Brand planning, like advertising, is sometimes thought to be a little fuzzy when it comes to its effectiveness. A “trust me” endeavor. An ad agency spends months coming up with a new campaign, polishing it for weeks, only to have it fall a bit flat in execution. Great art, not so great at delivering sales commitment.
Brand strategy, one step away from advertising and marketing, may be even harder to measure in terms of sales delivery. The strategy gets stepped on by intermediaries. Creative people are notorious for selling an idea that sparks interest, rather than interest in purchase.
We do nothing in the marketing if not moving customers and prospects closer to a sale. Cash registers, credit card swipes, online shopping carts need to go cha-ching for marketing to be seen as effective. Brand strategy is an organizing principle designed to make that happen. So how do we know if a strategy is affecting cha-ching behavior? How do we employ science to tie sales to strategy? Through research. Attitude research.
When customers and prospects believe your CPA firm digs deeper than competitors to uncover favorable tax law, you earn more business. When a jeweler is believed to have more experienced bench workers than other repair shops, you earn more business. Find the right care-about or the right good-at, gauge customer perceptions against that measure, overlay it with sales figures and you blow by the theory and straight into the scientific formula.
Peace.