New apps, loyalty campaigns, engagement on social, thematic advertising, programmatic buying, storytelling, UGC, SEO & SEA. The list of the marketer’s bullshit bingo goes on and on. But it’s so much fun to be involved with. Great stories at Friday’s drinks. Staying close to that cutting edge, always doing new stuff. Never the old.

Completely true. It is fun. A view on the future. It has an entrepreneurial spirit to it. What is also fun is to see your brand grow and not decline. Cause who isn’t tracking brand health KPI’s and metrics of sorts? That’s the boring part.

You need to keep on fueling your brand. A lot of people think you do that through activation and innovation. Which is for a large part very true. An overlooked part is what some call “credibility”; others call it “quality perception”. Whatever you want to call it, it’s important. I have come to learn it as the foundation of your entire brand. Without it, it all comes apart, crumbling down on you.

The quality aspect is most likely the first aspect consumers have encountered when meeting your brand back in the day, it is what they have grown up with, grown accustomed to. And you need to keep on cherishing that relationship. By repeating & affirming that quality notion. The “yes, we still got this” wink. If you don’t, over time consumers will just not see you as a quality brand versus your competitors. It happens in every segment, from apparel to beverages. In some cases, the quality aspect is the heart of the entire communication strategy. Easy enough to think of a couple of brands who keep on evoking heritage, craftsmanship and quality messages.

The other thing, next to keep on engaging on a quality level, is creating products or services that actually meet that quality standard. That’s sounds like a “Duhh” remark, but apparently it is quite a challenge and you will be amazed how often people don’t pay attention to this aspect of product development. They get so caught up with processes and organizational procedures they forget about the one thing they had to take care of. In a former company I worked, I remember a product that was so badly tasting, that even when we offered it for free to retail customers, we were told that their consumers just wouldn’t want to take it home, even for free. If people find your product disgusting, that’s not only going to hurt the sales of that particular product, but in the end also the mother brand. Not even opening the box of pandora surrounding your relationship with retail customers.

I once had a conversation with a colleague to whom I suggested to maybe end the TV commercial with a juicy quality product shot. He wasn’t in favor, and when asked why, he said: “Everyone else (the competition) is doing that.” Well, maybe because it works….

Triggered? Give me a ring, let’s discuss over coffee.