APPLY: Consistency in Constant Change

Summary

Why?

Consistency in branding: marketers and their organizations can consciously become more consistent with their branding activities by understanding their reasoning in justifying budget for branding activities.

Making sense of the intangible: the study explains how marketers unconsciously deal with the intangible nature of branding activities when deciding budget for it.

What?

Justifying budget for branding activities is seen as an ongoing process with three main findings:

1. Marketers clarify what identity and preference to use when justifying budget for branding activities.
2. Marketers tell a plausible story of their branding activities’ effectiveness by: 
   • Measure what can be measured
   • Measure change
   • Use financial results as a final judge
3. Internal and external constraints exist throughout the process:
   • Technology limitations
   • Lack of others’ branding sense
   • Limited budget and resources  

Now what?

Better understanding the process for how marketers justify budget helps:

• The industry to better align marketing products and services.
• Senior leaders can chose to better support marketers.
• CFOs can better understand and align budget.
• CROs can better understand the need for top funnel budget allocation.
• Marketers can clarify their approach to justifying budget for branding activities, strengthen their plausible story about their effectiveness, and build stronger stakeholder relationships.

What not? 

The limitations of this study mean when applying it, you should consider:

Why: Why is this research relevant for businesses and organizations?

Consistency in branding

The key to building a strong brand that people remember is consistency. The more consistent marketers are with communicating their branding activities, the higher the chance is the target audience remembers it when they’re ready to buy. (Source)

Understanding how marketers justify budget for branding activities helps an organization’s branding consistency by:

• Knowing what matters to marketers during the decision-making process means the organization can influence the identity and preference by:

allowing the marketer to own the decision or

set rules that distribute it (better control and keeping track)

• When marketers clearly understand what matters to them during the decision-making, they can consciously be more consistent.

Making sense of the intangible

This, and other studies, conclude branding activities to be necessary but intangible for organizations to have their target audience remember them when the customer is ready to buy their products or services.

Understanding the way marketers justify budget for branding activities in the decision-making process enables:

• Marketers to understand their actions and adjust them as needed.
• Organizations to understand what their marketers face in their jobs and better support them.
• Researchers to study how this process can become more effective.

What: What are the main findings?

Justifying budget for branding activities is seen as an ongoing process. The research found three main patterns:

1. Marketers clarify what identity and preference to use when justifying budget for branding activities by: 

• Identifying what matters’ during the decision-making process (i.e., people, information, and/or source), influenced by the role of branding activities, different stakeholders, and the marketer’s experience 
• Claiming or sharing the right to decide 

2. A general understanding is that branding activities are immeasurable in nature and marketers tell a plausible story of their effectiveness by: 

• Measuring what can be measured 
• Measure changes 
• Use financial results as a final judge 

3. Internal and external constraints exist throughout the process: 

• Technology limitations  
• Loss of others’ branding sense 
• Limited budget and resources  

What’s new?

Much previous branding research has focused on understanding the constructs and how branding adds value. 

This research focuses on better understanding the decision-making process of allocating budget despite not knowing the ROI or time to result.

Now what?

INDUSTRY / ORGANIZATION / FUNCTION LEVEL: What do the main findings mean?

Better understanding the process for how marketers justify budget gives more insights into the marketer’s role and challenges. For example:

• The industry can better align their products and services to support marketers throughout the decision-making process and explosion and help mitigate the challenges they face.
• Senior leaders are better equipped to support their marketers and set them and their organizations up for success.
• CFOs can work with the marketer to ensure enough budget is spent on branding activities.
• CROs, who often have a sales background, can work with and trust their marketing peers to ensure the top of the funnel is filled.
• Marketers can reflect on how they justify budget for branding decisions. Knowing the approach they align with, marketers can decide to change it by leveraging the identity and preference that matter. They can strengthen their plausible story of the branding activities effectiveness by ensuring it contains measurements of what can be measured and of changes as well as use financial results where possible. Marketers should also highlight technology and budget limitations. Educating their stakeholders helps to mitigate the lack of their branding sense.

APPLICATION: How can the findings be applied in work life?

Marketers / those responsible for branding activities:

1. Find what matters to you in your role and organization during the decision-making process:

• Which people have a say.
• What information you need.
• What sources you need to rely on.
• What role branding activities have in your organization.

2. Decide whether you can claim the right to decide or if you should share the right to decide.

• How is your organization structured for decision-making?
• Can you claim the right to justify the decision for branding activities or should you share it? With whom?
• Do you have what you need to make the budget decisions? E.g., …

3. Explaining/reporting your marketing effectiveness, build your story by:

• Including measurements of what can be measured
• Measure changes
• Leverage financial metrics when possible 
• To cover others’ lack of branding understanding: Be thorough in describing branding activities’ importance despite their immeasurable nature.
• Explain tech limitations (e.g., what prevents you from showing the ROI)

What not?

The limitations of this study mean when applying it, you should consider: