Growth stage brands have to climb the mountain with fewer resources than their biggest competitors. Here's a way to think about the challenge and why it's so important to develop an integrated marketing strategy designed for awareness, associations and activation -
• Focus on Sales Drivers: Are you investing in stronger connections to key sales drivers in your industry?
• Justify Your Price Point: Have you proven to your target market why your product is worth more than the white-label alternatives?
• Improve Brand Recognition: Are you ensuring national retailer shoppers recognize your brand on the shelf?
Conversion-Focused Strategy Pitfalls
• Short-Term Tactics Over-reliance: If your strategy is mostly conversion tactics (social ads, email, discounts), you’re betting on rational features winning at the point of sale.
• Why This Fails: Most consumers aren’t actively shopping for your product. Betting on spontaneous transactions is risky.
The Reality of Product Competition
• Do You Lead in Every Category? If your business competes in multiple product verticals, staying ahead of every competitor in every category is near impossible.
• Halo Effect of Strong Branding: A well-established brand can lift the perception of your entire product portfolio.
Price Pressure and the Discount Trap
• Competing on Rational Features Endangers Price: Once price becomes the focus, discounting starts, attracting the wrong consumer (those seeking only low prices).
• Impact on Expansion: This harms your expansion goals, as it makes it harder to reach your ideal customers, who may not even know your brand.
Emotional Positioning and Associations
• Beyond Awareness: Have you created an emotional connection with your ideal customers, so they think of you when they’re ready to buy?
• Cultural Relevance: Does your brand stand for something they would be proud of? Is it something you’ve intentionally crafted or a label culture has given you?
The Limitations of Brand Awareness
• Mental Availability is the Goal: More important than simple awareness is making your brand mentally available when customers are ready to buy.
Long-Term Brand Building vs. Short-Term Gains
• Balance is Key: To grow and thrive, a company needs to balance long-term brand strategies with short-term sales efforts.
Parting Thought
If your company relies heavily on short-term tactics or faces these challenges, it may be time to step up and invest in long-term brand building to ensure sustainable growth and profitability.