Your brand & marketing wrinkle

One of my earliest memories was when I got half-a-dozen stitches vertically in my forehead down into my right brow line when I was maybe three years old. My mother and I were waiting for my dad to go somewhere, and we were rolling a ball in the front yard. I tripped chasing after it and faceplanted on the step into our old Ford Econoline van.

The scar was barely noticeable, and I’d forgotten all about it. Until a couple years ago…

I woke up one morning, and I was thinking, where did this odd line through my eyebrow come from?

Fact is, after 40-something years, my skin *might* not be as taut as it once was, and the scar became more prominent.

Is your marketing as tight as it used to be?

Marketing doesn’t age as slowly as our skin (even though the little lines seem to creep up on many of us faster than we’d like). Several factors play into this, like the purpose of the campaign, the products or services we offer, the audience we’re targeting and much more. For example, if your business is coming up on a milestone, such as your 20th anniversary in business, you could easily stretch that campaign for the full year. Or you might grab hold of a social media trend and run a small campaign for a couple of hours or days.

The most critical factor is whether your marketing still suits your brand and the audience you’re trying to attract. Pivots in strategy can cause that to turn on a dime, or tiny nudges toward timely opportunities along the way could affect how you want to portray your brand and who your ideal customer or member is. You might even discover a disconnect between what you think your brand is and how your customers and prospects think of your brand. Quite the wrinkle.

Nips and tucks to your B2B brand and marketing

Aging gracefully is definitely not the way to go with your company’s brand and marketing. Brand is a combination of how a company wants to be perceived and how it’s actually perceived by its clients and prospects.

In a discussion with a client recently, we talked about the evolution of their company’s business. While the key players used to personally know and even have inside jokes with the executives at every single one of their clients, the firm had grown to a point that was no longer the reality. That brand no longer fit.

We’ve begun shifting the brand from one that had been highly personal and on the fun side to one of strength and experience. As such, we are shifting the language and imagery we use in the company’s brand awareness efforts. Content marketing is moving toward highlighting their expansive knowledge base and bench strength, including blogs, social media posts and other relevant points of contact. Press releases are reflective of this evolved brand as expressed by both the company leadership quoted, and clients commenting on the sophistication and successful outcomes built upon now time-tested processes and the company’s collective centuries of expertise.

Note: The brand identity – the logo and brand colors – has not changed nor has been decided whether that will happen. A logo is not the brand, but the visual representation that should come to mind when clients and prospects think of the brand.

Botox your B2B brand and marketing

Just as celebrities and average Joes and Janes get injections to smooth out those fine lines and rejuvenate their faces, so too can your company with its brand and marketing. Have you noticed your brand has shifted over time and your marketing isn’t quite aligned? Or have you experienced an extreme challenge that completely changed your business plan, and now you also need new strategic marketing? Whatever the situation it’s a good idea every year – or even every six months according to some – to review your brand to ensure it’s still on point and determine if your marketing requires a little facelift.