What branding should CEOs be investing in to help grow their business?
2024 is likely to be a tough year for many businesses. Cash is still tight, and there are endless pressures. And in these circumstances, the knee-jerk reaction is typically to take to the marketing budget with a machete. But marketing covers a range of areas, including branding. And maintaining, building, and improving your brand can be really important to a business, supporting public awareness, growth, and competitive advantage. So, what should be the branding priorities for CEOs in 2024?
What is the purpose of branding?
The main purpose of branding is to make your company stand out amongst your competitors. Not just in a visual way, but by doing things differently and communicating in a way that really resonates. In the current marketplace, too many companies look the same and are the same. Having embraced the accepted customer service and care standards, they blend in with the corporate landscape. And in an increasingly competitive market, that can mean you lose business through lacklustre presentation or even misidentification. So, to get the best from their companies, CEOs should be looking at their brand, and assessing whether it reflects their purpose, their values, and their overall culture. And then investing to ensure that it does.
Where should CEOs focus when it comes to branding?
Branding takes a whole range of forms. It’s about identifying brand values and building a conversation around them. This needs to be the focus for marketing teams. The difficulty for marketing managers often lies in keeping that conversation going, enhancing visibility, and continuing to appeal to your audience. And in 2024, that means a couple of different things.
A focus on being different
This year, perhaps more than any, there’s a massive focus on individuality. And that applies both to the individual and the business. So, finding ways to make your business truly different – and to portray those differences positively – is an excellent place to start.
Innovation
Innovation, for innovation’s sake, is rarely worthwhile. But positive innovation sells. So, finding ways to push your Brand Values harder and innovate within your particular market can be a great way to grab and hold the public’s attention, even if that means implementing a better website or bringing technology into your customer-facing space. Right now, one of the key areas most brands would benefit from innovating is the customer journey, taking steps to enhance and streamline every contact point of the consumption process, including the internal processes that feed into that journey.
Prioritising budgets
If you’re going to spend money in 2024, you have to know where you’re going to get the best ROI. While that’s always been important, few companies have money to burn. So, pay attention to your Brand Assets and think about how you can use them better to build your Brand Identity, focusing on the purpose and values that matter to both your company and your customers. You don’t want to be different for the sake of it but different because of what you stand for.
When should CEOs invest in a rebrand?
There are no hard and fast rules for rebranding. You just have to do it when the time is right for your company. And you’ll be able to tell this by asking yourself key questions.
Do we look out of date? Are we as organised as we should be? Has the competition gotten ahead of us? Have we added too many products and services, and things are unclear? Is our culture not right and needs improving? Have we made acquisitions, and now things are a mess? Are we looking to expand into new markets or position ourselves higher? Are we going to be international, and does our current brand work?
If any of those questions produce negative answers, it could be time to consider rebranding.
Is branding really a good place for a business to put its money right now?
When money is limited, the marketing department is usually the first place to suffer. But research has shown that doesn’t always make financial sense. In 1927, Roland Vaile tracked the marketing investment of businesses following the First World War. He found that companies that decided to increase their ad spend increased sales both immediately and in the following three years. Companies that maintained their ad spend, added 20% to their performance. While those that cut their budgets, experienced an average performance drop of 7%.
This research is almost 100 years old, but its point remains true. If you want your business to do well when the public isn’t spending, you have to take steps to ensure that what they are spending is coming to you. And that’s where branding comes in.
Branding is a long game for businesses. Although it’s often viewed as something you need to get in place at the time of launch, branding actually needs constant attention and will need to change as your business evolves. So, regardless of your budget or the economic climate, it’s never a good time to let your branding slip.
David O’Hearns, founder and MD at Dawn, a creative agency on a mission to rid the world of bad design and poor communication.
David O’Hearns has worked within the creative industry for over 25 years. Starting as a graphic designer following his graduation from Newcastle University, Dave went on to start up his first creative agency in 2006. Following multiple successes with the likes of Bentley Motors, Adidas and Swiis Foster Care, he founded his second agency, Dawn Creative, in 2014. Since then, David and his team have created TV adverts, advertising campaigns, full brand identities, and more, for some of the world’s most prestigious brands.
Dawn Creative specialises in brand, digital and motion. Working closely with businesses and marketing teams, Dawn Creative develops and manages brand identities to make sure they stay true to themselves and attract the right audience.
