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The Perils of Ignoring Brand Value in Advertising

This article delves into the crucial yet often overlooked aspect of brand value in online advertising, particularly for startups. It highlights the inherent danger of focusing solely on metrics-driven approaches, which can inadvertently lead to the erosion of brand identity and customer experience.

• Metrics-driven startups can easily overlook brand value and user experience as they prioritize measurable results.
• Focusing on metrics solely can result in systematic erosion of “soft” but vital factors like customer experience and brand value.

Two Worlds: Direct Marketing and Brand Advertising

The advertising industry has historically distinguished between brand advertising and direct response marketing, a distinction that carries weight in the online startup world as well.

• Brand advertising, exemplified by companies like Coca Cola and Apple, involves significant investments in high-reach platforms like TV, with limited accountability.
• Direct marketing emphasizes accountability and measurability, focusing on channels like direct mail, coupons, and online remnant ads.

Startup Engineers Tend Towards Metrics-Driven

Startups often gravitate towards a metrics-driven approach due to the measurable nature of online marketing, especially given budget constraints. However, this focus can inadvertently lead to neglecting brand value.

• Startups may prioritize product development and organic growth, often overlooking the importance of branding.
• The emphasis on metrics can create a culture where brand value is not considered a priority.

You Optimize What You Measure

The tendency to optimize what can be measured is a key reason why metrics-driven startups may ignore brand value.

• The availability of data and reports can create a bias towards quantifiable metrics, overshadowing qualitative aspects like brand value.
• The human desire to improve numbers can lead to prioritizing metrics over brand-enhancing decisions.

Measuring Brand Value is Hard

The difficulty in quantifying brand value, user experience, and community feel contributes to its being overlooked by metrics-driven startups.

• The effects of brand-building efforts often accumulate over long periods, making it challenging to measure immediate results.
• Data collection methods like surveys may not fully capture the intangible aspects of brand value and user experience.
• Qualitative data, crucial for understanding brand perception, is often harder to measure than quantitative data.
• Improving brand value may require substantial efforts that go beyond small, A/B-testable changes.

Reports Show the Cost of Branding, But Not the Benefits

The difficulty in measuring brand value creates a systematic bias towards focusing on quantifiable metrics, leading to potential overlooking of brand-enhancing decisions and acceptance of brand-eroding ones.

• Decisions that improve brand value but have limited immediate impact on metrics may be overlooked.
• Features that negatively impact brand value but show short-term quantitative improvements may be implemented.

Who’s the Brand Advocate?

The need for a dedicated brand advocate becomes crucial to counterbalance the emphasis on metrics and ensure that brand value is not overlooked.

• Having someone on the team who can advocate for brand values and customer experience is essential to make informed decisions.
• Over-reliance on data can lead to neglecting “soft” aspects of brand value and user experience.