Ira Belsky, Artlist Co-Founder and Co-CEO.
With easily trackable metrics and instant results, performance marketing has become attractive to marketing teams. However, a focus on short-term profits often comes at the expense of building a lasting brand.
In this article, we’ll explore why brand matters and why it’s the responsibility of everyone in your organization. We also discuss the challenges of maintaining brand integrity in a growth-focused environment and discuss strategies for balancing both brand and performance marketing.
Why brand matters
When we think of a brand, we often react immediately. Whether it’s positive or indifferent, that emotion comes from a connection to the brand’s story. Its values and stories are built over time and make you feel something. Leading a growing company has shown me how powerful this emotional connection can be.
While performance marketing aims to drive a specific behavior, brand marketing creates a lasting impression that resonates with consumers on a deeper level. Steve Forbes, Editor-in-Chief of Forbes Magazine, says, “Your brand is the most important investment you can make in your business.” Branding means creating a story that stands the test of time, not just aiming for instant conversions and sales. Performance metrics are important, but not at the expense of your brand’s unique story and values.
Emotional connections are invaluable. A strong brand means a company can command a premium price for its products, weather economic downturns more effectively, and erect a brand barrier against competitors and new market entrants.
Consider Porsche. Porsche’s strong brand position, with a heritage rooted in high performance and luxury, meant it could easily pivot and move into the electric vehicle market. The strength of the brand includes an implicit promise to deliver excellence in all that we do. The company states that “Porsche will continue to be Porsche without exception for the long term.”
In a world obsessed with short-term gains, brand building remains the most powerful long-term investment. Strong brands create emotional connections and build loyalty over time.
Good branding is woven into the fabric of the company. This goes beyond marketing campaigns and encompasses every interaction, from product quality to how customer support responds when issues arise. A brand promise doesn’t just convey a message; it’s upheld by every department, making each touchpoint a testament to its values.
Challenges of promoting brands with a growth matrix model
It’s very easy to get caught up in data-driven decision-making. Numbers, direct returns from marketing, and short-term, easy-to-calculate profits all drive immediate growth.
Meanwhile, brand building faces challenges. It’s about longevity and is built from the ground up on the brand’s story and product message. Everyone needs to speak the same language, but this is more difficult to achieve when the short-term benefits are not clear.
Many companies struggle with clearly defining brand management responsibilities. It’s often unclear which departments are responsible for these tasks, who sets and measures KPIs, and how to justify resource allocation to brand-related activities. This ambiguity can hinder effective brand management and strategic decision-making.
Consider the case of Uber. During its rapid expansion phase, Uber prioritized growth and performance metrics over brand building. This caused a PR crisis and a decline in brand image. In recent years, Uber has invested twice in rebranding. This shows the long-term cost of ignoring your brand in favor of short-term growth.
Justifying brand activities without clear metrics
Brand building may lack the clear metrics of performance marketing, but its value can be demonstrated. Strong brands often have higher customer lifetime value (CLV) because loyal customers make repeat purchases and are less price sensitive. Measures of brand equity, such as awareness and perceived quality, can indicate the strength of a brand over time.
Consider Autry’s success. Despite a crowded market, Oatly’s quirky branding and strong sustainability message help the company stand out. The company’s focus on brand building through unconventional marketing has led to explosive growth and a successful IPO, demonstrating its brand strength in the commodity market.
Balance brand and performance marketing
Achieving a balance between brand marketing and performance marketing is essential for long-term success. Make sure your performance ads are fully aligned with your brand message and don’t abandon one over the other. This alignment reflects a commitment supported by all departments, from product to customer service, creating a consistent approach where brand and performance efforts are mutually reinforcing.
Here’s how to effectively balance these two important factors.
1. Create performance guidelines within your brand strategy. Create rules for how your performance marketing reflects your brand, from the tone of your copy to your visual style, to ensure consistency and authenticity.
2. Set up and tune your metrics. Track both ROI and conversion rate, brand lift and sentiment to understand the relationship between them. Look for patterns between strong brand presence and improved performance.
3. Build your campaign around your brand story. Introduce brand elements early in the funnel and weave your mission throughout the customer journey. Spotify’s annual “Wrapped” campaign is a great example of this, turning performance marketing into a compelling brand experience that users expect and share.
4. Test and optimize. Run A/B tests to compare performance-driven ads to branded versions to find out what works for your audience. The best performers often combine elements of both.
5. Create a feedback loop. Campaign insights can be used to inform brand strategy and vice versa. If a particular brand message resonates with you, amplify it throughout your brand campaign.
tomorrow’s brand
The instant gratification of performance marketing is appealing, but ignoring your brand is a short-sighted strategy. A strong brand provides the foundation that powers all other marketing efforts, builds loyalty, and creates long-term business value. By finding the sweet spot between brand building and performance marketing, companies can drive both immediate results and sustainable growth. Your brand is your promise to your customers and should never be compromised.
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