08 June 2022 | Marketing
Brand Marketers, I come in Peace
By Creator Staff
DEEP DIVE:
Here at Go-to-Millions, we know how important both functions are to any successful Go-to-Market planning.
WE LOVE THE BRANDS WE LOVE WITH ALL OUR HEART. ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐
Those brands are built with the help of insanely talented brand marketers who build, protect, and design experiences that make customers LOYAL and HAPPY.
Notice that I said built with the help of brand marketers.
Brands are built with Brand marketing teams, but they arenโt built by brand marketing teams alone.
The brands you KNOW, LOVE, and CARE about were also built with the help of skilled Growth marketers who use data, experimentation, and MEASURABLE TACTICS to drive sales.
Both teams are essential. Both teams need to be empowered.
Both teams can approve and decide on many, many parts of marketing strategy without battling (same team, same org, same dream โ right??)
โฎ๏ธโฎ๏ธโฎ๏ธโฎ๏ธโฎ๏ธโฎ๏ธโฎ๏ธโฎ๏ธโฎ๏ธโฎ๏ธโฎ๏ธโฎ๏ธโฎ๏ธโฎ๏ธโฎ๏ธโฎ๏ธโฎ๏ธโฎ๏ธโฎ๏ธโฎ๏ธโโโฎ๏ธโฎ๏ธโฎ๏ธโฎ๏ธโฎ๏ธโโโฎ๏ธ
But, whoโs in CHARGE of digital creative?
Letโs back up, because itโs pretty complicated.
You see, dear reader, creative differences within orgs are a real doozy.
Feelings can get hurt, and it can be insulting to have your ideas rejected.
It can be embarrassing to have your briefs rejected.
Itโs painful to be in a meeting and to have an idea youโre passionate about shot down.
It hurts the ego (I personally get sad when an idea/tactic/solution I believe in isnโt championed- Iโm HUMAN and sensitive and yes I have CRIED about this and likely WILL CRY about this again in the future).
It stings. ๐
You know what stings more?
Working at a flailing business that canโt get to profitability and abundance.
๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐โโ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐
Having STOCK that is WORTHLESS.
Wasting years of your life working on something that doesnโt reach its highest potential.
If you wonโt listen to me, listen to our forefather, David Ogilvy.
Ogilvyโs take on advertising was very straightforward:
โI do not regard advertising as entertainment or an art form, but as a medium of information.
When I write an advertisement, I donโt want you to tell me that you find it โcreative.โ
I want you to find it so interesting that you buy the product.โ
In my opinion, the Growth team should be must be the decision-maker (aka the tie-breaking vote) on all of the following (without exception).
๐: Ad creative
๐: Ad copy
๐: Landing pages
๐: Listicles
๐: Merch / promotional product pipeline
๐: Launch strategy
๐: Email
๐: SMS
๐: EVERY.SINGLE.THING.ON.THE.WEBSITE.
That delineation is clean. Itโs clear. Itโs productive.
One more from my celebrity crush of yesteryear, David Ogilvy.
โIโm not saying that charming, witty and warm copy wonโt sell.
Iโm just saying that Iโve seen thousands of charming, witty campaigns that didnโt.
Letโs say you are a manufacturer. Your advertising isnโt working and your sales are going down. And everything depends on it. Your future depends on it, your familyโs future depends on it, other peopleโs families depend on it. And you walk in this office and talk to me, and you sit in that chair.
Now, what do you want out of me? Fine writing? Do you want masterpieces? Do you want glowing things that can be framed by copywriters?
Or do you want to see the goddamned sales curve stop moving down and start moving up?โ
The growth team is responsible for, well, growth.
Follow Jeromy Sonne on Twitter (Iโm his #1 fan and this meme is iconic).
Respectfully, no matter how smart you are – no matter how much experience you have – and no matter โhow great your taste isโ,
YOU.DO.NOT.KNOW.HOW.CREATIVE.WILL.PERFORM.UNTIL.YOU.TEST.IT.
Sure, there is a very important balance to strike here:
Growth teams need to respect brand guidelines.
Brand teams are defending the integrity of the brand – that 100% matters and is essential.
But, with all do, brand teams need to respect that without growth (and without real customers who are using their own hard-earned resources to buy your product/service/experience) there is no brand.
๐ค๐ค๐ค๐ค๐ค๐ค๐ค๐ค๐ค๐ค๐ค๐ค๐ค๐ค๐ค๐ค๐ค๐ค๐ค๐ค๐ค๐ค๐ค๐คโโ๐ค๐ค
Follow RGA on Twitter
Marketing is an ecosystem, baby!
Itโs living, breathing, ever-evolving.
As Darwin said, โIntelligence is based on how efficient a species became at doing the things they need to survive.โ
Design guidelines can be โsetโ ahead of launch.
Brand Bibles and Branding Decks are hugely helpful to growth marketers – they help us to stay in the lines. They help keep things cohesive.
Cohesive = consistent
Customers love consistency! It builds trust. And, if they trust you, theyโll shop.
However, it is called Go-to-Market strategy. Not Going-to-Market.
Itโs happening NOW. Overzealous brand marketers do need to meet their growth teams/ agencies/ consultants in the middle.
Itโs time to bring our brand design guidelines out of the PowerPoint and into the real world.
We have to test against how we planned to do things, and therefore learn how we SHOULD do things.
We have to break the rules.
NOT IN A CRAZY, goes against our values as a brand or our visual identity kinda way.
But in a letโs try something new, letโs measure it, letโs decide if it works, and if it works, letโs implement it.
Then, LETโS DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN.