Why Waste Your Online Advertising Dollars on Outmoded Branding

Strategies?Understanding the new rules of branding will help you allocate resources accordingly.

Over the years traditional marketing has changed from “consider” and “buy” consumer behavior to heavily interacting with the brand well beyond the purchase through social media. Today, consumers will evaluate many options and remain engaged with the product by participating in online review sites and other social networks that ultimately influence the buying decision of other consumers. According to the latest research by McKinsey Global Digital Marketing Strategy, “paid media push marketing used to drive consumers along the imaginary funnel, culminating in then retail promotions to open their wallets at purchase”. This simply indicates that many brands are spending their marketing budgets in all the wrong places, based on an outmoded “funnel” marketing model. This form of marketing model believes that  consumers use the process of elimination to narrow down a wide consideration of brands to a few and then to a final choice. They neglected the importance of social branding and the relationship the consumer will ultimately build with the brand through media channels that are beyond manufacturer and retailers control. If done correctly, marketers can use social branding to influence the consumer into making that final purchasing decision and as a result spend their advertising dollars wisely. Smart marketing strategist will conduct shopper research through social media   and use multiple influential points in the purchasing process to reach their goals.Consumer top 5 influential points:

1. Consider: Consumers start with a set consideration of items. At this point, social branding can have a big influence on the considerations.

2.  Evaluate: They will seek input from online reviews, friends and competitors.

3. Purchase: Evaluation will continue until the purchase. Also other important influencers like packaging and shipping will be considered till the final purchase.

4.  Enjoyment: consumers that enjoy the product will share the experience with others.

5. Advocate: enjoyment will create a consumer advocate that will influence further purchases and can share their experience in the social arena.

Through social branding, and consideration of the 5 influential points, a post purchase relationship will continue and can be molded into attracting more consumers. Smart marketers can study consumer behavior and use the insights

to create a strategy to spend their online advertising dollars wisely. This can be done by recruiting experienced social branding experts that can help ease this process for busy companies. Remember, if done correctly, these social media experts will have to research your consumer online behavior for your product, for instance: what they do, what they see and what they say. Combine these behaviors with the top 5 influential points in purchasing and you will have a well-planned strategy to reach your marketing goals.