How fixing the ‘fractures’ can future-proof your brand

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Today’s brands are spoiled for choice when it comes to the variety of ways in which they can communicate to people. The past couple of decades has seen an explosion of channels, platforms, technologies and innovations that enable customers to experience brands in new and exciting ways.

But this blessing can also be a curse. When not handled in the right way a brand’s experience can become fractured across channels and touchpoints, creating a chaotic and confusing environment, putting brand messages at risk and losing consistency, distinction and purpose.

More channels mean more messages for consumers to wade through – up to 10,000 per day. It’s more important than ever for brands to cut through the clutter in a consistent, coherent way. In fact, a consistent brand experience will drive growth for your business. That’s backed up by a recent Lucidpress report finding that marketers believed such an experience would increase revenues by a third, and Kantar Millward Brown finding that integrated marketing campaigns – with a consistent creative message – are 31 per cent more effective than campaigns created by a variety of different teams. But sticking to one story is easier said than done.

The best way to do this in today’s chaotic landscape is to have a clear brand message and experience that can be delivered with consistency across every touchpoint.

You may enjoy the ease of online shopping but find it’s a nightmare to return the item in-store. You could have a query about your favourite piece of tech, but find you’re left waiting for a digital assistant which fails to solve the problem. Your social feeds might show you a piece of content from a favourite brand that just feels tonally wrong to how you’ve encountered it elsewhere. This lack of stability between touchpoints can be highly damaging – once someone has had a bad experience of a brand it can be hard to remedy, with a study by Salesforce finding that 76 per cent of customers said it’s easier to take their business elsewhere when they are disappointed.

Aggravating the situation, brand owners themselves underestimate the depth of the problem. In a recent survey we found that 72 per cent of board-level directors felt that they provided a satisfactory brand experience, but only 34 per cent of customers felt the same while 14 per cent rated the brand experience as unsatisfactory. They may also have multiple agencies working to represent the brand across different channels, putting it at even more risk of confusing and conflicting experiences that can fracture the brand story.

As a marketer, advertiser, brand manager or owner dedicated to connecting with your customers, you need everything to work together to create a consistent, whole brand to maximise sales.

At Wunderman Thompson UK, we help brands become more whole by offering a truly integrated service that can work with your brand across everything from creative, data, CRM, experience and consulting to production, technology, commerce and social, all under one roof. This gives us a unique way of thinking about a brand, its place in a customer’s life and wider society, to create holistic and effective marketing communications with measurable results that drive growth.

With this unique view, we understand where brands are struggling, whether that’s when attracting new customers, launching new products or increasing sales. We believe that brands need greater integration across all aspects of their experience to stop them becoming fractured, fragmented and confused, and engage in “whole brand thinking”.

By thinking about the whole of your brand and how your brand story translates across every channel, a bespoke “whole brand blueprint” can open a marketer’s eyes to where the inconsistencies and fractures lie. We look at what it would take for that brand to become more whole across each touchpoint, offering improvements and measuring the effectiveness of marketing activity and return on investment.

Wunderman Thompson UK can give your brand a business advantage that will drive sales, grow your audience and add value to the share price through a unified brand approach, setting you up for success in the years to come. So what are you waiting for?

Speak to us to find out how we can help you grow your business.

Originally published on Business Reporter