Chapter 04:
Brand building in practice - real life examples of successful long term marketing programmes
With unanimous agreement from our interviewees that brand building for longer term revenue is key to long term success, how are today’s marketers going about it? How are marketers creating experiences that activate emotional and sensory journeys for potential customers? How can their brands remain front of mind when customers are ready to buy?
Samrin reminds us that it is 2021. Every touchpoint you have with a potential customer has the power to build (or damage) your brand, says Samrin. “In the past you met the customer, made a couple of presentations, built trust, bargained the price, and closed the deal,” she says. “Today it's an extended cycle. Prospective buyers can see what your brand and employees say on social media, how relevant your content is to their business, and the virtual customer experience, especially considering the pandemic. Influencing customers is a lot
In the past you met the customer, made a couple of presentations, built trust, bargained the price, and closed the deal. Today it's an extended cycle. Prospective buyers can see what your brand and employees say on social media, how relevant your content is to their business, and the virtual customer experience, especially considering the pandemic. It is all about how well you articulate your understanding of the problem and how well you can help your customers solve it.
easier in some ways, but it depends much more now on how your brand is perceived. It is all about how well you articulate your understanding of the problem and how well you can help your customers solve it.”
Samrin advises marketing teams to clearly identify every touchpoint with potential customers and understand when in that journey, their opportunities are to create a positive brand impression.
Juveria Samrin
Director - Marketing
ColorTokens
Storytelling is an important opportunity here, adds Tameka Vasquez, VP, Global Marketing Leader at Genpact. “We fall into the cyclical trap of demand generation where it’s all about what we want to sell, the products and services we want to persuade you on,” she says. “But actually, decision makers are more informed and would benefit more from seeing how we intend to show up in the world. No matter what you sell, there is an opportunity to break away from status quo, business-as-usual marketing communications. We need to activate impactful storytelling and capture opportunities for education.”
We fall into the cyclical trap of demand generation where it’s all about what we want to sell, the products and services we want to persuade you on. But actually, decision makers are more informed and would benefit more from seeing how we intend to show up in the world. We need to activate impactful storytelling and capture opportunities for education.
Tameka Vasquez
VP, Global Marketing Leader
Genpact
At Cognizant, brand building is taking place in a series of high-profile sponsorship relationships, including a partnership with Formula One. The company is working on transformation for the racing team while also providing sponsorship, which has allowed Cognizant to offer highly bespoke customer experiences at Grand Prix races, says Buxton.
Cognizant is also building relationships with the PGA, sponsoring the Presidents’ Cup and other PGA events. “There are all these new experiences we are creating for our people to spend time with clients outside the office, at golfing events,” says Buxton. The partnership has been extended to support the LPGA (Ladies’ PGA), which has been an opportunity to reflect the company’s values.
There are all these new experiences we are creating for our people to spend time with clients outside the office, at golfing events. The partnership has been extended to support the LPGA (Ladies’ PGA), which has been an opportunity to reflect the company’s values.
Diana Buxton
Chief Marketing Officer, Banking, Capital Markets & Insurance, Cognizant
“We’ve announced a sponsorship with the LPGA so there is a Cognizant Founder Cup tournament in October, in New Jersey. The average purse for a male cup winner is $7.5m but for women it’s $1.5m, so Cognizant is matching the purse, and the winner in the LPGA tournament will actually win $3 million.”
Infosys has recently launched an initiative that helps customers to connect and learn from their peers that has worked well for brand building, says Rammohan. “We heard from clients that they wanted more leadership involvement, so we created a customer advisory board. We recruited people from different industries and created mechanisms for clients to speak to other clients, and understand how they’re approaching digital transformation,” says Rammohan. The result was that clients were able to see Infosys not just as a vendor that sells to them, but also as a platform where they can learn from others.
Tata Consultancy Services used to run an annual Innovation Forum in London, which was cancelled due to the pandemic. The event was an opportunity to bring together the best minds to talk about how innovation shaped our world. “What we did was take a Netflix model and decided, rather than doing one event, we’ll do a series of smaller events,” says Ashish Babu, Chief Marketing Officer for Europe & UK at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).
The Innovation Forum turned into a series of ten virtual events, focusing on the key challenges that the industry was facing in 2020/2021, such as how to manage supply chains in a pandemic, and how to keep employees engaged and motivated at home. Another ‘episode’ considered how we could use robots and sensors. “We brought together the best minds globally– countries that were ahead in dealing with the pandemic – and we brought that knowledge to our audience at scale,” says Babu.
The result was that more than 4000 people attended the virtual events, as well as creating compelling content to draw in new customers. “It was amazing because all these participants connected with our diverse group of speakers and attendees. As everyone joined from homes with a dog barking in the background, or a child crying, it helped create brilliant human connections, and lasting friendships,” Babu says.
What we did was take a Netflix model and decided, rather than doing one event, we’ll do a series of smaller events. The Innovation Forum turned into a series of ten events, focusing on the key challenges that the industry was facing in 2020/2021. We brought together the best minds globally– countries that were ahead in dealing with the pandemic – and we brought that knowledge to our audience at scale.
Ashish Babu
Chief Marketing Officer for Europe & UK
Tata Consultancy Services