Is brand awareness failed marketing?

The objective of marketing is to generate leads, to convert into sales. If the return is too small, we call it brand awareness. Should every single marketing operation be measured in sales? Why should brand ever spend any money on awareness? Why not do a great job at selling?


WHAT YOU CAN'T MEASURE DOES NOT EXIST
In traditional media, it used to be difficult to measure anything. Paper advertising, billboards, TV ads, were huge shots in the dark. The only thing brands could do, was stop advertising and see if sales would drop. Very few brands ever dared and preferred continuously spend their budget than question the status quo. Fortunately, brands now have many ways to measure engagement and returns.
A QRCode, with a dedicated campaign tracking code, costs nothing to generate and print. It is a marketing crime not to tag all your campaigns, and measure resulting traffic, unless you are scared of the results. But you really should know.


CORRELATION VERSUS CAUSALITY
Direct attribution is often difficult, especially in multi-touchpoint multi-channel strategies. The simple rule of attribution to the last touchpoint has a great advantage; it is simple. But this simple rule does not gratify intermediary touchpoints that participate in the customer journey. It can be a side effect of some touch point not having a conversation option. If you market in a way that does not offer a "buy now!" option at every touchpoint, you can't measure conversion, because you won't generate any conversion. It could also be a symptom of useless touchpoints. Most brands will be afraid to stop something that might produce engagement. The real unconscious fear is to stop and not to see the sales drop, leading to the realisation that some touchpoints are useless. But that is will be good news. It will free up budget and resources to spend on better performing channels.


BRAND AWARENESS SHOULD BE FREE
If your marketing campaigns are optimal, and you have data to prove that they generate enough sales to pay for themselves, the brand awareness becomes free. It comes as a side effect of efficient marketing; the same way a shop creates brand awareness but is primarily there to sell products.

Then brands can decide to spend money on social responsibility campaigns, sponsor events, and improve its image in a genuinely altruistic way.

Source: Stephane Monsallier

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