The future of brand strategy: It’s time to ‘go electric’

This article demonstrates how consumers value brand trustworthiness more than ever as
choices and distribution channels grow.
Bob Dylan lit up the stage at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965. After connecting his guitar to an
amplifier, he began playing his first all-electric set. The chords stayed the same, but the
arrangements were different—a new sound for a new era. It was despised by many
traditionalists. But Dylan was never afraid to try new things, and it's safe to say that when he
went electric, he was on to something.
Today's brand strategy is similar to popular music from the 1960s: The circumstances are
changing. Customers now move quickly from one brand to another, from one product to
another, and from one website to another. Nevertheless, brand relevance continues to be high.
Trust is reflected in brands. These beacons acquire greater significance the more options
consumers have. This article demonstrates that online travel booking, online dating, and online
shopping are just a few categories in which brands are particularly relevant. Risk mitigation is
the most important brand function for online customers, surpassing image enhancement and
information efficiency. Data and analytics are changing how brands and customers interact, but
a strong brand exudes trust and protects customers from making the wrong choice. In this
circumstance, it is time to update established brand strategy principles. A brand strategy needs
to "go electric" now.
Three sources of strength
Three factors give brands their power: art (creativity), science (generation of insights and
performance measurement), and craft (management and execution). Strong brands particularly
require the advantages of these solid foundations in times of rapid change:

 A clear purpose that is brought to life through creativity.

 An inspiring brand experience that is consistently delivered across all touchpoints.
 A deep understanding of customers and the market based on concepts that have been
rigorously tested to drive brand perception and business performance.
Science: Data-driven brand equity management in the omnichannel age, marketers must
embrace new approaches and data sources to protect and enhance brand equity:
Sentiment. Organizations should monitor how a brand is perceived online beyond counting
likes and followers. Customers' emotions should be quickly and accurately captured, especially
those expressed in online entertainment. When terrible news becomes publicly recognized
online, the brand value developed over many years can disappear instantly. Companies can no
longer afford to wait for quarterly brand tracking results. Even seven days of waiting is too long,
and it is indeed six days. The good news is that, as long as the proper steps are taken to decode
a statement's context, modern tools enable businesses to capture indicators like buzz volume
and user sentiment.
Agility in the past, qualitative research required a lot of time and money. As a result, many
researchers focus on large-scale consumer behavior observations without considering the
consumers' underlying needs. Through web and mobile applications like AI-supported digital
diaries and online ethnography, brands can connect with consumers' intrinsic motivations at a
fraction of the cost and time of traditional focus groups. Customers can now give brands
feedback on various pricing and packaging combinations within a day. The brand manager of a
company that makes sweet snacks stated, "What used to take weeks now happens in an
afternoon." Due to this, we can keep up with the rapid pace of change in our industry.
Personalization. One of the main forces behind top-line development is personalization. It
enables brands to enhance customer relationships, drive incremental revenue, and boost
customer loyalty. Most brand-related activities and key performance indicators (KPIs) were
previously based on a fictitious "average customer." Thanks to advances in data quality and
analytics, messages and metrics can now be adapted to ever-smaller target audiences or micro-
need situations and circumstances. Marketers are now able to track and improve brand
performance across all touchpoints, frequently at the level of specific customers, thanks to
next-generation MROI modeling and granular growth mapping.
Art: Creativity with a conscience
Creativity drives brand success. Authors discover that effective brand campaigns tell narratives
that relate to, amuse, or entertain their target audience. Customers now demand more from
their favorite brands than just the advantages of their products. While a compelling narrative
can undoubtedly stand out from the competition, brand creators must go above and beyond to
win consumers' loyalty. Does the campaign go beyond simply promoting the brand? Does it
reflect the identity and values of the company? Campaigns that follow these guidelines are
more effective than those that only highlight the proposition's advantages.
Craft: Rallying around purpose
Brand strategy based on purpose is too big an opportunity and too comprehensive a challenge
for any one function to tackle by itself. To create a consistent narrative and succeed in a
purpose-driven transformation, all parts and all members of the top team must cooperate
closely. To bring purpose and brand activities more generally to life, brand strategists, creative
directors, data scientists, designers, and agencies increasingly come together to work more
coordinated and agile ways. Across industries, brand leaders are moving from rigid client-
agency relationships to more fluid ecosystems with more brand entrepreneurship.