As a strategist, it’s my M.O to be interested in the interconnectedness of all things and we’ve recently seen a significant development in a trend I’ve been watching, and talking about for a while.
As well at the latest Molecule to Market podcast episode, where Jim Miller discussed the important of building a brand that helps to form partnerships, Gartner’s 2021 CMO spend survey showed that brand strategy is now the top priority for marketing teams for the coming year. This is the first time that investment in brand strategy has been seen as a higher priority than marketing technology and marketing analytics for over a decade.
As COVID-19 restrictions continue to make organisations re-evaluate their business and investment strategies, businesses see that trading short-term marketing tactics for longer term investment in brand is the best and safest way to ensure marketing ROI.
This trend is particularly important to the life sciences industries for three reasons:
And this is the context in which investment in brand strategy really impacts sales. Distinction, customer centricity, consistency, relevance and authenticity are how life sciences organisations drive lead generation. In this industry, it has never been about ‘whoever shouts the loudest’; highly technical and scientific propositions require nuanced marketing to find the right customers for the right reasons.
A brand strategy brings together what customers need with how an organisation is uniquely placed to address that need. A brand strategy is the central marketing foundation around which all external marketing is built because it creates the method for influencing the decision-making of customers. It gives us customer segmentation, tone of voice, organisational heritage, operational principles, value proposition and blends them into unique, tailored narratives about a company’s capabilities.
Having a brand strategy is the most effective way to orientate your company around customer need and therefore drive marketing ROI. It is the most potent weapon a company has right across the funnel.
To know if your brand is working hard enough at the bottom of the funnel you can ask yourself four questions:
If you’ve answered ‘no’ to any of those questions, your brand strategy may need some work.