At first it was a rumor. A famous star of children TV shows is a bad girl. She parties hard. She is into different substances. She is not the role model for kids as most parents would imagine. Then there were compromising photos taken by paparazzi and published by all gossip portals and magazines. She started losing followers. Her agents denounced gossips, threatened to sue. Some of her advertising contracts were canceled. And then she herself started playing to her new image. Her new movies were far from the ‘good girl’ persona she built through the years. Her behavior off the filming set was equally rebellious. Some of her old fans stood by her loyally and new people got interested. Her fresh image was speaking to them – they did not want to be ‘the good kids’ anymore as well. A year after scandals first started she has more fans than ever, new advertising contracts and new movies in the pipeline.
Was that rebranding successful? How will you measure it?
On my first class of economy at my university my professor listed on the board a series of common questions that he is asked about market dynamics. They were all yes/no type of questions. Should government intervene in the free market? Is immigration good for economy? Does globalization help developing countries?
‘A wise man, he said, always answers such questions starting from the same phrase: it depends.’
Let’s take a look at the re-branding campaign of our actress. A week after her scandalous behavior came to light, many would judge that re-branding as ambiguous. Not enough of information, no clear effect yet. A month into rebranding many would declare a failure. She lost fans, she lost advertising contracts. However, a year down the road we saw a phoenix rising from the ashes and her success rebuilt. What about in ten years? Will she be able to keep the momentum or need another rebranding strategy? Will this change fit into her overall, life story we will see in those years? Can’t tell yet!
Every marketer knows the drill: every time we start campaign a week down the road the questions start flying our way. Does your campaign work? Do you see market share uplift? Do you see sales uplift? If we do, should we boost it more? If we don’t, should we pause? And then, after the campaign is done: can we do post campaign report and evaluate the effectiveness?
The answer is always the same. It all depends…
You can only see the impact in that, specific moment of time.
It’s like seeing just a piece of the puzzle. Branding is creating long-lasting connections with the consumers or users. Weekly or monthly sales may not be the right measure for it. It may be the right one to evaluate some of the promotional mix elements, such as discounts. But not the full picture, as there is one, important thing that the marketers often forget and that is…
Each product has a life cycle and a purchase cycle.
Do you buy a shampoo every week? No, you are stocked up for two months currently, but you saw recently that brand you did not use for a long time introduced now ecological packaging and ‘not tested on animals’ formula. You are only buying eco products and this brand was not in your consideration before. It is now. You park that thought until next time you will need a shampoo. Or maybe you will buy it now, not to forget it later. All depends what kind of person you are.
Do you buy a car every month? Majority of population does not. But you are a fan and following all new launches, comparing the features and you will know your game next time you will be looking into the purchase. Also, your friends know you are a car geek, so they come to you for an advice every time they consider changing their car. You are the one who can blab on it for hours, or even go with them to the car salon and advise on the spot (such people are a true blessing for car moguls like me).
What you can measure on the short-term basis is efficiency of your marketing mix.
Reach, frequency, click-through-rates, etc. All the metrics that help you to understand if you are getting to your target audience and how are they reacting to your message in this very moment. But there is no magic formula of some kind: a good campaign that reaches x% of target audience should get us y% of sales growth. Forget it.
So how do I prove that my marketing works?
Ha. Now the difficult part. My two, personal preferences.
- Stop evaluating marketing campaigns a week after they are done. Make the evaluation only part of the yearly business review cycle.
Post-campaign analysis should focus on the efficiencies of marketing campaigns, so should tell you if you managed to reach your target audience. But will not tell you if the campaign was a success or not. That you can only evaluate after a longer period of time. For me, a year is a bare minimum. I know that for the fast career trackers it seems like eternity. But if you want to prove you are a good marketer, you will wait.
2. Always make brand metrics part of your campaign evaluation.
If you manage to change/continue building what people think about the brand, you keep yourself on top of their consideration list, wherever they are on the product life cycle/purchase cycle. So understanding how the campaign impacted audiences’ opinion about the brand is crucial. That will help you to understand if you are moving in the right direction.
As long as you have 1+2 covered you have the data that helps you to hold your ground, focus on executing your plans and resist temptation of short term back-and-forth changes.
It won’t be easy, sales pressure is always there, in any business. But it is the right thing to do.