SBR 36: Measure twice, cut once. get your thinking straight

A wise man once told me, “Measure twice, cut once.”

This is as applicable to a brand’s marketing strategy as it is to building a kitchen cupboard. 

This means investing the right amount of time upfront to make your marketing efficient and effective. Ensuring that every penny spent and every minute of effort is pulling your brand in the right direction. That time is not inertia or a distraction from your day-to-day tasks; it’s about improving your chances of success with the right plan.

It encompasses a deep understanding of your business, your brand, your ambitions, your target audience, and their needs.

Understanding Your Market and Audience. The first step in developing a solid brand strategy is understanding your market and audience. This involves extensive research to really understand your target customers, what they need, and how they behave. For a global business with many brands (like Arla), this might mean segmenting the market and tailoring brand strategies to fit each one. For a scaling brand like Spoon Cereals, the focus might be on deeply understanding a niche segment.

This step ensures that your marketing efforts are not just a shot in the dark but are golden bullets, aimed precisely at the people most likely to engage with your brand.

Crafting a Compelling Message. This isn’t just about what you say, but how you say it, where you say it, and to whom. A clear, compelling brand message can set you apart from the competition and create a strong emotional connection with your audience.

Investing time upfront to develop a strong brand message involves understanding what makes your brand unique and how you can effectively and efficiently communicate that in a way that is motivating to your audience. It’s about finding the right voice and tone that will resonate with your target audience and sticking to it consistently across all marketing channels.

Developing Channel-Agnostic Tactics. Your audience interacts with brands across multiple channels – from social media and email to in-store experiences, customer service interactions, radio and TV adverts. A successful marketing strategy is channel-agnostic and finds the right places to talk with your audience in the moments where they are most receptive.

Ensuring Efficiency and Effectiveness. Investing time in the planning phase of your marketing strategy ensures efficiency and effectiveness in execution. When you measure twice and cut once, you reduce the risk of costly mistakes. Finding out that your advertising isn’t working when it’s already made and on air is an expensive piece of market research.