Marketing campaigns should always start with a communication concept: a conceptual premise and framework that grabs attention and engages the audience in a way that penetrates the mind of each viewer and captures the collective consciousness of the audience. It is the foundation of your brand story.
Developing an appropriate communication concept is the first step in creating your own distinctive marketing strategy – one that employs the unique audiovisual performance vocabulary needed to create an identifiable campaign presentation associated with the brand. It is this language of presentation that provides the necessary communication tools to make your brand unique and memorable.
Technology without understanding is like coffee without a cup.
The availability of sophisticated technology at relatively low prices has brought about a revolution in communications. Websites, blogs and social networking sites have given all marketing managers and entrepreneurs access to communication options that until now were reserved only for large corporations with million dollar budgets.
Unfortunately, the ability to use easy-to-learn software applications and high-tech digital hardware, combined with access to an exponentially growing Internet audience, does not mean that the average business owner has the skills or understanding to communicate effectively. within the available Internet channels. .
Mommy, I can do it myself!
Like the little kid who claims to be utterly self-sufficient only to need mom to come to the rescue, so too the do-it-yourself web media narcissist ultimately requires expert help in marketing communication, if he or she is to survive. business growing pains.
Having an eCommerce catalog and lots of search engine optimized traffic doesn’t turn your website into an automated online banking machine that takes search engine traffic on one side and spits out money on the other. Having a blog doesn’t automatically make someone interesting or eloquent, nor does owning a video camera make an entrepreneur a creative director or media star.
Marketing campaigns are about brands, not about products or services, and definitely not about features. It’s not about the corporate owners, managers or directors running things. No, it’s about the story, the brand story, compellingly told so that it resonates and resonates with the audience in a meaningful way.
What we have on the Web is a place of communication open to any and all stakeholders, most of whom lack the necessary prior understanding of how to communicate a brand message.
The language of the brand presentation
In the ‘Fast Company’ article ‘When great design becomes its own language’, Joe Duffy talks about
“Visual and Verbal Linguistics”.
“Brands that have been designed in the best possible way have their own proprietary language that tells their story, distinguishes them from all the brands they compete with, and connects them in a very meaningful way with their audience.”
– Joe Duffy, graphic designer and AIGA Fellow
To achieve this type of sophisticated communication, you must understand the language of presentation. In a TED conference speech, “The 4 Ways Sound Affects Us,” given by sound expert Julian Treasure, he describes how sound affects people physiologically, psychologically, cognitively, and behaviorally. The same can be said for images and performance, the communication elements that, together with sound, create the presentation language of the brand.
As Julian Treasure points out in his speech, “Inadequate retail soundscapes can reduce sales by 28%”. If it’s true in the store, it’s also true on the Web. Add to that inappropriate dialogue, visual and performance techniques, and you have a branding, marketing and sales disaster on your hands.
Development of the core concept
Management consultants will advise managers to create a Mission Statement to serve as a strategic guide and reference for tactical decisions; but if that statement is full of meaningless platitudes and carefully crafted euphemisms, it is administratively useless and publicly inane.
The answer to the problem is to start with the one thing that makes you special. The marketing strategy, the high concept behind your business, and the tactical implementation, the various advertising and promotional initiatives you choose to pursue, should be based on that element of your business that makes you different.
The problem is that most companies are no different; They sell the same things, in the same way, as dozens, if not thousands, of other companies. It is the job of companies like ours to help companies develop a distinctive brand of differentiation and find effective ways to implement it. In most cases, the solution lies not in the product, service, or operating procedures, but in the way the emotional and psychological value proposition is presented.
History of the brand Sustainability
What we are developing here is a five point plan to create a sustainable brand in the coming years; a methodology that creates a unique brand image rather than a product that also runs or an autoship service that becomes obsolete with your competitor’s next upgrade or price cut.
So far we have four of the five elements: a Emotional and Psychological Value Proposal; a differentiation mark; a concept of communication and a language of presentation. The fifth item is your Concept Arc. The Concept Arc is how your campaign gets your audience where you want them to be and create what you want them to believe.
Put another way, you have access to website traffic, an audience that is looking for something, the job of your brand story is to dig into the psychological makeup of that audience and give them a jolt of desire for what you offer. The setting and characters of your brand story indirectly represent this audience, and as your on-screen brand representatives move through the arc traced from skepticism and mistrust to acceptance and desire, so will your audience.
Your brand story can be built in any number of scenarios, including a quest, adventure, chase, rescue, escape, revenge, conundrum, rivalry, helpless state, temptation, transformation, maturation, love, forbidden fruit, self-sacrifice, discovery , achievement, and conflict (based on discussion of the argument by research scientist, Dr. Melvyn P Heyes at screenwritingscience.com).
A web audience should…
Linda Cowgill in her book “The Art of the Plot: Add Thrill, Suspense, and Depth to Your Screenplay” states, “They [the audience] must be able to understand [the presentation] with eyes and ears as they watch the scene unfold. … drama requires more than the sum of a number of incidents.” In the same way, the brand requires more than the sum of characteristics.
If you haven’t figured it out yet, the best way to implement such a branding strategy is with an ongoing web video campaign, but if you’re still in doubt, consider that a web audience needs to engage with your brand in a way that evokes the life. experiences, values, attitudes and preconceptions. That audience must identify with the characters and relate to their problems, concerns, issues and/or needs. That audience must be subconsciously affected and influenced by the performance, as well as the visuals, sound design, and mnemonics. That audience must relate to and interpret verbal and non-verbal messages on both a conscious and subconscious level. And an audience needs to be able to recall and recall the established brand personality so that it becomes a lifestyle choice rather than a mere commodity purchase.
It all comes down to connecting with customers on a human level. You may or may not have substantial website traffic, but whatever the number of visitors, the important thing is that no one who visits your website leaves without understanding what you’re doing and remembering why you should care.
