Generate Sustainability | Brand vs. Identity
Over 5 billion videos are watched on YouTube every day. Nearly 480 million products are available on Amazon. According to the U.S. Small Business Association, six hundred thousand companies launch every year. These stats almost make the three hundred available car models to choose from an opportunity for growth, until compared with the sixty models in the 1950s, when 58 million cars were sold.
Distinguishing your brand in a robust marketplace is imperative to remain competitive. For a Super Bowl ad campaign, Kia employed socks to promote a new car model. The collaboration was between Kia, the sock marketer Stance, and Influential, an influencer platform. Kia hired actor Christopher Walken as the celebrity talent for the campaign. For the television commercial, Walken convinces a beige-sock-wearing businessman that he needs pizzazz. He gives the guy a pair of radical socks, comparing them to Kia’s newest midsize sedan as a “natural fit.”
Throughout the campaign, Kia sent the socks to one hundred social media influencers who then posted about the socks to their friends and followers. If socks are a vehicle to market a vehicle, what will you cultivate to stand out?
Bold 360°
In the advertising industry, a 360-degree campaign is implemented to engage and interact with customers from various access points. Campaign elements will include social media posts to spark viral buzz, trade shows for live interactions with consumers, and bold collaborations to garner media attention.
Observing how advertising agencies market their clients’ products and services provides innovative solutions to redirecting your rejection. An integrated 360-degree marketing and branding strategy can help you discover the uniqueness of your brand and identity.
Brand vs. Identity
Establishing a clearly defined brand and identity is an asset in strategic planning. Your identity is who you are without question. Your brand is how you are perceived. Your business name reflects your identity. Your website with offered products should noticeably echo your brand.
Every successful company has a recognizable color scheme, logo, and consistent visual design elements. What if a company changed their color scheme every day on their website? What if their employees also had different color business cards? What if a prominent branded company purchased 365 domains, and every day, their domain address was different? That’s going beyond a different splash home page. To gain and retain traction in an evolving marketplace of saturated content, products, and services, find a way to make your brand indispensable.
You don’t have to be a marketing expert to launch ground-breaking campaigns, although consulting with a firm might help stir up cool concepts. Regardless, a vantage point of how your customer can authentically connect with your brand is required. Spotting distinguishable advertising campaigns is an effortless way to keep a pulse on consumer buzz and new business-to-business models. On a personal level, your brand can attract strong advocates and supporters. Your wardrobe style and branding by association are also powerful tools.
Social Media Auditing
Performing a social media audit is another optimal tool to understand who you are, how people view you, and what added value you are contributing to society—whether it’s humor, business strategy, the facts of life, healthy habits, daily inspiration, or even constant complaints. You can audit your social media sites as an individual, company, or target audiences.
Social media audits can be simple with just a two-page overview or as extensive as a lengthy PowerPoint. Hiring a consultant to perform an audit is a pragmatic way to develop efficient campaigns, similar to how advertising agencies produce engaging Super Bowl commercials.
In a cluttered marketplace, more of the same may not get you fired, but it definitely won’t get you hired. Preserve the past, but avoid lingering there with these thoughts:
Innovation is today’s opportunity to create a thriving tomorrow. If you want uber success, creating the next Uber isn’t going to win you a Visionary of the Year award. To generate sustainability in the marketplace as a business, connect consumers to your brand and identity via immersive experiences. As a professional, regularly contribute to the convergence of art, business, science, and technology. Continue to elevate others amid their rejections. If you take ordinary steps within untraditional environments, you’ll obtain extraordinary results.