Is 'Brand vs Performance' Still Relevant to Today's Consumer Journey?

The Customer Journey.

If we adopt the theory of there being just 2 types of messaging; brand and performance, it suggests that we think of the customer journey as just two stages. Brand assets cover audiences not in market and Performance covers those who are in market. But as we know, the customer journey is far more nuanced than that. Especially, when we look at the Luxury industry where consideration stages are often longer than that of general retail and FMCG.

Google coined the term "The Messy Middle" as a way of describing the complicated relationship between channels and motivations when consumers are browsing online. It perfectly explains that way marketers have historically seen the purchase journey, whether that be this brand to activation model or a marketing or sales funnel, is flawed when we actually look at the mess of activity that sits between audiences being introduced to brands and then finally making a purchase.

Channel Selection.

Yes, it is true that certain channels will lend themselves more towards brand and some towards activation. But pinning channels into either camp will not only harm the long and short term benefits of activity but will silo reporting and suggest that your strategy is not working as one cohesive piece of work.

It certainly easier and more obvious to drive emotion-led brand creative through a video-based, full screen and full sound experience like TV, CTV or Cinema. And using PPC and Paid Social to drive sales and promotion has always been seen as the norm. However, it simply isn't true that any of these channels are only strong at a particular type of activity.

Paid Social is the perfect example for this. If we look at Tiktok as a channel, the motivations of the users is very much the same of those of TV viewers; entertainment. So why would we treat the platform only as a sales focussed tool. You can still drive a very emotional piece of storytelling or brand led creative on Tiktok and see success. Remember that you don't want to just be measuring in platform ROAS. You also want to be looking at CTR and the influence that activity is having on your other channels. But you could also serve hard-hitting black friday content urging people to convert now before time runs out. Both are effective on the one channel.

Its the message which determines whether it could be classed as "Brand" or "Activation" rather than the channel we've chosen to place it on.

Our 4 Step Framework.

To combat this polarity between brand and activation, we adopt a 4 step framework. The framework is not to pigeonhole creative or channels but to ensure that there is content being placed wherever a brand's customers might be and that content appeals to them and is memorable no matter where they are in their buying journey. It eliminated the need to think of activity in two camps and instead ensures a cohesive and consistent experience for users.

The framework consists of

Discover:

Our Discover phase is a stage of research. Looking at current customer data, industry trends and consumer behaviour, we are able to map out opportunities to introduce new channels, demographics and territories. It is within this stage that we think about how to plan the following 3 stages.

Build:

The Build stage is aimed at those consumers who have never heard of the brand before. They are brand new audiences and will most likely not be in the market for the product. This stage encompasses a mix of brand storytelling and generating demand. We want to generate a high brand recall rate and a strong reputation for what the brand stands for and why audiences should desire the product.

Storytell:

Storytell begins to tap into the cognitive biases of consumers. They hopefully have already been introduced to the brand through our build activity and are now entering a phase of exploration and evaluation.

This stage could last a day or could last a number of months so its important for brands to think about how they can start building a relationship with consumers who are not yet customers. When the time comes for them to purchase, you'll want your brand top of mind. We bring in ad types that allow for social proofing, UGC style, building scarcity alongside the emotional brand pieces we know build long term memory.

Sell:

The Sell stage could be likened to Activation. But the main difference to realise is that any style of ad on any platform can act as an activation ad. Any number of your ads could push a consumers to convert; its about being in the right place and the right time. However, to make sure that we are capturing those consumers sitting at the bottom of the 'funnel', who are actively seeking your purchase and are ready to checkout, using shopping specific campaigns like Google's Shopping or Meta's Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns ensures we are leaving no stone unturned.

Is it Time to Retire Brand vs Activation?

The logic and theory behind this research is still very much relevant when we think about messaging. We consistently see brands who focus specifically on Activation struggle to efficiently acquire new customers and see long term growth. But apply the term across every decision that needs to be made and we'll end up, once again, with a siloed strategy and missing the rewards that are reaped when your entire digital strategy is working together.