Part of what makes a successful company not a business, but a brand, is consistency.
And that comes from brand strategy.
But that is hella hard for the CEO or CMO to determine what we should focus on and consistently do, say, act, and show up.
A $30m company I worked with struggled with this problem. They are publicly traded, have nearly 1 million customers, and ship to over 100 countries monthly. But there was little to no advocacy, word of mouth, trust, or brand recognition that wasn’t propped up by a multi-million-dollar marketing budget.
Multiple agencies were involved, producing ads and paid content that drove sales. The agencies followed the data all the way into the darkest corners of content, running fear-based stuff that drove near-term performance at the expense of brand building and long-term success.
That was unsustainable. But solvable.
The first thing I did was work with the CEO to clarify his vision, then I developed the narratives that guided our messaging and content pillars, storylines, content capture, and omnichannel campaign direction. Empowering us to take the agency work in-house and own all aspects of paid, social, and owned media to BE CONSISTENT. No more fear-based crap, no more random stuff. No more guessing it was right for us. Only the stories we wanted to tell, to the people we wanted to hear them.
The results are as expected. Massively reduced monthly marketing expenses because we leaned out our agency partner roster. A steady increase in advocacy, micro-earned media (what I call grassroots building and word of mouth), and an increase in attention and desire from potential premium partners, brands, and people. Now the ads don’t have to work as hard. We have the confidence and clarity to win because the entire team is unified around the narratives, content, and direction that are best for the brand and future customer.
That’s the power of a commitment to ongoing brand strategy. And this is what I do.
Ready to transform your successful company into a successful brand? Let’s talk.
