The Synaxis Keystone Marketing System provides a phased approach to the implementation, rollout, and operationalization of marketing measurement tools, web tools, and communications tools.
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Brand Engagement is Overrated
In a recent article entitled "The Myth of Brand Engagement," marketing professional Cam Beck claimed, "The sad news is that your company's brand isn't nearly as important to your audience as it is to you."
If Beck is right, does this mean that branding is a waste of time? Surely not.
When Brand Engagement Works
Perhaps "brand engagement"—whereby customers form an emotional attachment to a brand—is a mistaken objective. Marketers want people to understand and form a relationship with a company's products or services, not simply with its brand. Created correctly, the brand is an invisible medium through which this happens. Think of a successful brand as a well-placed window: transparent, it is perfectly situated to give off the best view of a certain landscape (i.e. your company's product).
When it's working, no one notices the window because they are so taken by the view. Take the perennial example of Apple. Sure, they have a good logo and clever commercials, but people form a loyalty to Apple products because of their cool design, innovative technology, and user friendliness. The Apple brand is simply a wrapper for all the very real things that are good about Apple products.
When Brand Engagement Doesn't Work
And what about when it's not working? Remember the online pet supply store, Pets.com? More likely, you remember its talking sock puppet mascot, which they spent millions to develop, became extremely popular, and even appeared in a Super Bowl commercial. Because of these efforts, Pets.com achieved high brand awareness—yet they were soon out of business because they couldn't offer customers a compelling reason to buy their supplies online. People's only relationship with the company was with its brand. The moral of this story: without a good product or service backing it up, brand awareness can only lead to short-term sales, until people actually experience your product or service and realize it's all hype.
When Brands Work
So Beck is right. A brand, in and of itself, means little to your customer. I would go so far as to say that if customers are truly engaging directly with your brand, then something is wrong. The less they see the medium, and the more they see the message, the better the branding.
But branding is still a vital means of communicating a company's excellence. After all, you can't simply hand customers a laundry list of your company's benefits. Good brands act as shorthand, giving customers a simple way to understand all you have to offer.
