Move The Marketing Goal Posts

In such a competitive world, brand gatekeepers are continually looking for ways of differentiating their brands from those of their rivals.

Yet when it comes to marketing communications the world is awash with a mass of plain wallpaper – creative work that all looks the same. No true differentiation.

Since we are near Christmas, take the wine industry as an example of plain wallpaper advertising. Over the coming weeks you are going to see plenty of wine advertising. We are prepared to bet that many of the advertisements you will see will simply feature a large bottle of the wine or a bottle with a glass – Not very imaginative! And brand managers will have paid good money for this! They may as well have just used a design studio round the corner at their local print shop and saved themselves the cost.

Differentiation can come in many different forms, it could be as simple as being the first to use a new media that none of the competitors have picked up on or it could be a piece of creative work that is genuinely creative and inspiring. To develop great creative ideas, that aren’t just a plain pack shots, you need to really dig deep and go through a thorough immersion process; understand the competitors, the market, the trade and of course… the brand. Every brand has one or more great truths. And it’s these truths that help in the development of the strategy and ultimately creative work that differentiates the brand.

Take the creative work we did for Beringer Wine, through our immersion process we discovered the brand had a fantastic history. A journey of dates and events right up to the present. We took these ‘historical gems’, developed a brand strategy and brought this to life through digital advertising and offline advertising. One advertisement did feature a bottle and the other did not but as you can see, both advertisements were creatively disruptive and moved the marketing goal posts for Beringer vs the competition.

Have a great Christmas!

From The SWC Partnership Team in London, Tunbridge Wells Kent and Warsaw Poland.