Marketing's job is to drive business growth.
Many CEOs have faced the same problem in recent years. Your organization's media is more efficient than ever, but your business isn't growing.
As digital, CRM, etc. evolve, creating a plethora of digital-infused customer experience activities, marketers are now responsible for an ever-growing list of choices in how to spend their marketing dollars. While these innovations and their accompanying MarTech solutions have brought immense value to the industry, he is focused on optimizing every channel to ensure that reporting to the C-suite represents value. It also poses challenges for CMOs. The big picture of driving business growth took a backseat.
Not surprisingly, CEOs and their CFOs appreciate some cost certainty for their marketing spend. Optimizing for your channel will help you control your costs, making you more comfortable. However, marketing's job is to drive growth, not just control costs.
Today, industry leaders are demanding a shift that repositions marketing as a driver of growth. Doing so has facilitated a realignment of marketing responsibilities among CEOs, CFOs, and others, all geared toward improving the business. Here's how they do it:
Prioritize cultural relevance and brand
Don't get bogged down in performance marketing. For brands of some size, prioritizing a marketing mix model that includes driving cultural relevance through brand marketing can make a big difference.
According to a study by X (Twitter), one in four consumer purchasing decisions is related to a brand's cultural engagement. Consumers aged 18-35 have long been prioritized due to their purchasing power, but they feel even more strongly that the brands they buy align with their culture. These are not just idyllic consumer reactions, there is evidence.
When travel company Airbnb lost 80% of its business due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it couldn't afford to rely on marketing to manage costs. It needed to be a growth engine. CEO Brian Chesky and Global Head of Marketing Hiroki Asai discuss the shift from primarily performance-driven marketing to instead focusing on brand campaigns that connect with customers rather than buy them. matched.
As Asai said on the Marketing Today podcast, “When performance is overvalued, you don't really have the opportunity to get the story out there to tell your own story.” Instead, focus on your brand. The approach has allowed Airbnb to do just that and connect it to modern travel culture. According to Asai, these brands' campaigns “touch a chord with people and create a deeper shared experience of humor, awe, and irony about the travel we all love.”
By 2023, Airbnb made the Fortune 500 list for the first time ever, citing a 40.2% year-over-year increase in revenue.
Commenting on these results, Chief Financial Officer Dave Stevenson said: “Our brand marketing results have been very successful with strong returns and strong overall results. , which is actually rolling out to more countries.''
Thinking beyond the TV screen
Airbnb made waves with some memorable TV spots, but modern brand marketing requires thinking beyond that screen.
With endless content options, capturing consumer attention is becoming increasingly difficult. The Interactive Advertising Bureau recently reported that digital video spending is expected to exceed linear for the first time in 2024. At the same time, Bulbshare research shows that 99% of Gen Zers say they would press the “skip” button if ads were optional. As media spending and consumer behavior change, you need to apply a holistic marketing mindset to build your brand.
Soda brand Poppi, whose team calls itself a “creator-first brand,” is focusing on influencer partnerships and experiences as part of its brand strategy. He recently made a big move by hiring one of TikTok's most famous influencers, Alix Earle, to perform at the popular music festival Coachella. While many brands are establishing experiential activations and partnerships with a wide range of influencers, Poppi has invested heavily in Earl's cultural relevance, 6.6 million TikTok followers, and trend-setting ability. .
With luxury custom homes featuring top-of-the-line Poppi brands and products, Earle's partnership generated 4.5 million engagements and reached more than 275 million people. Poppi's previous influencer partnerships have propelled the brand to number one selling soft drinks on Amazon and will reach 5 million new households per month by 2024.
As Director of Brand Awareness and Culture, Sofia Sesto told Ad Age:People talk about the “Alix Earle effect” and go to the store and buy poppies…it's really just a thing [about] They want brand awareness. ”
Step back, evaluate, and build a winning strategy
It takes a little faith to make big changes to your brand, but you don't have to build your brand without data. Marketers looking to make a difference can start small, evaluate new ways to measure impact, and gradually develop plans that work across the C-suite.
Brand marketing may not deliver results as predictably as performance marketing, but a shift in strategy can lead to more long-term business success. It's time for marketers to break away from their obsession with performance marketing. We need to focus less on safety and tactics and more on strategy and growth. Companies ultimately win when CEOs, CMOs, and CFOs recalibrate the role of marketing and the levers they need to pull to drive real business growth.
