Step 6: evaluate and adjust when necessary
The route to a strong brand in six steps, it’s possible. The other steps are explained in previous blogs:
Introduction: building your brand successfully
Step 1: building a brand promise
Step 2: winning externally, starting internally
Step 3: know your (potential) customer
Step 4: create a constistent content strategy
Step 5: build brand supporting campaigns
All the above steps must contribute constantly to the construction of the lovemark. One wrong step and it will be destroyed. That is why it is important to keep evaluating and adjusting the steps, separately and in connection with each other. Building a strong brand is a continuous process. A brand needs to be maintained and requires small, sometimes large adjustments. To move with time, without losing recognizability.
It also helps enormously in steering on results rather than opinions. It is not so much about what internal opinions are, as about how the market responds to them. Take a company like Coolblue. They measure everything, and based on that, they make decisions, develop new products, design new campaigns, etcetera. Evaluations are crucial here. Per campaign, per quarter, even per week.
By creating a clear business plan with clear actions with a clear dashboard, you can measure the achievement of the goals. So, don’t do the things just to do them, but do the right things. Things that will help you to achieve the goals that are set.
Marketing is a wonderful profession. Especially because it gives you room to play. Nothing is set in stone. You can come up with lots of things, but ultimately the market determines. And if you have read this white paper really well, you know that I think that your entire business should be fluid, with a very clear dot on the horizon. And only by measuring, you will learn if the dot gets closer.
Go do more of the things that work, and stop doing things that do not work. In this way, you will be working efficiently on costs and time. The foundation of your company is solid as a rock, thanks to the brand promise and that becomes the starting point for doing business. Let the market lead. Provided you stay with your own story and proposition. By segmenting you can also measure more easily whether you are progressing or not. Tackle things per target group, and conquer the market one piece at a time.
The steps to properly evaluate:
Step 1) Make a baseline measurement of existing activities
Step 2) Create a marketing or campaign plan with clear KPIs and objectives
Step 3) Include how you want to achieve objectives realistically
Step 4) What budget do you propose?
Step 5) Set your evaluation moments
Step 6) Set up your measuring instruments – how do you measure it?
Step 7) Monitor your measuring instruments and create reports
Step 8) Evaluate with the correct stakeholders
Step 9) Adjust when necessary
To really complete a circle. To really know whether an activity has contributed to building a lovemark or to achieving the objective of a campaign, you will have to measure on soft and hard measurement indicators. That really sets you off on the road to success as an organisation.
