Communication is more differentiating when it keeps the brand going, as it boosts its importance and efficiently promotes its values, strengthening unique and particular emotional associations with each consumer.
Blended communication campaigns keep the brand alive and tend to be more efficient (both in terms of sales and of customer loyalty), providing better results.
As we know, the best way to keep a brand going and to convey its values is through a good story. Good stories provide experiences and the more relevant the story, the greater the probabilities of the consumer incorporating the experience in his/her daily life, influencing his/her purchase decision process.
How do you transform a communication campaign into a relevant and memorable story? How do you implement a blended communication strategy?
There are 8 rules or good practices that should be implemented together. It is necessary to have a deep knowledge of the consumer in all his touchpoints and in the adequate contexts, in other words, to know his need states in order to be relevant at the right time.
It is crucial to focus on creativity in order to obtain a strong brand idea and rethink the way the teams relate to each other, since there are countless relevant suppliers around the brands, and the media agencies in this field have skills that may boost the ideas devised by the marketing team and vice-versa. Thus, blended communication needs a strong coordination of the different areas that are involved (advertisers, media, contents and agencies), to insure the focus on the needs of the consumer as well as consistency in terms of the experience that the brand aims to offer.
This coordination requires a change in mindset, to break down internal sharing hurdles and increase the level of interaction, promoting the blend beyond communication, expanding to other areas, such as sales components and customer services.
On the other hand, the idea has to be in line with the brand’s values and it should be authentic, relevant and close to the culture of its “tribe”, acting on its fans and capable of influencing other consumers, in other words, it is necessary to promote Brand Engagement and Word of Mouth. This is why blended communication should promote causes, whether social or not, that involve the target and facilitate the target’s participation and support. Not less important, is the campaign design, which should be done backwards, taking as starting point the experiences to be evoked in the consumer and which should be heterogenic. As in a game where several paths and elements inspire us to continue to experiment with each media.
Finally, it is necessary to know and to take full advantage of the possibilities of the means, viz. at the level of innovation and of functionalities, with a greater focus on the consumer’s communication experience and not so much on the logic of corporate communication, adopting a new model that may boost intervention between brands and consumers and between consumers (consumer centric model).
But it is not just communication that must be blended. This is only the more visible manifestation of an entire attitude or frame of mind that should animate and prevail within the company, for all the touchpoints and functions to be aligned. A blended strategy must also encompass the sales from a perspective of brand activation (and the engagement of the consumer through co-creation, these being the three pillars that form the basis of a blended differentiating strategy of success.
