David Berkowitz: Which Comes First, Brand or Demand?
The founder of Serial Marketers and former CMO of MRY unpacks how successful brands drive demand by capitalizing on existing needs and creating their own categories.
“Being aware of the tradeoffs with demand creation and capture, understanding which efforts will achieve results, and setting up a framework to measure it will get you closer to figuring out what works for you.”
By David Berkowitz
There’s a chicken-and-egg challenge that marketers usually need to confront when crafting a new plan: Do you connect the brand to the demand, or do you spark demand around the potential for the brand?
You’ll see manifestations of this everywhere once you start to look for it.
Take Allbirds, the footwear manufacturer that is going public. When the company was founded in 2014, there was no “wool runners” category. I wound up buying about 10 pairs since then after seeing an ad for them on Facebook that touted their positive press. Now my daily footwear decision usually revolves around which color Allbirds pair I want to wear.
I had never once searched for “wool runners,” nor do I know exactly what runners are (Allbirds don’t strike me as running shoes). I have never even searched for something made of wool; if I’m looking for a wool coat, for instance, I’ll just search for a warm or heavy one, not one of a certain material.
Yet Allbirds created a category around brand attributes like wool footwear, sustainable materials and packaging, and New Zealand pride. Its less-than-profitable path to the public markets has involved spending heavily to generate that demand. Allbirds had the double challenge of building awareness for a new brand and a new category at the same time. Google Trends data confirms few people searched for “wool runners” until after Allbirds hit the ground running.
“Even when creating a new category, marketers MUST focus on what people are searching for and talking about at that moment. Whether working with a startup or established company, you can’t only focus on what marketers will care about tomorrow when their customers have immediate needs to address.”
Sometimes there are marketable brand assets that merit their own marketing plans. When I was working with the team at Five Tier a couple of years ago, I noticed the tagline on back of the founder’s business card that referenced “the world’s first Connected Media platform.” As soon as I saw “Connected Media,” I Googled it and saw there was no company with a major presence for the term.
My most immediate advice was to file for trademark protection for that term, as well as some related terms they were using. Beyond that, we worked on campaign ideas around it, including one of my favorite videos I’ve overseen. It established Five Tier’s approach to Connected Media as the cure for Disconnected Media.
Even when creating a new category, marketers would be remiss not to focus on what people are searching for and talking about at that moment. Five Tier continues to feature “Connected Media” prominently on its homepage, but customers are looking to use its platform to buy media through connected TV, streaming radio, and digital out-of-home. Whether working with a startup or an established company, you can’t only focus on what marketers will care about tomorrow when their customers have immediate needs to address.
When I was running marketing for the agency MRY under Publicis Groupe, the tagline (decided before I joined) was: “Be remarkable.” It grated on me at first, but over time, I came to appreciate how MRY’s strength then was creating campaigns that reached consumers mostly through social media marketing, and much of the reach and engagement happened via word of mouth rather than ads. Remarkability was a fitting North Star for the brand.
The downside was no one ever searched for “remarkable agency.” Brand-side marketers (or their agency search firms) might be looking for a creative, social media, digital, media, or full-service agency, but remarkability is not one of the criteria. While our positioning described the kind of work we valued, we had to have an honest discussion about what we were, the work we did, and the kinds of RFPs we wanted to be considered for.
What’s most different now compared to five or ten years ago is that there is much more data marketers can use to inform their decisions. Resources such as Google AdWords keyword data, Google Trends, social media monitoring and social media monitoring tools, account-based marketing (ABM) software, search engine optimization tools, and others can offer marketers an idea of whether their brand, tagline, and category match up with how people are searching, what they’re talking about, and who seems most interested.
“While ‘remarkability’ was a fitting North Star for our agency, the downside was no one ever did a search for ‘remarkable.’ While our positioning described the kind of work we valued, we had to have an honest discussion about what we were and the kinds of RFPs we wanted to be considered for.”
Here are the questions marketers should ask when launching new campaigns while trying to assess the opportunity to build awareness and generate demand:
Is there existing demand for your brand or offerings based on the kinds of conversations, content, and search activity that currently happen?
What are the kinds of terms, phrases, concepts, and categories that generate the most interest today? Which are closest to what you are trying to market?
How much of your marketing plan will be focused on capturing versus creating demand?
Which elements of your plan (specific tactics, channels, messaging, etc.) will address which goal, and how will you measure the success of each?
When capturing demand, how will you educate prospects on your brand, category, and positioning?
As with most marketing, there’s rarely the wrong and right way to go about it. Allbirds executed well enough that they’ve become a globally renowned brand, and maybe one day they’ll even be a profitable one. Decisions that worked for them in their category at the time they launched won’t work in 2022, or even in years when we’re no longer grappling with a pandemic.
Being aware of the tradeoffs with demand creation and capture, understanding which efforts will achieve results, and setting up a framework to measure it will get you closer to figuring out what works for you.
November 17, 2021
