Spring Cleaning For Your Brand

It’s spring and spring cleaning is top of mind for me at the start of this season. Marketers who manage brands are often too busy working on the day-to-day challenges of product management to think about the health of their brand. But maybe it’s time to take a pause and take inventory of how your brand is doing. Maybe it’s time for a little spring cleaning.

All year I’ve been accumulating stuff in my home and working around the frustrations I have about my living situation. I’ve been known to scream when I can’t find a pot in my disorganized kitchen pantry or a file in my cluttered office. But this spring, I started feel the need to make a few changes. So for the past several weeks, I’ve been going through the rooms in my house to take stock of what I need and don't need in my life. I’ve decided to revamp my home to make it work better for my lifestyle.

Marketers also need to pause to take stock of their brand from time to time. Brand marketers are busy people. I know because I started my career in brand management. Things like volume forecasting and management update meetings often take precedence over longer-term initiatives like brand strategy. Marketing campaigns are often built on what’s been done before and what has been successful in the past. Marketers often don’t take a break to ask themselves about the health of their brand until serious problems arise. It’s akin to waiting until your basement gets flooded or you need to move out of your home before you take stock of how your lifestyle has been impacted by your clutter.

Here’s a few questions to ask yourself to determine if you need to do some spring cleaning for your brand, and some recommendations on ways to spruce up your brand marketing initiatives:

Question #1 - How well do you know your consumer?

Do you have a clear picture of who your consumer is? Do you know what drives her? Do you know how she feels about your category and brand? Can you describe her and write an inspiring consumer sketch? If the answers to these questions don’t come easily, maybe it’s time to get to know your consumer.

Spring Cleaning Task: Commission some primary research with your consumer. Get to know her intimately by understanding her life, aspirations and attitudes about your category and brand. Use the insights from this piece of research to help guide your brand strategy and communications strategy. Use your interactions with the consumer to help you write a compelling consumer sketch. Let your consumer be the inspiration for all your marketing efforts.

Question #2 - Do you have a well-articulated brand positioning?

How strong is your brand positioning? What are your brand benefits and reasons to believe? What’s the essence of your brand? What’s your brand’s personality? What will your brand fight for? Does everyone who touches your brand what your brand stands for? If some of the components of your brand positioning are not crystal clear, then maybe it’s time for a branding exercise.

Spring Cleaning Task: Get clear on your brand positioning. If you need a refresher on brand positioning, read this article. Assemble the key people who work on your brand – like your designers, product developers and agency partners – and hold a brand worksession. Get clear on who your consumer is and what your brand will uniquely offer him. Debate each element of your brand positioning, and if you get stuck, go and talk to your target consumer. Strive to create a compelling brand positioning document that will help guide all your marketing efforts.

Question #3 - How strong is your brand activation plan?

Do you have a cohesive activation plan for your brand that helps you both build brand equity and achieve your marketing goals? Do you have an activation idea that is single-minded and based on your brand positioning? Do you have ideas in multiple channels that build momentum for this brand activation idea? Do you know how well your marketing dollars are working for you? If you’ve answered no to any of these questions, maybe it’s time to rethink your marketing plan.

Spring Cleaning Task: Get clear on your brand activation platform. Start with your brand positioning. Find a way to activate your idea that both builds its equity and helps to reach your marketing goals. Pick one activation idea within that platform and leverage the heck out of it. Don’t chase many executional ideas or go for one-off opportunities. Make sure that the brand executes on that one idea and amplifies it so that it will reach your consumer in different channels. And ensure that you can measure your marketing activity so that you can maximize your marketing spend in the future.

Doing a little spring cleaning on your brand will help you elevate your marketing efforts. You will have a strong idea of who your consumer is, a strong articulation of your brand positioning and an enduring activation idea that will help you translate your marketing efforts into strong sales. So take the time now to take stock of your brand. The clarity of purpose that will result from this effort will help make your day to day job as a marketer not only more focused, but much more enjoyable. Happy Spring Cleaning!