MARKETING STRATEGY

How to build a brand that (literally) connects

Direct-response advertising or brand awareness marketing? The answer should be both.

Every time we go to dinner, a couple of entrepreneur friends wind up arguing over the same thing:

One only does direct-response marketing: no brand positioning, no brand awareness, no tie-ins. If he can’t objectively measure the result of an advertising strategy, he doesn’t do it.
The other believes in building and extending his brand through image-building, emotional connection, and mutually-beneficial partnerships with other brands.

The nature of my businesses leaves me without a dog in the advertising hunt (although we are dipping our toes into the wedding venue business). Since I like things I can measure, though, when pressed I always leaned towards direct response.

But then I got an inside look at how T-Mobile connects with customers. Sure, the wireless network provider runs plenty of direct-response ads.

But their strategic partnerships, and the brand-building that results, might be even more effective. Take this year’s PGA Championship. Sure, there was T-Mobile branding sprinkled around the course. But much like racing sponsorships have become more about activation than rolling billboards, there was Club Magenta, a viewing area and lounge overlooking the 15th hole with free admittance for T-Mobile subscribers. Roar Moments provided almost instant video highlights from around the course. Seat Finder allowed fans to find open seating areas. Network Pass let non T-Mobile customers access T-Mobile’s network from any phone, regardless of carrier, a savvy way to build brand connection and and affinity with potential customers. (Few things spark purchase consideration like a free trial run.)

Those were a few of the customer-facing brand awareness initiatives. As for partnerships, T-Mobile supported the CBS broadcast coverage with dozens of wireless cameras and a private 5G network, reducing the number of miles of cables the broadcaster needed to run - and creating opportunities for T-Mobile staff to develop new technologies that can eventually be extended to consumers. (Similar to how the brake system on your pickup is the grandchild of brakes on a race car.)

“Everything we do is customer-driven,” says Grant Castle, T-Mobile SVP Network and Emerging Technologies. “But we also favour projects that provide benefits on multiple levels. Helping a TV network produce a better broadcast is reason enough, but the same technologies make the experience better for a fan at the course, and ultimately for all of our members as we build out new features for broad use.”

And then there’s the employee morale and engagement factor; knowing you are creating something that people will use, and appreciate, is always more fun. When I worked in book manufacturing, productivity was everything. Oh, we kept an eye on quality, and sometimes tinkered with machine settings during a run. But as long as the books we produced met minimum standards, we kept running: numbers mattered, so it was natural to prioritise productivity over quality.

Then our plant installed a new line specifically designed for Bible production. One of the publishers sent a vice president to talk to us, and I still remember one thing she said:

“You aren’t running books. You are running Bibles. You. Are. Running. Bibles.”

We all looked at each other. We understood Bibles play an important role in religion, but she was making a larger point. Bibles are often given as gifts. Bibles become family heirlooms. For many, a Bible has greater significance than the physical object it represents.

We had been thinking of books from our perspective: numbers. The publisher thought of Bibles from the customer’s perspective. And so we treated Bible production with a lot more care, because we started thinking less about ourselves and more about other people.

“We’ve been a partner with Major League Baseball for over a decade,” says Amy Azzi, T-Mobile VP of Sponsorships. “We’re in college sports with the SEC. Formula 1 and the Las Vegas Grand Prix. For us, getting into the game of golf and working with the PGA of America really started with a way to demonstrate our business-to-business solutions. We sat with the PGA team and said, ‘What are some of the challenges you have that connectivity can solve?’ And over time we realised it had become an incredible showcase for those solutions… from an operations standpoint, from a broadcast standpoint, and from a fan standpoint that gives our members more experiences on the course.”

Ultimately, that’s the goal of brand-building and strategic partnerships.

Direct-response advertising is clearly benefit-driven. You get this, for that; if the exchange appeals to you, you’re in. That’s great, but only to a point but direct-response results in purchased loyalty. Purchased loyalty pays customers to be loyal, and often works well. The main problem, though, is that purchased loyalty can be easily stolen since the customer is loyal to the deal or program, not the company.

Brand-building, when done well, results in something closer to true loyalty. True loyalty is allegiance to a brand or product based on a high level of satisfaction. When your expectations are met, when your needs are met, when there’s an emotional connection… it’s hard to imagine using another product or service.

“We look at the fans and how they’re engaging with the sport,” Azzi says, “and how we can support and enable that engagement.”

Which is, in effect, what my brand-building entrepreneur friend says. He sponsors events he feels his customers support. He enters partnerships with brands he feels his customers connect with. His employees develop new products and services with a direct line of sight to the value they create for customers. (We all want our jobs to have meaning.)

For him, brand-building works on multiple levels. Sure, he could run an occasional sale or promotion to land new customers and boost revenue, and lately has started doing just that. But his primary focus remains on building and growing an emotional connect with his customers, and as a result, a greater sense of connection between employees and customers.

And he’s convinced my direct-response friend to dip his toes into those waters, because broader brand-building is a great way to increase purchase consideration.

And direct-response is a great way to to turn purchase consideration into purchase intention into a new customer… one that brand building and strategic partnerships could help you turn into a long-term, loyal customer.

Useful resources:

Jeff Haden learned much of what he knows about business and technology as he worked his way up in the manufacturing industry from forklift driver to manager of a 250-employee book plant. He has written more than 30 non-fiction books, including four Business and Investing titles that reached #1 on Amazon's bestseller list.

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