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14.06.2024 BusinessMarketing

Brand Marketing in 2024: Recognition, Trust, Responsibility

Brand marketing represents the promotion of a brand’s products or services in a way that reflects the brand as a whole. It involves creating and maintaining relationships between the brand and consumers, as well as the brand’s marketing attributes – the traits people think of when they imagine a specific brand.

The word brand, although often used as a synonym for a company, is actually the identity, i.e., the image of a business – what distinguishes it from other businesses in its industry. Although the quality of products (or services) is very important for a company’s good image, it is not enough for a company to become a recognizable brand.

How did brand marketing originate?

Although we talk about brand marketing today as a new approach to marketing and sales, its origins date back to the mid-20th century!

Driven by the motive for higher profits, companies in America stopped promoting their products just because they perform a certain function and began attributing experiences and feelings to their products.

‘’Buy our car because it will get you from point A to point B faster.’’

evolved into:

‘’You are unique, and therefore you deserve a car that will perfectly represent your personality.’’

Slowly, purchasing certain products began to represent much more than a need – especially from the 1960s onwards – sales now depended on the state of society, public opinion attitudes, and the growing desire of customers for individuality and originality.

Fast forward to 2024 – the trend is still the same, only further emphasized. The only difference is that in the 20th century, brands were skilled at interpreting customer habits and using them to their advantage, while today, brands are skilled at creating entirely new habits and trends, thanks to massive and rapid technological progress.

Best examples of brand marketing

As we said, a brand represents the image of a company, and brand marketing activities involve placing not only products/services but also a broader brand strategy that, for example, can be five-year, ten-year, etc.

Perhaps we can best see what this is about through examples:

Red Bull

Brand tagline: Red Bull gives you wings.

Key brand marketing activities: Sponsoring extreme sports, investing in Formula 1 and football.

We all know what Red Bull TV commercials look like: it’s always the same style, the same form, the same tagline, and the same connection to sports activities. And now we similarly associate this brand with extreme sports, competitions, and even Felix Baumgartner’s famous ‘’jump from space.’’

In addition to extreme sports, Red Bull is known for sponsoring motor sports – it has even had its own team in Formula 1 since the early 2000s – and this company has also invested in two football teams, the Austrian Red Bull Salzburg and the German RB Leipzig.

Nike

Brand tagline: Just do it.

Key brand marketing activities: Collaboration with top sports leaders and campaigns for social change.

Nike uses one proven tactic when it comes to their brand marketing, and that is relying on the biggest sports stars (Michael Jordan, Serena Williams, LeBron James) and evoking emotions in consumers by supporting positive social changes.

One of the more famous examples is the collaboration with Colin Kaepernick, the American NFL player who in 2016, in protest against police brutality and racism in the US, knelt during the national anthem, a move that subsequently triggered a wave of protests and controversy. Kaepernick has not had an engagement as an American football player since then.

In 2018, Nike celebrated 30 years of the famous ‘’Just Do It’’ campaign with Kaepernick as the face of the new campaign, featuring the now-famous lines: ‘’Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.’’

How is a brand strategy designed?

Brand strategy goes beyond marketing activities. A serious brand strategy represents a company’s commitment to a certain direction of action in every aspect and form of communication.

As such, it requires a lot of dedication, resources (human and financial), but also an element of adaptability and an ear for everything happening in the market.

Of course, a brand strategy cannot be the same for a local startup, a corporation, or a conglomerate. What is important to emphasize here is that brand strategy is a marathon, not a sprint, and it certainly brings results, but it requires a bit of patience and a lot of smart work.

Your brand marketing activities don’t have to be at the level of legendary brands like Apple, Netflix, Amazon, etc., right away. It’s just important to start with them and constantly improve them.

What are brand activations and why are they important?

Brand activations are strategic activities that allow consumers to experience a brand in an interactive way. The goal is to create a deeper connection with consumers through unforgettable experiences that leave a lasting impression.

Brand activations not only increase brand awareness but also foster loyalty and trust among consumers.

Through continuous direct interaction, consumers become brand ambassadors, sharing their experiences and recommendations with others, which further spreads influence and strengthens the business’s position in the market.

And a well-planned and executed brand activation can easily become viral and thus bring success to a brand ‘’overnight’’ and help it enter new markets. However, interactive activations are one of the activities within a larger brand strategy, so it is important to do them planned and purposefully for the best results.

Brand development: when is it time for changes?

Most businesses introduce changes in their operations when sales decline. Although it is important to react in those situations, systemic changes (especially changes in brand marketing) are important to introduce much earlier and for different reasons.

Innovation is the right path for all businesses with ambitions to become leaders in their market, and it begins with timely strategic planning.

That’s why it’s important to:

Conclusion: What is (not) enough for a brand to do?

Depending on the size and capabilities of a business, strategies and specific action steps vary, especially in marketing and sales.

Step zero is staying up to date with global trends, and the first step is being a pioneer in your market in implementing those trends. One should seize opportunities in the form of new technologies and new generations gaining purchasing and social power, but also keep in mind global circumstances that can directly affect your business operations.

From our experience

365 Lab has existed for 12 years, and during this period, we have innovated our business multiple times, always striving to remain leaders in experiential and immersive marketing in Serbia.

This involves constantly designing devices and activations because we want to offer our clients something that is truly new and original. Our ‘’proven recipe’’ is being relentless in research – of new technologies and the global market – and relying on the expertise of our team members who are truly incredible at what they do.

Today, 365 Lab looks quite different than at the beginning of its story, but these are very positive changes – we now collaborate much more with clients from other countries, scale operations more easily, and are able to deliver many more events and activations, with even better quality.

Get in touch!

In addition to offering unique interactive activations – physical devices, software, and applications – we also create completely original activations from scratch for our clients.

We are grateful to have had the opportunity to collaborate with the most prominent brands in Serbia and the region, as well as at the largest events in our country (and beyond), and that experience is something that truly sets us apart from others.

But let’s not brag too much – we’ll leave the verdict to you! Whether you are part of a marketing agency, corporation, or startup: we want to collaborate with you! We are here for all questions and consultations, and we can’t wait to hear how we can help your business improve its brand marketing!