Reset: theme 5 – return to investment in long-term brand building
Over the last decade, we have seen the rise of marketing as a science, with key research on “How brands grow” delivered by the Ehrenberg Bass Institute and Byron Sharp in 2010, Les Binet and Peter Field’s “Long and short of it” on advertising effectiveness in 2013 and Behaviours Economics with BETA (the government behavioural economics unit) established in 2015.
This means that now there is a good lot of evidence to support marketers in strategic direction for brands and investment.
One of the most critical pieces of research that was published in May this year was Les Binet and Peter Field’s B2B study that built upon their previous years of B2C research seeking to optimise effectiveness through understanding investment in long-term brand building versus short-term sales activation.
The findings highlighted that B2B was similar to B2C in that brands need to return to long-term brand building after an over-emphasis on short term sales activation, driven by digital.
Furthermore, B2B closely followed its B2C counterparts in ratios of long-term brand building to short term sales activation of 48% to 52% (B2B) compared to 60% to 40% (B2C).
Brand and Marketing now has a solid scientific springboard from which we can develop effective strategies and inspire creativity in the years to come.
Rachel Bevans is strategist, researcher and business director, with over 28 years’ experience helping organisations become brand-driven, customer-centric and employee-engaged. Rachel founded The Healthy Brand Company in 2012 to unite her brand experience, passion for health and wellbeing and curiosity about what motivates people.
