoming the only way to demonstrate a difference and attract customers.
6. You don’t have a long-term business focus
Without strong positioning, which considers economic and industry context and psychosocial drivers, marketing efforts become short-sighted, prioritising immediate sales over long-term relationships. This approach leads to inconsistent performance and limited customer retention – and, ironically, impacts negatively on short-term lead campaigns, too.
7. You’ve been sold down the river by agencies focusing exclusively downstream…
Too many agencies focus on marketing downstream without doing the hard positioning graft upstream. A lack of strategic and diagnostic expertise and experienced senior brand marketers impacts quality brand work, a billable hours model emphasises quantity over quality, and a ‘churn and burn’ approach push unstainable, even harmful, tactics. While such agencies line their pockets, the loser is the client (we have a Cautionary Tale about that!).
From Bland to Brand
Our Brand Marketing Greenhouse recognises the nuances of B2B and B2C brands, and will be of benefit to SMEs, Startups, Corporates, and NGOs looking to build an enduring market presence that supports a self-sustaining, resilient business, over the long-term.
Are you ready to turn those epic brand fails into a big brand wins?
Brand Marketing Greenhouse
Growing Acorns into Oaks
Comprising brand discovery workshops, brand strategy, creative strategy, and marketing infrastructure recommendations, this marketing hatcher is about brand germination to support long term growth.
We kick off your greenhouse with a FREE SHOT OF HONESTY, and then begin our paid journey together to uncover:
A clear, concise, creative brand offer that will hold its own in the market
A sound brand architecture on which to build future activities
Considered guidelines to build and maintain a consistent brand identity
A strong brand voice that clearly conveys credibility and authority
An understanding of the economics and behaviours driving brand choice
Know-how how to reach people, and how you will inspire and enrich their lives
Sturdy as an Oak
Our Brand Marketing Greenhouse will equip you with tools you need for robust growth, Let’s show you how…