Brand and demand: Why you can't have one without the other
11 September 2024
Brand marketing and demand generation are crucial for a successful business strategy. However, marketers often face a choice: launch long-term brand awareness campaigns that are hard to track; or focus on short-term paid activities to generate qualified leads, which are becoming more costly. These goals have often been viewed as conflicting, needing different tactics and leading to debates on how to allocate ever-diminishing marketing budgets.
But separating brand marketing from demand generation doesn’t make sense anymore. You can’t build a thriving brand without demand generation, and running demand generation campaigns is tough without a strong brand to back it up. They’re both equally essential for business success in today's challenging landscape.
With this in mind, let's explore how you can bring brand and demand together to achieve sustained business growth.
What is brand marketing?
Brand marketing is about building and promoting a company's identity. It goes beyond just designing a logo or choosing a catchy tagline. It involves consistent messaging, visuals, and experiences across all touchpoints with customers.
Brands that truly stand out tell a story, connecting with people not just through their products or services, but by expressing their values and purpose. They ensure authenticity and consistency in every aspect of the brand, from messaging and design to customer experience and values. All these elements work together to create a seamless and engaging story that captivates and inspires.
A strong brand distinguishes a company in a crowded market. With so many choices available, brands must establish a unique identity with consumers whether it's through innovative product features, excellent customer service, or a distinct brand personality. By highlighting what sets them apart, brands can attract and retain customers who share their values and preferences.
What is demand generation?
Hubspot defines demand generation as "a long-term, education-focused marketing strategy that prioritizes reaching and engaging “out of market” buyers." It involves any marketing activity that drives awareness and interest in a company’s products or services, with the goal of creating a predictable pipeline.
Common demand generation activities include:
Content marketing
Webinars and events
Paid advertising and retargeting
Email marketing
Effective demand generation hinges on understanding target audiences and their challenges. By addressing these with tailored content, businesses can build trust and enhance brand visibility, ultimately driving revenue growth.
The difference between lead generation and demand generation
While they’re often used interchangeably, lead generation and demand generation are two very different marketing strategies.
Lead generation is the process of converting prospects into leads by capturing their contact information, with the aim of eventually turning them into customers. It's a short-term marketing strategy aimed at starting sales conversations, but it's considered challenging. In fact, 61% of marketers say lead generation is their biggest challenge.
Demand generation, on the other hand, focuses on increasing brand awareness and creating interest in products or services among a larger audience. It uses a range of marketing strategies to attract potential customers and guide them through the sales funnel. It focuses on long term growth by educating prospects about solutions to their business problems
While lead generation focuses on nurturing and converting leads at the funnel's lower end, demand generation oversees the entire buyer's journey, ensuring a steady stream of potential customers. A HubSpot study shows that companies focusing on demand generation see a 133% increase in revenue compared to those relying solely on lead generation. Additionally, adopting a demand generation strategy can boost marketing ROI by 45%.
The power of combining brand marketing and demand generation
Both brand marketing and demand generation serve different purposes, but when they work together, the results are powerful.
Let's break down how brand and demand work together to drive business success:
Brand sets the foundation for demand: A strong brand establishes credibility, trust and creates an emotional connection with consumers.
Brand marketing provides context for demand generation: Without a strong brand behind it, demand generation efforts may feel disconnected or lack authenticity. Branding provides the necessary context for these activities to be effective.
Demand generation reinforces brand awareness: A consistent brand message across all marketing channels, demand generation activities help reinforce the brand's identity and values, making it more memorable in the eyes of potential customers.
Demand generation solidifies brand positioning: As demand for a product or service increases, it strengthens the brand's position in the market. This helps to support and grow market share, making it easier for businesses to sustain success over time.
Demand generation helps drive business growth: Effective demand generation strategies attract qualified leads and create a predictable pipeline of potential customers. This then leads to long-term, yet sustainable, business growth.
How to bring brand marketing and demand generation together
Effective brand and demand integration requires a coordinated effort across all marketing functions. Here's how you can align your brand and demand generation strategies:
1. Create a cohesive brand story
Develop a clear and consistent brand message that resonates with your target audience, using the same narrative, tone, visuals, and values throughout all marketing channels. This will help to create a strong and memorable brand identity.
2. Understand your target audience
To create effective demand generation campaigns, you must know your target audience's needs and preferences. This involves researching their pain points, values, and behaviors to tailor the messaging and content accordingly.
3. Ensure your brand is consistent across all platforms
Make your brand an experience wherever it can be seen. Whether it's your website, email signatures, social media channels, or marketing materials, make sure they all reflect the same visual style and messaging.
4. Create compelling and engaging content
Quality content is key to both building a strong brand and driving demand. Use storytelling, visual elements, and educational content to engage with your audience and build trust.
5. Align sales and marketing efforts
To ensure a seamless customer experience, it's crucial to align your sales and marketing strategies. This involves creating shared goals, tracking data across departments, and regularly communicating to understand how each team can support the other in achieving business success.
6. Use marketing automation and CRM platforms
Use marketing automation and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platforms to track and analyze the effectiveness of your brand and demand generation efforts. These also allow for more personalized targeting, making it easier to engage with potential customers at different stages of the buyer's journey.
7. Focus on the customer experience and provide a seamless buyer journey
Integrate brand and demand tactics to create a seamless experience for potential customers. This means making it easy for them to find information about your company, products, or services. It means ensuring a smooth transition from first contact to final purchase.
8. Continuously measure and adapt
Monitor the performance of both your brand marketing and demand generation efforts to see what's working and what's not. Use data to make informed decisions and adjust your strategies accordingly.
Brand and demand in action
To illustrate the power of integrating brand marketing and demand generation, let's examine how two leading companies masterfully balance these strategies.
Apple Inc.
Known for innovation, quality, and simplicity, Apple has built a brand image that attracts a loyal customer base willing to pay premium prices. Its strong brand reputation is bolstered by demand generation tactics like targeted advertising and timely product launches, which maintain strong sales and reinforce industry leadership.
Apple's success in demand generation is highlighted by its commitment to innovation. This is clear in its continual product development and upgrades, ensuring it stays ahead of market trends and meets consumer expectations. This not only boosts sales during new releases but also ensures long-term customer loyalty. Additionally, Apple creates anticipation and urgency through limited-time offers and product availability, using scarcity and exclusivity effectively.
Coca-Cola
Since 1886, Coca-Cola has been a global soft drink leader, with marketing campaigns focused on driving demand. Its consistent message of happiness and refreshment creates an emotional bond with consumers, while various campaigns keep the brand top of mind. The "Share a Coke" campaign, for example, increased sales and reinforced the brand message of unity.
Coca-Cola’s success is also due to its smart use of nostalgia and innovation in marketing. By invoking memories associated with their brand, they connect with both older and newer audiences. Keeping its classic logo and design reinforces its identity and heritage, yet the brand remains adaptable to modern trends.
In addition to traditional advertising, Coca-Cola has embraced digital transformation by engaging with consumers on social media, creating interactive campaigns, and using data analytics for tailored marketing. This adaptability keeps Coca-Cola a household name and thriving in a changing market.
Use Exclaimer to boost brand and demand
Email signatures are often overlooked when considering brand and demand activities, but they are an important part of your brand's identity. They should reflect the visual and messaging strategies used in other marketing channels. But without a way to centrally manage everyone employee's email signature, maintaining a consistent brand across business email is next to impossible.
This is where Exclaimer steps in. Exclaimer offers a robust email signature management solution that makes sure every email from your organization consistently represents your brand. Businesses, no matter their size, can create standardized and professional email signatures that automatically update with the latest branding elements. This allows for a unified brand representation while simplifying email signature management across teams.
Once you have central control, you can then turn these branded business emails into a new demand generation channel. By turning employee emails into marketing tools, you can increase ad impressions and demand without extra costs, using a channel that competitors can't target. With Exclaimer, you can create strategic calls-to-action to enhance your marketing ROI and make the most of thousands of daily email impressions. This means you can promote top-performing content, cross-sell to customers, boost event registrations, highlight new offerings, and engage with prospects at a fraction of the cost of other advertising platforms.
Try an online demo of Exclaimer to see how you can bring brand marketing and demand generation together in a way that can help your business growth.
