WERBERS BESTE.
Sustainable brand communication brings people and brands together. And in the long term. It encourages potential employees to apply to the companies behind these brands – and existing employees to identify with the brand. It opens up new target groups and turns interested parties into customers – and it ensures that existing and new customers remain customers in the future, sometimes even recruiting new customers themselves. That, in a nutshell, is our definition of brand communication. Developing brands – we gave it our all in 2019. Now 2020 is just around the corner and we are full of good intentions about what we can do even better.
As soon as the corks and cartridges pop on New Year’s Eve, we stare reverently into the New Year’s sky with gunpowder vapor and sparklers and say to ourselves with spraying rockets: “Everything will be even better in the new year. I will do more X and less Y. I’ll pay particular attention to Z.” Many of these resolutions – if we don’t know it, we usually suspect it – don’t even have the half-life of polonium 212, so they sometimes decay in milliseconds.
But of course this is not the case with our good intentions for sustainable brand communication by an advertising agency. They are carved for eternity – whereby we define “eternity” in a communication-theoretical relevance framework as the entire year 2020 (then the “good intentions lens” is readjusted again).
Schenken wir uns also all die frommen Wünsche, die wir eh nicht einhalten können. Hier präsentieren wir nun ohne weitere Vorsätze all die Vorsätze, denen wir im Grunde seit jeher folgen. Da sind sie – unsere Werbers Beste für nachhaltige Markenkommunikation im neuen Jahr: So let’s dispense with all the pious wishes that we can’t keep anyway. Without further ado, here are all the resolutions that we have basically always followed. Here they are – our advertisers’ best for sustainable brand communication in the new year:
Working until the idea is really good and well-rounded. For sustainable brand communication and brand development that moves more. This is precisely why all our employees get new chairs, ergonomic and highly dynamic, individually adjustable of course. This is actually a good way to describe our communication measures. The best conditions for staying in motion while sitting and developing ideas. But of course we also find many strong ideas while walking – or standing. For example, in the classic way, where many people find them: in the shower in the morning.
Only water, of course. Two glasses in the morning, at least two liters a day. This waters the brain and produces – attention: pun – bubbling ideas. It simply makes everything run more smoothly. From analysis to strategy to implementation. For the brand and its marketing. Water alone is not enough. Our coffee consumption is enormous. And sometimes, very rarely, it can be something more substantial. Especially on Thursdays. That’s when we have “beer after four” – but always after 18:00. But that doesn’t rhyme with beer.
Above all, let them smoke – our heads. Because smoke signals always stand for clear positioning. We are passionate about successful campaigns and – did we say that already? – sustainable brand communication. Everything else is just blue smoke. And we certainly wouldn’t call for increased tobacco consumption here. At least not until Philipp Morris commissions us with a worldwide campaign.
Whatever we develop: It has to sizzle. Not just on the grill. And we need to put more butter on the fish. Food for the brand. Juicy content marketing that works. Developing brand scent and setting scent marks that attract customers because they make their mouths water, because they offer solutions to problems that drive customers. We like to place this on the right channels. Online, offline. Sustainably produced, creatively implemented and served with herb butter. In print, on social media, on landing pages and websites. It’s not a recipe, it’s a strategy.
Heart and soul – for all our projects, of course. For all our customers, for every company and every product. Anemia is not our thing. We love invigorating campaigns and brands with fresh pink cheeks. Marketing can score points with that. In front of sales. Ahead of corporate management. Is there a better way to describe it?
Give the brand sugar – and the brain glucose. That fires up the synapses. That’s why we like to reach into our creative fruit basket. A strong image, a strong message – like tasty fruit served in bite-sized morsels – ensure that vitamin C is well distributed with the right messenger substances across all channels – for the relevant target groups in micro-campaigns via social media, for example. Anything else would just be bananas.
The main thing is that the pitch presentation is ready. Sometimes still with the good old cardboard, an image on every chart. That stays in people’s heads. And on the desks of companies. To put it bluntly: the decisive factor is in front of the customer. And there is a flipchart. In any case, be wide awake and show presence. Improvisation isn’t everything, but it’s part of it – even in marketing. Perhaps especially in marketing (but it’s good and right to write everything down in Excel).
So – as always – give it your all. Because only half would be 50% too little. Going the extra mile. For the customer and their customers. In return, we are happy to put up with the square eyes that our older employees hide behind their angular reading glasses. But we don’t want to explicitly mention anyone by name.
Namely action plans, editorial plans, business plans. Based on sound analyses and well thought-out strategies, of course. After all, every form of brand communication that has a lasting effect depends on this. For existing customers and anyone who wants to become one.
With these good intentions for sustainable brand communication, we are now 40 years young. This helps the brand and ultimately generates more margin. It has always worked well. Why don’t you put us to the test? It’s a good year for it.
PS: You may be asking yourself: Why only nine good intentions?
Why not ten? Or twelve? Why not ninety? Or nine thousand? Why any at all? And why not none at all? Why these and not others? And wouldn’t one resolution suffice?
Basically, it’s quite simple: people tend to formulate maxims according to which they act. Everyone does this for themselves, we all do it together. Companies do it, brands do it, organizations and institutions do it. And they all have one thing in mind: to be clear about what they want to achieve. To make it clear what you stand for. For yourself. For the target group or for the target groups. Creating orientation so as not to get lost in the confusion and chaos of the flood of information on the market. To differentiate yourself from the competition.
What aspects need to be considered? How do you communicate comprehensibly, clearly and precisely? What suits your product, your offer, your range? What content do you want to play? Which tools work best? Which colors underline the information and serve your message? Which media are useful?
What is the goal I am pursuing? Gain data? Generate leads? Find new consumers? What is successful out there and how do you communicate successfully? In Munich and in Meersburg? Here in the region as well as internationally, all over the world?
The key words for us have always been the triad of relevance, breaking the norm and uniqueness. Because only what is relevant is noticed by the target group. And only what stands out from the usual patterns of perception – that is, what breaks the norm – stands out. Nothing appeals to us more than the new, the unprecedented – the unique.
It all sounds so simple now: then let’s create unique, standard-breaking and naturally relevant brand communication. Unfortunately, in a world full of me-too products, uniqueness is a rarity. And in a world full of brands vying for the attention of new customers and consumers, breaking the norm is the rule and no longer the exception. As a result, relevance is no longer in the best of hands.
So it’s all nothing? Have you read this far for this narrow insight? If you have, then you have now arrived at the point where sustainable brand communication ceases to be trivial. Because yes: relevance is important, uniqueness is important and breaking the norm is also important, although it is becoming increasingly difficult in a world in which all norms are eroding.
The crucial thing is that despite all the eroding norms, despite all these inflationary attention spans, new patterns of perception are constantly emerging. Like a riverbed that seeks a new course through a plain, flowing into streams and canals, brand communication is also constantly finding new ways into the great sea of markets, people and consumers. Be it through an unmistakable corporate design. Be it in the concise tonality. Be it in the intelligent choice of measures and media. And, of course, always through the creative idea. Finally, through the sheer force of the content, the content that pours over the digital space like an avalanche and does not simply flatten everything in its path, but finds exactly the person to whom this content is directed.
In this case, that is you. By the way, it doesn’t matter whether you are actually reading this now. You may have already clicked away screaming or shrugging your shoulders at our second good intention (and which one was that again?). And yet. Even if you did. Even if you came across this article somewhere and didn’t even click on it. You have noticed the headline (Werber’s best). You noticed our message (sustainable brand communication) and us as the sender (Schindler Parent, Marke und Marge, Agentur für Markenkommunikation). Quite simply because it was you who were looking for “brand communication”.
Have we misled you? Did this article not fulfill what you expected from it? I have no idea. You’ll have to decide for yourself. But if you take another look at our resolutions, you will learn a lot about the spirit that prevails here. And if it really is you, the real genuine person reading this, then perhaps it wouldn’t be a bad idea to get in touch with us. After all, we have written this article for you, precisely for you.
We have an eye for brands.
And an ear to listen and support.