Because of the nature of digital media, the craft of branding has changed. Brands have to deliver positive and engaging ‘experiences’, companies need to ‘listen’ to their stakeholders rather than talk to them
BY TANYA DUBASH
Executive Director and Chief Brand Officer, Godrej Group
There’s no doubt that brands that have a long history of successfully maintaining their leadership position in the hearts and minds of consumers are the ones that continually learn, listen and engage with their stakeholders. In doing so, the core of the brand and the values it stands for remain rock solid, even as the organization intelligently evolves to stay on top of the changing marketplace. A classic example is the Godrej Masterbrand. Even though the brand is continuously evolving to stay fresh, contemporary and relevant to its consumers, it is backed by values that are more than a century old. Five years ago, when we embarked on our re-branding journey, we adopted new media as an important channel of communication and consumer engagement.
With an effective branding strategy in digital media, we ensure that the brand is present and relevant in the same spaces, platforms and media where our stakeholders spend time. Given the seismic shift in the platforms that our consumers are present in, I believe that it is critical for brands to strategically manage spends in the digital space.
Listening and understanding
With dozens of digital and social media platforms highly popular today, it is important that marketers invest time in understanding the digital behaviours of stakeholders – for example, which platforms are popular, how much time do they spend, what is the engagement level, and so on. It has also become increasingly important for brands to invest in ‘listening’ to what stakeholders are saying. Digital tools for listening are critical for understanding consumer behaviour in the digital age.
Engaging with the brand
In the digital world, successful brands need to go beyond a passive presence on platforms to provide stakeholders with active ‘experiences’. If we look at the way the current generation of consumers engages with a brand, it can be summed up as ‘consider, evaluate, purchase, enjoy and advocate’ or CEPEA – which indicates the different stages that consumers go through when they buy a new product or a brand. Typically, as much as 90% of marketing budgets are allocated for advertising and promotions that target consumers when they are in the ‘consider’ and ‘purchase’ stages. But studies indicate that the consumer is more open to being influenced at the ‘evaluate’ and ‘enjoy’ stages.
This is where digital communication can play a significant role. Great brands are those that go beyond merely delivering the brand message to delivering a holistic brand ‘experience’, one that delivers value over and beyond commercial transactions.
Delivering a brand experience
Let me illustrate this through the example of the Vikhroli Cucina platform. Vikhroli Cucina is an experiential platform that brings together food and beverage consumer brands, food industry brands in the retailing, manufacturing and appliance spaces, as well as chefs, food bloggers and the individual consumer. The vision is to grow a network that connects the many points in the food ecosystem so that people can meet, mingle and spark new ideas off each other.
In other words, Vikhroli Cucina is a ‘food and idea’ experience that engages with individual stakeholders as well as the community and the ecosystem. Another example would be the Godrej India Culture Lab which brings together many of our stakeholders and delivers experiences around contemporary culture. These experiences include discourses, performances, events, films, and so on.
Digital advocates
Stakeholders (customers, prospective employees, opinion-makers, et al) are unequivocal about their preference for brands that deliver consistently superior, creative and engaging brand experiences that overarch tactical platforms and media. An example is the Starbucks brand. Starbucks consistently stays ahead of the competition by focusing on delivering a holistic experience to each individual consumer.
Brand experiences help persuade the consumer to become a powerful advocate of the brand. Thus, brand advocacy is a key goal post for branding in the digital era. To answer the question raised in the title of this article, it’s clear that the art of branding has not changed. Branding is still about creating lasting impressions of the brand in the mind of the stakeholder.
What’s changed is that because of the nature of digital media, the craft of branding has changed. Brands have to deliver positive and engaging ‘experiences’, companies need to ‘listen’ to their stakeholders rather than talk to them, and consumers have to be persuaded to become our best advocates.
Feedback: ta.dubash@godrejinds.com
