My area of marketing expertise--such as it is--lies in direct marketing.
This, apparently, confuses some people, since I also work in and write about branding, which they don't think belongs with marketing, but rather with advertising. In case anyone has missed my broken-record comment, branding belongs just as much--if not more--to marketing as it does to advertising. Branding is about relationships, and relationships get created, nurtured, and leveraged by marketers.
But this week I want to get more specific about the role of marketing in the branding effort. I want to get you all thinking about what an excellent partner direct marketing is in the branding effort.
Why? Because I think that it is high time we all realize the strengths of direct marketing, and the natural fit it has with branding. After all, a brand's true mission is to create a relationship with the customer, a relationship that is loyal and bankable. Relationships are personal and direct, and direct marketing is all about one to one communications.
While brands are marketed and sold to the masses, and many brand relationships may have common threads, each relationship a product or service has with its customer is unique.
Why? Because each customer-brand relationship contains perceived values and real benefits that are unique to each customer, in both tangible and intangible forms. Each person chooses a brand for their own reasons. They may be influenced by external forces (friends, ads, research studies, etc.) but the final decision and usage lies with that customer. Therefore, the brand creates a direct relationship with the customer.
How does this relate to direct marketing? Ok, I know you are saying by now, “Kristine, get to the darn point already!”
Well, here it is: Direct marketing is an information-driven, relational marketing process. It is direct--it allows a company to deal one-to-one with a customer. Branding is about creating and maintaining relationships; direct marketing has the same premise at the core of its function as well.
Therefore, they are natural partners when trying to use relationships as part of the retention strategy in marketing. Branding plays a vital role in the relationship efforts undertaken via the direct marketing medium. Without brand awareness and loyalty, catalogs would get tossed out, mail would not get opened, QVC hosts would not have an audience following, the Internet would not be a sales and community medium, etc.
Clearly, branding is part of a well-instituted direct marketing effort. But why should branding be part of the direct marketing plan? Because branding lends itself well to the direct marketing medium, and the one-to-one nature of the medium.
The whole concept of brand loyalty is powered by what I call the customer-brand experience. Essentially, each person's personal experiences and perceptions form their unique relationship with a brand, thereby making their brand experience--while possibly similar to others--nonetheless theirs alone.
But this customer-brand experience lends itself quite well to the direct response medium. Many direct response companies do not have brick and mortar stores where customers can go to put a “human face” on a company.
Therefore, relationships must be created, grown, and maintained without the actual presence of a business for the customer to interact with. The brand creates the framework for this relationship, and direct marketing is the delivery vehicle for it.
As always with branding, consistency is key, especially in delivering and leveraging the customer-brand experience. Many retail stores that created web sites (Williams-Sonoma, Banana Republic) or catalogs that later opened brick and mortar stores (L.L. Bean, Eddie Bauer) have found great success by leveraging the existing relationship, mainly by having each channel unified in presentation, offering, and the overall experience the customer has.
When using the word “leveraging,” I am not referring to fancy advertising or false promises. In a customer-brand relationship, the leverage comes from the consistent offering of value, and fulfillment of the promise that the brand makes to its customers. These loyal customers then want to do business with the brands.
Online stores in look and feel mimic retail operations; traditional stores echo their catalogs in style and in language. Customers are drawn to known brands because they offer familiarity and take the element of surprise out of the process. Branding with consistency allows for the customer-brand experience to be extended into multiple channel marketing, and that is the realm of direct marketing.
In branding, there are two main areas: external and internal branding. Both need to be deployed and leveraged properly in order to brand successfully in direct response.
External branding involves ways a company communicates their brand outside the organization, to the public. In direct marketing, external branding involves seemingly simple, but extremely important, points. Using a logo consistently; “speaking” in print, or on TV, in a tone that is in keeping with the customer's expectations and the brand image; having packages arrive in keeping with the overall brand identity; using ads that reinforce the message; having a web site echo the look of a catalog.
These are all important elements of the external branding process in direct marketing, which in short can be called the “big idea.” The big idea is the overreaching ideal your brand wants to project, and external branding is all about projection.
If external branding is about projecting an image, internal branding is about upholding and fulfilling on the image projected. The purpose of internal branding is to make sure there is no disconnect in the customer-brand experience: the brand image projected should be the brand performance delivered.
It takes cumulative positive interactions with a brand for people to bond with a brand, and for loyalty to be established. The glue of the bond is the internal branding effort. It cannot be stated often enough: people bond with people – with direct contacts.
Consider this: A London-based marketing company reports that up to 40 percent of customers choose not to buy when they encounter sales reps that fall short on customer service and communication. Yikes! Now, after reading that, can you dismiss the importance of the internal brand effort?
Make no mistake: customers' experiences are influenced by how the brand promise is delivered through the direct channels of the call center, distribution, billing and service departments.
While people are now more “connected” than at any other point in time, in many ways we are more disconnected and insular as well. However, the power of a direct relationship is not to be dismissed: with greater personal disconnect, comes a greater need to connect with something, even brands.
Therefore, use the power of direct marketing to help your brand create a one-to-one relationship with your customers that creates loyalty, equity, and customers for life!
