Email marketers, rejoice! http://ow.ly/AWgX30bxm2U
We’ve been inundated with brands since we could first recognize images and shapes. We’ve been surrounded by taglines and logos for most of our lives. Most small children can recite a company’s commercial jingle or tagline and even recognize it’s logo (golden arches, anyone?). But does these things THE brand? No, they are representatives of the brand. Logos, colors, taglines, characters are all elements of the brand that help consumers recognize the company they are interacting with or experiencing. It is not necessarily the brand itself.
The brand is the emotional response a consumer experiences when hearing the brand’s name. It is the memory that pops into their minds when passing by its store or seeing its ad while browsing online. It is something that is intangible. This is why companies are focused on ensuring their brands are well received, protected, and managed appropriately. One bad experience by a customer can officially taint the brand. It is much more difficult for a brand to regain a lost customer than it is for it capture a new one. All companies are aware that customer retention is what keeps their sales numbers up more than gaining new customers.
As of lately, companies have shifted their focus on to customer experience. Providing a total experience for the consumer at every touchpoint that the consumer interacts with the brand. This is how a brand ensures that the brand message received by the consumer is one that the brand itself has created and desires. It allows brands to be more in control of the ‘brand’ that consumers create for their company. Essentially, it sets the stage for the emotion, the mood, and the memory that the consumer experiences. From how customer service interacts with a customer to the feeling a person has when in-store. It’s what Disney has excelled at. From the moment you begin to interact with Disney, you start to live the experience of the brand they want you to have. Stepping into the park, the familiar characters walking around, the rides that are connected to the films/tv shows/stories. It is all created by Disney and experienced by the consumer. It is consistent. The ‘magical’ element is something Disney works hard to ensure each person experiences in their theme parks. That’s how a company controls its brand – uniformity in experience across each touchpoint.
For small businesses looking to truly set themselves a part from their competition, create a strategy that connects your company with the brand you desire. Create THAT experience. Give the consumer something special each time they connect with your brand. Be the generator of the emotional response they receive when interacting with your brand. That’s how you position yourself to be a force in your industry and gain the market you desire.
Sheena Hunt | CEO & Marketing Strategist | Empowered Strategy
Empowered Strategy is a boutique branding and marketing agency based in St. Louis, MO. We are focused on creating comprehensive strategies for brands that allow them to reach their consumers while remaining authentic to who they are as a company. We have a very unique focus in our business of being able to provide the African American experience in our strategies. What does that mean? We create strategies for brands that are looking to reach the urban and African American audience while remaining respectful of the culture and recognizing that neither group is a monolith or exists in a vacuum. We not only create strategies but will (if desired) work with a brand to implement each step of the strategy. We love branding. We love marketing. We believe in changing the game for a brand in its industry. Consider the game, changed.
We’ve seen this before. Social media platforms slowly making changes to their algorithms to move popular posts to the top of an user’s newsfeed instead of placing them in reverse chronological order. Facebook did it in 2009. Twitter followed suit in February (much to the dismay of a lot its users), and now we see Instagram, a Facebook-owned entity doing the same.
What’s changing? Well, the most popular posts by users will begin to populate at the top of the timeline for the user based on what Instagram believes the user wants to see. No longer will the timeline only be in reverse order allowing users to look at what someone he/she follows posted 5 minutes ago then 10 minutes, but rather now its what had the most likes, comments, views, or relationship appearing first. Instagram phrases as it as ‘the moments you care about most.’ Well, okay. I guess you can think for me now (not really, but whatever).
What does this mean for brands? Just like the Facebook change, it’s not an entirely bad thing. If it’s based on a posts engagement and its a brand that the user is following and actually interacts with, it gives brands an opportunity to be top of mind even more so for that user. On Instagram, users that are following brands usually do have an actual interest in the brand and may actually favor the content. Also, it filters it out more so if Brand A posts 5 minutes ago and Brand B posts 6 minutes ago, but the user is more engaged with Brand B then that brand gets a better position in the timeline than Brand A.
There are its downsides as well. Users may not interact at all or minimally with brands they follow. Well, those may not be at the top of the timeline even though they just recently posted. Could force marketers to be more creative and engaging with their content on Instagram (which usually is the case anyway) to increase engagement.
This change isn’t all bad. It’s all in how you look at it. So let’s see how this plays out with Instagram.
Sheena Hunt | CEO and Marketing Strategist | Empowered Strategy
Boutique branding and marketing agency based in St. Louis, MO. We are focused on creating amazing, creative, and strategic content for clients that grab the attention of the consumer and drive sales. A great strategy is key to moving the needle in business and that’s what we do. We’re game changers. So, consider the game changed.
The Game Changer 