Blurred Lines Between 'Brand' And 'Communications' Create Opportunity

The world has opened its doors and has become wide open to new ways and methodologies. As much as our scientists are exploring the ways to define “time” or the “4th dimension” to communicate with the outer world; our corporate MBA managers are parallelly well redefining the marketing ways of communication and branding at the same time.

We have discovered ways of communication that were non-viable a few years ago like I am traveling to the countryside and still able to write this paper, which was not so arranged and viable a decade ago. With time passing by, everything has become fluid, so are the roles at a corporate. To compete at the global level, companies are taking steps to become more flexible. This flexibility is to ensure the brand and the communication walk hand in hand to and from the boundaries.

Data is the new oil, which has encouraged more data-informed multichannel, employing paid, earned, social owned (PESO) approach. The sequel of the integrated marketing communication role is coming now with a brand-new name “Agile Marketing”.

What is Agile Marketing?

This form of marketing involves an approach where teams identify their focus to put collective efforts on tasks and projects, to have cooperative communication and innovation, considering organically building and establishing a connection to bring more to each working channel. By the books, agile means swift and easy move. This allows flexibility for bringing forth various new ideas and opportunities, leading to efficient solutions that leave an impactful reputation that incrementally improves over time. The two important elements contributing to this are:

• Communication
• Branding

Who practices Agile Marketing?

Any company/brand that wants to reach its customers much more effectively and increase their output with exponential growth practices agile marketing.

To reach here, communication and branding were integrated into a whole new level breaking the walls of Jericho. To touch the ground, we will expound on each element and its contribution to making it more impactful.

Communication

New technological tools have standardized and advanced us to the world of worldwide web and publishing tools. Technology became a key enabler to create a dialogue and interactive channel between the organization and its audiences. The new technological forces brought a revaluation in the envelope of communication. Here are a few new methodologies in the trend of communication:

Blogs

- This started an era of companies bypassing earned media and making their blogs.

- Companies updated it regularly to interact with their audiences.

- It became a PR tool and was used to share relevant insight directly with the audiences.

Facebook, Twitter & Instagram

- Blogs lost charm after the introduction of immediate response media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.

- These were the improvised toolbelt for quick interaction and a widely spread platform for covering a wide segment.

Influencers

- These took the communication level with their prowess and capacity to leave an effect on the character, development and thinking behavior of individuals.

- These are usually the paid communicators to establish a relationship with the audience to influence the audience base.

In a slideshow, the older methods were not relinquished but kept improving search engine optimization (SEO). Through this, they accomplish the art and science of ranking their pages or posts higher in search engines such as Bing, Yahoo, Google, etc. In today’s tech-savvy world, your communication plan must include mobile marketing.

Brand

Along with communication, brands have evolved a long way from having paid media to broadcasting customer stories and references. The power of the customer’s personal experience with the brand sells the brand and its values to a new individual which keeps multiplying.

A brand is no longer what companies tell the customer it is, but it is what consumers tell each other it is.

Brands have followed fusing the tech-communication such as social media videos and images placing the brand in the eyes of the consumers creating belongingness and affinity within the community of the brand. At the same time, branded content was in the trend where entertainment shows, audios & videos, graphics/images, or news was followed with the terms “Sponsored by”, “Brought to you by” or “Presented by”.

What impact does it leave?

The merging aspects of these elements have created more opportunities, breaking the barriers, and leading to effective results. Brand, on one hand, maneuver reputation data to justify the business investment, and communication instills brand value to exhibit a return on investment for reputation driving programs.

The 6M model renders a comprehensive marketing communication strategy that imparts on intent, execution, and impact. This, also, validates the earlier mentioned agile working model as an impactful influence with merging the brand and communication to broaden the scope.

Brands leave an impact on their audience working on social issues of the region with their tech-savvy communication and branding PR tool, which is a plausible result of the perfect cooperation of teams. Both the elements (Communication and brand) are wedded and dependent on each other, further contributing to each other’s cause.

This article was written by Kumar Kritanshu. Connect on LinkedIn - www.linkedin.com/in/kritanshu