A common thread that has recently emerged is if established corporations and startups should be focusing on performance or brand strategy to meet their objectives. In this article, we will go through the main differences between these two marketing strategies and advise you to follow the best approach to achieve your goals.
What is brand marketing?
Basically, branding is a combination of communication and marketing efforts to make a company unique. A brand can be recognised by its logo or slogan and one of their goals is to satisfy their clients’ needs and provide an experience they will recall.
Today, it is possible to affirm that everything is about branding. It can be the car you drive, the computer you use, the watch you wear or the beer you drink.
This way, building awareness and differentiation is extremely hard to achieve, especially in markets such as automotive, technology, food and beverages.
Think of brands such as Apple and Nike. You have probably seen one of their creative and fun ads and noticed that you have not been explicitly asked to buy something.
What these companies regularly do is what we call brand development and the main purpose of this strategy is to build a long-term connection between them and the costumer. Also, with the huge amount of ads and money invested, brands expect to be loved and respected by their consumers.
But here’s the tricky part. Is it possible to measure precisely the effectiveness of your brand marketing strategy? Unfortunately, it is impossible.
For instance, you cannot have the exact number of people who have seen an Apple commercial on TV and bought an iPhone thanks to that ad.
What about performance marketing?
When it comes to performance strategies, many people believe that it is all about numbers and statistics. And to be quite honest, it is. Everything has to be measured to prove performance, otherwise the campaign would be considered a failure.
Sometimes, this sort of approach might be considered annoying by clients. Why? You can simply check your email inbox and you will know the reason why. We are bombarded everyday by emails, telemarketing, direct mail sales letters and so on.
But do not worry about it, you can have a strategy that is focused on results and at the same time delight your customers, all you need to do is to test and track your campaign to turn that into performance marketing.
Essentially, the number of times your app has been downloaded or the traffic it has generated to a mobile web store is considered a key performance indicator (KPI) and this is purely performance marketing.
With a kind of strategy that focuses on conversions, it is possible to track if your marketing efforts have been successfully used to reach your goals.
Also, it has nothing to do with building or managing the brand and that is a short-term win because results should come in a very short period of time.
Bottom line
Brand vs. performance? To sum up, both marketing strategies can help you achieve different goals and you should decide whether you are looking for short-term or long-term results.
To make sure it is all clear, strategic performance management focuses on short-term achievements and direct ROI. It can be a great choice for your app if you are looking for immediate results.
On the other hand, if you do not mind about measuring every KPI and aim to develop a long-term relationship with your customers and build awareness, a brand marketing strategy is the way to go.
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