Can your branded consumer goods business compete online?

With so much competition, you need to stand out

  • Brand storytelling harnesses human psychology and our emotional nature to connect with us far more effectively and memorably than other techniques.
  • Stories drive people and connect people to one another. In this vein, stories can drive people to buy products and connect consumers to their brands.
  • In today’s age of digital disruption, it’s more important than ever that brands can maintain their brand story across the omnichannel customer lifecycle. That’s why we recommend that all brands apply our RACE Framework to structure their brand storytelling across reach, act, convert and engage.

The RACE Growth Process is a tried-and-tested methodology to support brands in developing their omnichannel growth strategies

  • Apply a planned approach to your brand marketing to rapidly review, find opportunities, build a high-performing team and develop your marketing strategy to reach, acquire and engage more customers during their Christmas shopping.
  • Smart Insights have marketing solutions for brands of all sizes

Omnichannel customer lifecycle

Our recommended resources for brand storytelling

Define message hierarchies
  • Learn how to create a messaging hierarchy for campaigns and general brand positioning of a product or service.

Select media investments
  • Selecting effective media requires the marketer to make the right investment choices between paid, owned and earned media to get the results you need. This module equips you to review your approach.
Influencer marketing
  • Discover the different kinds of influencers you can work with, the tools you can use to find them, and the success factors of strategic influencer relationship management.

A successful brand strategy means your business' channels, digital experiences, and tone of voice need to home in on what your key customers want.

We've got marketing training to strengthen your branded consumer goods company's relationships with your target audiences. In order to build a loyal fan base, your brand strategy and style need to reflect your overall vision for the business. Having a brand strategy that jars with your product/service will put customers off and confuse them about who are and what you offer. However, integrating your marketing strategy can be hard, especially today in the age of digital disruption where every customer has an omnichannel experience. That's why our complete marketing training covers all the key elements you need to build a strong brand strategy.

The RACE Framework for consumer branded goods

Our popular RACE Framework is a simple, actionable planning structure for marketing leaders looking to streamline their omnichannel marketing strategies and…

Need a framework to help your brand stand out? Streamline your brand strategy framework with our tools and templates to cut through the noise

Right now, brands are going through an identity crisis like never before. In the age of digital disruption and bad omnichannel marketing, it can be tough for branding to unify marketing communications effectively. Like your customers, you need to refresh your approach to digital to keep your brand relevant today. But it's easier said than done. We recommend using a brand strategy framework, such as the RACE Framework, to streamline your branding and keep everyone on track. With a defined brand framework in place, you can strategically manage your brand with trusted data and processes in place to optimize your brand marketing and win more customers. Interested? Find out more about managing your brand with a brand strategy framework, plus our recommended tools to reach, convert…

Storytelling helps form connections and captivate your audience, making them an effective part of your social media strategy

Who doesn’t love a good story? Whether it’s as toddlers, captivated by Maurice Sendak’s Wild Things book, or as adults watching our favorite movie, we love to get to know the characters, see how the story plays out and maybe experience an unexpected 'plot twist.' If you love stories so much in your personal life, why not craft and share some in your digital marketing work? Doing so will not only turn more of your passive visitors into engaged followers - and eventually paying customers - but your team will have some fun in the process. [si_blog_banner_cta] This post shares how best to do this via your social media channels. But first I’ll explain what a story is, which types of stories to tell at each stage in your buyer’s journey and how to measure the…

Co-branding offers a huge range of benefits but partnerships shouldn’t be formed overnight with half-baked ideas

If someone said Nike, Sony and Doritos went into a bar and fell for their respective branding partners Apple, Ericsson and Taco Bell overnight, they couldn’t be more wrong. Co-branding partnerships, in reality, are anything but casual. In a competitive market of homogenous products and services, brands are constantly vying for the spotlight, but it’s tough. Often brands lose out to new and innovative competitors, decreased brand equity, or simply disappear into obscurity. That’s why co-branding is such a coveted strategy, even for famous brands, as it can allow a company to maintain a strong brand identity, sustain customer loyalty and stay relevant. [si_guide_block id="146918" title="Channel and partner marketing improvement guide" description="Partner marketing is a fantastic opportunity, but only if your business is ready for it!…

"Brands have realized they need to create a compelling narrative that excites, surprises and inspires consumers, potentially through 'immersive' experiences" Bart Visser, Director of Brand Marketing Spark Networks SE

In preparation for the Brand Marketing Summit Europe, we are continuing with our interview series. Our previous interview featured Michal Szaniecki, Managing Director SEAT and CUPRA, Volkswagen Group. In this interview, we speak to Bart Visser to better understand what he sees as the biggest and most exciting marketing opportunities in 2019. To see the full range of incites from the speakers of the summit, take a look at Incite Group's exclusive whitepaper. Bart Visser is responsible for all global Brand Marketing efforts for Spark Networks SE, one of the global leaders in online dating. Among its top brands are EliteSingles, Christian Mingle, Jdate, eDarling, JSwipe and Attractive World. Operating in…

When influencer marketing and branded content work together, both sides benefit in the end

Influencer marketing and branded content: They’re useful tools on their own, but they are far more effective within a strategy that treats them as complementary pieces of a stronger whole. Unfortunately, advocates for influencer marketing and branded content tend to see one another as adversaries. The first group champions influencer marketing’s ability to give a brand street cred with third-party associations. As little as people sometimes trust brands, an endorsement from an influencer can go a long way toward building audience trust, and for niche audiences and micro-influencers, the effect is even more pronounced. [si_guide_block id="27934" title="Download our Individual Member Resource – Influencer outreach guide for marketing professionals" description="This practical guide shows you how to use tools to find and interact with influencers on the best social media platforms for outreach, that’s Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and more."/] Lovers of branded content, however, believe that…

Stories are extremely effective at building trust. This is why businesses are using influencer marketing

Stories are a great way of appealing to and connecting with people. They’re extremely effective at building trust. Think about every time you consider customer reviews before buying a product - the stories of real people and their experiences are what truly encourages you to buy it. This is why businesses are using influencer marketing.   A study by Twitter found that tweets from influencers coupled with tweets from brands can increase purchase intent by 5.2 times. In fact, 40% of the respondents in the study reported having purchased products based directly on an influencer’s recommendation. 

[si_guide_block id="150995" title="Download our Premium Resource – Brand storytelling guide" description="This guide helps you explore the fundamentals of developing powerful authentic brand stories."/]

So, the big question is - is storytelling the future of content marketing? In this post, we’ll explore…

If your brand logo or brand message is not connecting with your ideal consumers, the chance of brand recall in the future are slim

Branding is equivalent to telling a story, a story that resonates with your ideal buyers. Visuals form the core of this storytelling. In other words, visual branding is the first step to building a successful brand image and developing your business. First impressions matter and this rings true even with visual branding. If your brand logo or brand message is not connecting with your ideal consumers, the chance of brand recall in the future are slim. There are many examples of branding going haywire and the reasons can be anything - a bad logo or poor brand name or inconsistent visuals, and so on. While each brand has a different story, there are a few little design errors that every brand should avoid.

1. Creating a controversial logo

A logo is…

Whether you’re hastily booking a last-minute meal for two, or boycotting the societal conventions and watching Netflix at home, in your PJs, it’s that time of the year again!

Boyfriends are panic buying 100 roses for £25 at Aldi and the card racks at Clinton’s are only getting larger. According to research from a retail and shopper marketing agency Savvy, 39% of shoppers said they expect to spend more on Valentine’s Day 2018 than they did last year, rising to 52% among 18-34 year-olds. In addition, 56% of respondents said that they don’t mind spending more to make the day special. The research also highlights that Valentine’s Day spending is expected to hit £726m. Yes, that’s right! Wondering how your business can benefit from this revenue? To captivate the love-ridden audiences on Valentine’s Day, marketers need to…

Case studies on global brands and how they've created a story to support their content marketing strategies

According to a recent CMI survey, just 37% of B2B marketers and 40% of B2C marketers have a written content marketing plan in place. At the same time, content marketing continues to become more mainstream as a recognized channel to help brands communicate, story-tell and convince their own audience and prospects. [si_guide_block id="5676" title="Download FREE Resource – Digital marketing plan template" description="Our popular marketing planning template built on the Smart Insights RACE planning system."/] But there is a growing challenge - there appears to be a lack of true understanding as to what and how content can help meet the many different types of organizational objectives? In many examples, the reason why so many content marketing strategies fail is because there simply is no business case. Where a number of content strategies fall flat is that they run right into the…