Brand Marketing in a Down Economy

Brand marketing in a down economy may seem like a daunting task. After all, just 10 years ago, there were larger budgets to throw at a campaign. Measurement wasn't as important, because we relied on the same tried and true technology, like TV and radio advertising, print advertising, billboards, and direct mail as we always had.

We repeated the same numbers we had heard over and over until they felt like gospel: 1% return rate for direct mail, 100,000 people drive past this billboard daily, 150,000 people watch this television program. For brands that had the money, brand marketing was easy. Clever slogans, gorgeous visuals, and memorable ads were all you needed for brand marketing.

But in a down economy like the one we're facing now, brand marketing is becoming much more difficult. Gone are the big accounts, the great ads that never said anything more than a tagline. Brand marketing is now about being measurable — nearly impossible to do 10 years ago — and about forming helpful, valuable relationships with customers.

The new channel for brand marketing is social media. It's no longer limited to broadcast and print media. Now, people are using social networking giants like Facebook to support the brands they love. They "like" their favorite brands, they follow them on Twitter, and they join their special social networks.

For example, brand marketing giant Nike still has the money to throw at some large-scale campaigns, but they have also embraced social media. Not only do they have close to 20 different brands with their own Facebook pages — baseball, soccer, football, as well as their training apps — but they have a large number of brands on Twitter, like @NikeSoccer, @NikeFootball.

Not only have astute marketers been reducing their traditional brand marketing spend on traditional channels, but they realize many of their customers avoid these channels. Nowadays, people are DVRing their favorite shows to fast forward through the commercials. They listen to iPods and satellite radio, instead of commercial radio stations. They are purposely avoiding the traditional brand marketing messages, which means the messages go unheard.

But they are looking to their favorite brands for advice. For example, Nike's social network for runners, Nike+, allows runners to share their favorite routes, upload their daily mileage, and track and compare their progress with other runners. Basically, Nike+ lets runners find each other, become friends, and even locate new running routes when visiting new cities.

What Nike doesn't do on Nike+ is sell shoes. It's not a site filled with ads about the latest shoes, the newest running outfits, or the typical brand marketing messages everyone wants to escape. They create relationships, they create value, and they make people want to run. So when it's time to go buy a new pair of running shoes, which brand is the Nike+ member going to consider first?

You guessed it.

That's the power of the new marketing, which is constantly evolving because of social media. But the dinosaurs who refuse to evolve and go to where their customers are? You can guess what's going to happen to them.