brandstrategy

Closing the brand/response gap

Andrew Cohen, Exposed Brick, argues that cost-effective, successful marketing today demands a balanced combination of brand building and response generation

HE ACCEPTED DEFINITION of a straight line is the shortest distance between two points. Companies marketing a product or service in the US have lost touch with that simple truth. Typically, marketers follow a costly, circuitous route from the act of establishing brand identity to building a profitable customer relationship. The majority of marketers choose to stay with the one-way advertising model of a bygone era. What a pity, when making a beeline straight to starting a consumer relationship is as simple as using the direct-response tools that are the foundation of todays database-driven marketing excellence. At the heart of the problem is a disconnection between the focus on brand and the focus on response that drives 21st-century interactive customer relationships. This article looks at the benefits gained from closing that brand/response gap by using brand-building advertising to elicit a response that leads to fully accountable results. Connectivity (shrinking the brand/response gap) is the primary challenge faced by marketers in the first decade of this century.

Brand

Response

The further the gap, the

weaker the brand experience benefit weaker the return on marketing investment weaker the media-buying efficiency greater the opportunity cost in lost market data greater the chance of customer conquest by competitors greater the risk of non-accountability.

Fixation on brand paralysis We know that over time everything changes and evolves to higher life forms. Right? Wrong. At least as it applies to the advertising life form. The fixation on traditional awareness advertising and brand identity has changed little in 40 years, while almost every other aspect of marketing has evolved into more complex and effective business practices. The result is a massive gap between brand and response, with dire implications. Below is a brief look at life in the fast lane of todays marketing in the US. The customer is a moving target. Communications are delivered on prime-time network TV, on cable, on web banners and pop-ups, at construction sites, over cell phones, on street pavements and in restrooms. Single-channel distribution is no more. It is a multi-channel world and then some. At shopping malls, by mail, in cyberspace, by cell and hardwire telemarketing, at kiosks, on a handheld Palm Pilot, at concerts, ballparks, wherever and whenever. Empowerment is in the hands of the consumer. Shoppers control the relationship. In the US, eight out of ten shoppers turn to the net to make a decision before going to the automotive showroom. They tell FedEx at what time and at what cost to deliver the package. They compare prices and user ratings before buying anything and everything, over the net. Sixty million people sell to one another on eBay. Competition is carried to the extreme. Todays supplier is tomorrows competitor. Gillette spent 750 million dollars developing the Mach 3 blade. One year later, a major UK supermarket developed the same product under its own brand name. Colleges offer their own credit cards that compete with those of local banks. Banks compete with financial advisers to sell stocks and bonds. Financial advisers prepare your taxes to

Brand

Response

Forces closing the gap will

increase the likelihood of obtaining useful customer feedback add value to the prospect and customer relationship allow instantaneous, technologyenabled transactions and interactions encourage expansion into multichannel marketing.

compete with local certified public accountants. The fragmentation of media has no limit, with 500 TV channels delivering to ever smaller and more selective minimarkets. Attention is splintered as web surfers chat with their friends via email, play on the Xbox, talk on the cell phone and have the TV set blaring all at the same time. There is a non-stop bombardment of the mind and the senses. This over-stimulation results in a stressed-out consumer. As the magazine Science reports: stress floods the brain with hormones called glucocortoids that interferes with the transfer of short-term memory to longterm memory storage. That is bad news for marketers. The more messages put out, the more we suppress the consumers ability to remember those messages. The answer: close the gap A brand is no longer defined only by advertising-driven perception. Rather it is defined by the customers experience in buying the product; satisfaction in using the product; and the services wrapped around the product with positive consequences. As important as brand perception is the nature of the brand experience, the ease of reading how to guides, the quality
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Andrew Cohen is founder of Exposed Brick, a marketing consulting firm working with many blue-chip companies. He is currently co-authoring with Stan Rapp, Business Magic; Making the Impossible Possible in Business and Life.

of the customer communications, the voice of the representative at the other end of the phone line, the ease of finding information at the company website, and so on. In the new marketing world dominated by ease of access, the experience takes precedence over the perception. Building a tight emotional connection to the brand is no longer the sole province of a 30-second commercial. Jet Blue, with little advertising, built a close bond with customers by demonstrating that flying can be an economical and enjoyable experience. What they do for you creates the brand image not a 30second commercial. It is the same with Amazon the promise is an easy, hasslefree way to shop on the net at a discount. And they deliver. No brand advertising required. The same is true for Wal-Mart, eBay, Red Bull. These super-brands of the marketing world have shown that advertising is just one aspect of the multitude of connections that build an emotional attachment to a product or service in todays world. These companies draw a

straight line connecting brand and response by adopting the mantra Experience is the brand. The benefits of closing the gap A recent demonstration of the benefits of connecting brand and response was the introduction of OxiClean with direct response advertising in the US. Traditionally, the fast-moving consumer goods (fmcg) industry resists the integration of brand and response. It loves to build brand recognition with creative advertising that establishes an emotional connection without engaging the prospect or customer in any direct way. The success of OxiClean showed, once again, that it doesnt have to be that way. Fmcg advertisers adhere to marketing strategies built on brand mass marketing founded in the 1950s. OxiClean proved that a brand/response strategy is a perfect fit for the 21st century. OxiClean, an unknown company at the time, was introduced with an advertising budget one-tenth the size of other Fmcg companies and a complete lack of

presence on retail shelves. OxiClean went head to head against all the top brands in its category Tide, Cheer, Clorox and came out in a leadership position. How did it do it? At first OxiClean was sold only direct via street markets, direct-response TV and on an e-commerce website. Without doing anything right, OxiClean built a national brand name, a loyal following and a significant profit. The early success was followed by a multi-channel strategy and the start of distribution via non-grocery retail stores. Sales were driven by a brand/response advertising strategy that cut through the advertising clutter of its competitors. OxiClean used a memorable spokesperson, a daring product claim and a convincing demonstration to register its brand identity and build a customer database. The brand/response strategy allowed OxiClean to motivate response and build brand loyalty simultaneously. It closed the gap between brand and response and laughed all the way to the bank. At the opposite end of the marketing

Get a response: OxiClean succeeded with the brand/response strategy, a far cry from the 1950s style of mass marketing shown here
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scale from fmcg companies we find the titans of the automotive world. At the head of the pack in sales and advertising expenditure stands General Motors (GM). So it is interesting to note how GM closed the gap between brand and response to produce a 55% jump in market share for the Corsa brand in Argentina. In this case, a 30-second brandresponse commercial was run in tandem with a 30-second direct-response version of the same message. All of it happened in prime time. The result? The phones didnt stop ringing and the cars flew out of the showroom at one of the worst times ever for the Argentine economy. The magic of OPC One method for connecting brand and response effectively in an ad campaign is called the OPC model. Developed by this author, used by Global Fortune 1000 companies and tested in seven different languages, this technique has generated over a billion and a half dollars in direct sales while simultaneously building major brands. The basic premise is that a purchase can be achieved only if an offer (O), product (P) and call to action (C) are united in a compelling advertising presentation.

In todays techdriven, data-based, relationship marketing world, any company that resists going straight to the consumer by closing the gap between brand and response will pay a huge price in lost effectiveness and efficiency
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The key component of the OPC model is the brand/response (B/R) ratio; representing the relative emphasis put on brand and response. This is how it works. Traditionally, TV advertising for an fmcg brand has no offer or call to action in the awareness advertising. The B/R ratio in this instance would be expressed as 100/0. The effectiveness of the advertising is dependent on the consumer remembering the products positioning benefit and reacting accordingly at the point of sale. When OxiClean came on the scene, it wiped out the competition with a 30/70 B/R ratio. As OxiClean expanded into traditional retail and built sales through multiple channels it chose to shift its marketing B/R ratio to 60/40, and growth continued. In Argentina, General Motors dramatically gained market share with a 50/50 B/R ratio. When its advertising reverted to the usual automotive 100/0 B/R ratio, the gain faded away. The B/R ratio is a metaphor for the line that connects brand with response. In traditional fmcg and automotive advertising, the 100/0 B/R ratio reflects the lack of initiating an immediate contact or sale. Traditional direct marketers, totally focused on maximising response, are famous for high-powered 0/100 B/R that pushes for a sale for up to 120 seconds on cable TV in the US. Now, a new generation of direct mass marketers, wise to the power of building a brand connection while going for intermediate interaction, win big with a 40/60 B/R ratio in 60-second and even 30-second TV commercials. The next steps you can take We have discussed the evolution of the forces closing the gap between brand and response. But closing the gap often involves the challenge of unifying different disciplines and competing egos. Professor Philip Kotler, whose name is synonymous with marketing wisdom in America, suggests that companies begin by making a single individual responsible for managing and integrating all the companys communications. This puts a singular vision at all the

Brand

Response

Closing the gap will

strengthen brand message maximise media efficiencies particularly mass-media TV increase relevance of the advertising message obtain cost-free, vital marketing data maximise returns on marketing investment and accountability convert passive viewers into active buyers.

contact points where a consumer may encounter the brand. Designating such a person is just the first step. Successful unification of brand and response is also about the incentives used to encourage co-operation between competing marketing disciplines. It is about creating diversified teams that own the account; including specialists in brand advertising, response advertising, web development and experiential promotion. It is helpful, too, to drop the misleading term integration (as it relates to distinctly different forms of expertise), and explore new terms such as unification and collaborative marketing. The idea is to do away with folding any one marketing discipline into another. Experience has shown that integration usually involves the establishment discipline absorbing the challenger, with the outcome a disaster for the marketer paying the bill. In todays tech-driven, data-based, relationship marketing world, any company that resists going straight to the consumer by closing the gap between brand and response will pay a huge price in lost effectiveness and efficiency. The only way to go is the shortest B/R distance to reaching a profitable connection with prospects and customers. Why would anyone want to do things differently in this, the Age of Access? andrewc@exposedbrick.com.
World Advertising Research Center 2003