Exhibition News January 2019 | Page 43

COLUMN: MARKETING MATTERS Delivering long term success Ian Bamford, founder of Foundry 12, says brands should be centre stage, not an afterthought H ow do events and exhibitions thrive? How do they evolve and continue to grow? These are massive questions, and the relationship between organiser and venue, the cost of attending and visiting, the quality of exhibitors/speakers/visitors/delegates, better Wi-Fi or food & drink, parking, how technology (and personalisation) can improve the experience and creating a sense of theatre are all part of the answer. But I want to talk about another part of the answer. Something equally as important, but never seemingly as high on the list. Brand building. If we’re to create stronger and more relevant events and exhibitions that continue to thrive over the long term, we need to place our brands centre stage. They aren’t an afterthought. Shows exist in a competitive environment. So, it’s fair to say, when everyone’s bringing exhibitors, speakers, visitors or delegates together, different show offerings are going to be fairly similar. Yes, shows can introduce a new bit of tech ahead of their competitors. Yes, they can introduce a new feature. But competitors quickly follow suit, meaning there’s no long-term advantage. These are short-term tactics creating short-term spikes. But once a spike is over, people’s behaviour quickly reverts to type. So, in a competitive context where there’s a parity of offering, how do you win? Through building your brand to embed long term behavioural change. And here’s the thing. Brand building is very often seen as a cost rather than an investment isn’t it? Easy therefore to cut when budgets are under pressure. Never to return again! We don’t seem to value one of our most powerful assets, our brands. Yet, successful brands are more successful businesses, delivering more revenue, profit and growth. These stats support the business case for brand building: • Brand value represents on average 20 per cent of a business’ market capitalisation. • Strong brands build price elasticity. High strength brands command a price premium 13 per cent higher than low strength brands and six per cent higher than average strength brands. • To maximise effectiveness, brands should spend 60 per cent of their budget on brand building and 40 per cent on activation. Too little brand activity and the equity needed to drive future revenue won’t accumulate. • Of the total commercial impact marcomms makes, 58 per cent will be seen in the long term (six-plus months), 42 per cent in the short term (up to six “If you don’t know what your brand is, or you’ve lost sight of it, go back to the start and work it out” months). Brands are built over time. They have a clear mission, values that govern how they conduct themselves and a value proposition that crystalises what it is they offer. They possess their own personality and tone of voice allowing them to carve a distinct niche amongst all the generic noise out there. Not only that, brands consistently deliver their message in a creatively engaging way, creating preference amongst their audience. They care about the detail. No wavering in approach, no cutting corners. All of these ‘brand pillars’ are critical to an organisation’s future growth. An outstanding marketing communications strategy and great creative execution that resonates with your audiences can only develop out of a fundamental understanding of the brand. So, if you don’t know what your brand is, or you’ve lost sight of it, go back to the start and work it out. Before you spend all your marketing budget (a budget you probably fought hard to justify), make sure you can say you know who you are, how you should act and how you fit into the lives of your audiences to meet their needs. People need to believe you can deliver on what you’re saying. They need to believe how you look and what you say in your marcomms is a true reflection of what your brand is and what you offer them. When your brand says, ‘I understand what you’re looking for from me and I’ve got the answer’ and that’s consistently delivered, people build up trust. They begin to see how you can add value and how you can help them deliver their business success. If you fail to engage, fail to build long term trust, it doesn’t matter what you’ve done to improve the on-site experience, people won’t be there. Yet how often do we see copycat messages that could be delivered by anybody? And how often are brands ‘refreshed for next year’? Don’t re-invent each year. Instead, take the insight and learnings to build on each year. If we’re forever changing our identity and our message, how can we hope to build recognition and long-term trust with our audience? By constantly changing, we’re saying to them we don’t know who we are. And if we don’t know who we are, what chance have we got of convincing our audiences we can help them achieve their objectives? Brands find new ways of articulating what they stand for, they don’t keep changing what they stand for. So, let’s view brands as an investment. And let’s create brand platforms that make ourselves distinct, relevant and successful. Remember, successful brands are successful businesses. exhibitionnews.co.uk | January 2019 43