Interactive Marketing Strategies

New Marketing Strategies – Leveraging New Technologies
While many people recognize the power of brands and a number of consumers buying only certain brands, the modern brand is evolving in the changing market place, affecting how businesses are using it for promotion and building of their business. Nowadays, marketing strategies set forth by rrand consultants and experts is have been quoted as saying “People buy brands, not products” and this is certainly true, but the modern business needs to find the story behind the company and integrate it into the brand and how it is promoted. A brand must be engaging and unique but must provide a consistent message and voice. You can now monetize your store increase your bottom line with interactive advertising, and provide marketing intelligence with technology.
Brand Consistency:
With the developments in modern technology, companies are now held accountable to a much higher standard than in the past and updating their marketing strategies. So it is very important to establish a trusted brand which is easily recognizable. Designers of modern day corporate identities aim to apply a large degree of standardization to brand and promotional activity, trying to create simplistic yet comprehensive designs. Many modern companies are challenging themselves to adapt brand designs to create a new buzz yet remain recognizable within their market place.
Brand Fluidity
Modern branding is required to walk a fine line between recognition and boring repetition. The consumers of today believe that brands “should earn its public attention” according to the Harvard Business Review.
Our society in general is more diverse and fluid nowadays with almost every resource available with instant access. This has led to reducing attention spans and the need for a brand identity to embrace a number of different media and relate to its audience.
This has put considerable strain on the old school dynamic of consistency all the way. Although consistency is still a need, it now needs to share the focus with fluidity. Achieving a totally consistent look may now be considered counterproductive and damaging to the profile of the company. Many companies are now taking the concept of total consistency being unachievable to a whole new level. They are creating a looser set of parameters which although allow for a familiar feel promote a very diverse group of applications across the various media outlets and in different countries or markets.
Adaptive Branding
This concept is not totally new. Certain design companies such as Duffy & Partners have been pioneering flexible and adaptable brands which maintain the ability to be recognized immediately.
Brands now have the flexibility to be in a position to surprise and delight their customers. They should be in a position to listen to feedback and input and cater to changing requirements and desires. By allowing a leap of faith and embracing elements of risk the brand it protected from becoming dated and irrelevant.
Social media has become a huge influence on the power of the brand and how it evolves. The identity of the brand is no longer simply defined by the company but by customer input and opinion. Of course, core principles and attributes should not be compromised by this flexibility or credibility. An excellent example of this is the recent rebranding of Microsoft, which has enlightened a whole new generation of users to their brand, services and products.
Interaction – a new Marketing Strategy
The modern day brand must evolve to make an almost symbiotic ecosystem of possibilities for interactions. Since many people now rarely use printed materials to obtain their news or advertising, brands must be in a position to interact effectively with the variety of media which their target audience is using. Recent studies have indicated that ninety percent of media consumption takes place on a screen with thirty eight percent of that happening on a smart phone. These users utilize multiple screens to provide an interaction between brands with online shopping, planning vacations or organizing finances taking place while they are watching television or streaming music.
This has meant that savvy advertisers are planning their television commercials to work in concert with a more in-depth online experience. They are aware of the fact that their target audience has almost immediate access to sites and social media and can share the information with their network. This creates a highly dynamic use of branding and marketing campaigns which can be personalized and extremely effective.
New Processes
The journey of brand evolution has required innovative processes to define the brands and identities. It is not simply possible to just dilute the processes of brand strategy. The personality, attributes and position of the brand must still be well thought out and established, since it provides a reference point for any future variation. However the process now involves generating a new algorithm or equation rather than graphic designing a number of pixels.
Designers need to consider that the visual aspect of the brand is no longer its only definition. Allowing customer feedback and interaction provides a two way interaction which builds identity. Successful designers are picking a small number of graphic elements which can represent the brand while considering aspects which can be flexible. This provides an opportunity for the brand to evolve according to the feedback and interaction with customers.
A subtle brand now has the power to distinguish itself from heavy visual and changing backdrop which surrounds it. This understated effect can have a huge impact, providing an organic and quiet feel amid a landscape of visual noise. Allowing the brand flexibility ensures that it can bend and reshape while other brands resist and try to avoid breaking. This flexibility can provide surprise and delight and build up a great deal of brand loyalty.
While many consumers resist the pull of brands, modern designs which are fluid and flexible are undeniably harder to resist. They provide an eye catching spectacle which promotes conversation and interest, generating buzz and advertising through social media and the market place. While many companies are sticking rigidly to older style formats of repetition, it may prove harmful in the long term. Failing to allow the brand to evolve, could leave the brand and company stuck in the dark ages. With all the brands and images that surround us in the modern world, which ones remain most memorable to you?