Not Every Brand Strategy is Created Equal.
Matt Bowen • October 15, 2020
 Research-based brand positioning, personas and messaging is the difference between top performing brands…and all the rest.

We live in a world where content drives everything. Most marketing efforts are centered on content-driven campaigns, and the investment into marketing automation and sales enablement to drive this content is staggering.

But is it really working?  

Every new product, every website, every campaign, every press release and every sales pitch should have one, singular purpose: deliver a compelling reason why people should choose your brand over others. 

And while your in-house marketing team may be good at execution, if they don’t have a clear understanding of the nuanced needs of your target market, and more specifically, the unique needs that your brand addresses, they are likely wasting time and money with off-base messaging.

The intersection of robust data, insights and creative is where the magic happens, and this should be where organizations make their greatest brand investment to actualize results.

_______________

According to the Harvard Business Review

only 54% of salespeople can clearly explain how their

solution impacts the buyer’s business.

_________________

We’re Brandigo.

Using research and insights to develop brand positioning and creative strategies is nothing new to Brandigo. We were on the forefront, and while other agencies now claim to do it with promises of proprietary approaches, none of them deliver the depth of brand-focused data and insights-inspired creative that we do. 

Because when it comes to your brand, left-brained data and insights are only as good as the right-brained strategy and creative they produce. That’s what makes Brandigo different. We call this data-conscious brand strategy.

Data-conscious brand strategy requires a unique approach to gathering the perceptions of your target audiences. We go out and talk to hundreds of your prospects and personas to really get inside their heads. We focus not on the tactical delivery of your products and service or customer satisfaction metrics for your brand, but on the needs of your customers and the emotional value that your products and services deliver. We use this research to create meaningful, audience-specific value narratives for your brand. Our research-based personas are built around rigorous qualitative and quantitative data – not just a handful of conversations. We know that your prospects respond best when you tell them how you’ll make their lives better. We make it emotional.

Why data-conscious brand strategy?

First, primary data is a critical piece of this answer. Why?

  1. It’s unique. Proprietary, primary data that you have commissioned isn’t available to anyone else. That means unlike market reports and analyst data, you have access to insights that no one else does, and this gives you an advantage when it comes to positioning your brand. When brands use the same reports to build strategy, everyone starts to sound the same. Makes sense, right? If everyone is building their brands from the same 3rd party information, you would expect the same conclusions to be drawn when it comes to what prospects want.
  2. It gives you a competitive advantage. Proprietary data allows you to measure the health of your brand versus a set of competitors. Using these insights, you can identify competitive advantages in key value driver areas in the eyes of the market. You can then use this information to develop messaging points that clearly articulate your value proposition, but also where your brand outperforms your competition.
  3. 99% of the time, it’s data you don’t already have. Customer satisfaction metrics can be great. Your Net Promoter Score is a nice talking point. But when it comes to data for building a clearly differentiated brand, you need to understand the value drivers of the market – the critical drivers and delighters that are most likely to drive a purchase decision.

Brandigo takes that one step further. We help clients understand the difference between the most important drivers of purchase decisions (values) and the types of messages that are most likely to inspire prospects to take a closer look at your brand.

Next, the shopping behaviors of humans can be a tricky thing. What they say is important is often much different from what their actions show us. By looking at the difference between their stated importance (what they say) and their derived importance (what they actually do), Brandigo is able to build positioning and messaging strategies that tap into both the conscious and subconscious needs of your customers and prospects.

This isn’t as easy as pulling out a data point and calling it a value proposition. It takes a creative approach to interpret your data in order to craft a unique story that ties back to your brand’s most important value drivers.

Brandigo delivers the left-brained expertise of a seasoned research firm with the right-brained creativity of an inspired strategy and communications agency.

The bottom line.

At the end of the day, you want your brand to be, not just different, but valuable to your target audiences.

Find your unique place in the market and the value you deliver to customers and build a creative strategy for messaging it and create a visual identity that sets you apart in your market.

(primary data) + (strategic insights) + (creative inspiration) = brand differentiation

This is the essence of data conscious brand strategy.

Volvo has safety.

Apple thinks different.

BMW has the ultimate driving machine.

And Brandigo is data conscious brand strategy.

Data conscious brand strategy is a critical driver for moving your brand forward. The strategic direction delivered will serve as strategic guardrails for executive teams, sales, human resources, operations, R&D, and of course, marketing.

We’d love to tell you more.

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