The times they are changing - the brand revolution

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THE TIMES THEY ARE CHANGING - THE BRAND REVOLUTION

Brand building has been under attack for over a decade. It has been under attack from investors that value short-term sales over profitable growth. It has been under attack from tech-led marketers who loved to sh*t on brands and sold us the dream of performance marketing &  last click attribution.

Yet times, they are a changin’.

Economic uncertainty has forced many investors to change tack. They now increasingly seek profitable and sustainable growth, over revenues alone. At the same time, even the most hardened of tech-led marketers are beginning to wake up to the limitations of their ways. Notice how many of them are quietly pivoting away from product-led growth to community building. Or notice how Google, the world’s biggest pusher of performance marketing & last-click attribution, has just released their own mix modelling tool. Times are changing and the sands are shifting. 

Best of all? 

In this brave new world, brand building will be more important than ever.

In a world of economic uncertainty, where investors seek profitable growth, brand building will be the most important tool in their arsenal. Why? Well, we know that brand building fundamentally is about profitable growth. It’s the reason Nike can manufacture a trainer for cents in the Far East and sell it for $100 or more in the West. It has a powerful brand people are willing to pay a premium for. We also know that even in times of economic uncertainty people are willing to pay up to 14% more for brands, that are meaningfully different (source: Kantar). And let’s not forget that it was the most powerful brands that bounced back and grew the greatest after the last great recession of 2008/9. 

At the same time, those tech-led marketers that now pivot from performance to community building, are ironically new champions (whether they know it or not) for brand building. You see their newfound hacks of ‘creating content’ in order to ‘grow a fanbase’, are nothing more than brand awareness activity to grow their own fame. The latter (fame) being proven to be the greatest driver of sales, market share and profitable growth. Perhaps the greatest irony of all? Even the most outspoken critics of brand building relentlessly post on Linkedin to grow their own brand, fame and therefore sales.

CONCLUSION

So here's to the new world order.
A world filled with generic, low-rent content.
A world where the growth hacks of old are now redundant.
A world where brand building will be needed more than ever.

If you believe this revolution is happening, do me one small favour.
Post this newsletter on Linkedin to spread the word.
If you disagree share it anyway and we can fight it out in the comments ;)

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Expect big thinking & small typ0s because i'm #MadeByDyslexia 

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Will Poskett

Co-Founder Defiant