North Star: The Power of Brand in Performance Marketing

It’s been said that up to 95%* of consumer purchasing decisions take place in the subconscious mind.

This means that our buying habits are often driven by emotion and feeling, rather than by rational decision-making factors (such as pricing).

But from a strategic point-of-view, marketers have the arguably rational approach of prioritising shorter-term performance activity and in doing so often lose focus on their brand.

The Challenge

Measurement

Brand-building is often weighted using metrics that lack a predictive or retrospective connection to financial returns.

Performance marketing while it can take credit when the till rings, often overlooks measures that count its influence on brand development because it concentrates primarily on clicks, leads and sales.

People and Skills

Performance marketers are not known for being particularly creative, and brand marketers don’t always use good data to back up or test their intuition when measuring impact.

So if these challenges represent a dark tunnel, there is a light at the end of it…

The North Star

Brands and businesses have increasingly shifted their focus towards performance marketing due to its ability to demonstrate a more immediate and measurable return on investment.

Too often, we find that not enough weight has been given to branding.

If your business doesn’t have a clear sense of purpose, design or positioning, or if its positioning is unclear, it makes it harder for performance marketing to cut through. And where performance does cut through, the relationship with the customer is often more transactional than durable.

Still, highly targeted marketing campaigns solved the century-old ‘Wanamaker’ problem, named after the department store retailer who’s credited with saying;

“Half the money I spend is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.”

However, to achieve a performance-accountable approach to brand building and a brand-accountable strategy on performance marketing, brands need to start setting metrics that can evaluate the effects of both investment types on a singular ‘North Star’ metric: brand equity.

This metric should be connected to specific financial outcomes—revenue, shareholder value, and return on investment—and used as a key performance indicator for both brand building and performance marketing.

By doing this, brands can make more informed decisions that strengthen the financial contributions of both activities and enhance their combined effectiveness.

Investment in brand has been slowly increasing in recent years but performance still claims the lions share of budget. Check out the metric splits from surveyed marketers in the 2024 WARC Voice of the Marketer report below.

Honest, Raw & Forthright.

Brand gives greater impact to and enhances the effectiveness of performance marketing by increasing trust and credibility with consumers.

It gives flavour, personality and distinction, and creates loyalty and durable value – the direction and guidance of a North Star.

I met with Ger Whelan, Creative Director of Brandcentral to get his views, and he shared a great story with me:

“Your North Star helps to define your brand purpose and guides your message. I’ll give you an example.

We were working with a gaming brand and we distilled their brand down to three words; Honest, Raw and Forthright. Those three words – that was what the game brand was all about.

They commissioned some new copy for a piece of marketing.

We asked, so how did it go with that new copy.

They said, “Oh, we hated it.” And I said, “Oh really? Why was it so bad?”

“It wasn’t honest, raw and forthright.”

The copy needed to align with their guiding North Star. That means that all communication must fit with that brand promise.

If it doesn’t, then it’s wrong. It’s as simple as that.

A strong brand is about clear positioning, consistent communication and sticking to the North Star vision no matter how tempting it is to get a quick win.”

The Benefits of a Unified Approach

The most effective marketing strategies combine brand and performance marketing by balancing short and long-term data-driven tactics with short and long-term brand-building efforts.

This unified approach leads to gains of up to 30% and incremental top-line growth of up to 10% – and without increasing marketing budgets.

Finding your North Star

To better integrate brand and performance marketing, I recommend focusing on:

• Finding your North Star: Investing in brand clarity and consistency ensuring your messaging and visuals are consistent across all platforms. This will enhance brand recognition and trust.
• Collaborate: bring your marketing and brand teams closer together and ensure everyone is on the same page.
• Revising Measurement Metrics: Developing metrics that capture both brand equity and performance marketing effectiveness can provide a clearer picture of overall success.
• Data tracking: the world of data privacy has changed significantly. There are ways of navigating these changes that will still give you visibility on most of your data and conversion metrics.

If the question was asked: do you want your customers and users to be loyal to your brand?

The answer should be to use education, entertainment, and original storytelling to differentiate your brand and provide true value to the user.

When they do buy after going through all of those valuable experiences with you, many of them will return again and again.

“A very “tired” brand explored consumers’ thoughts and feelings and discovered a relevant emotion overlooked by all brands in the category. They connected this emotion with their brand giving it a major sales boost.”

Professor Gerald Zaltman, Harvard Business School.

The Long and Short of It

There are two different approaches to marketing and advertising, one short-term, and the other long-term. In this short video, Les Binet talks about how they work and why you need both.

So, while the shift towards performance marketing is, as it looks, more rational than emotional, brands and businesses should still maintain a balanced approach to both given the need to demonstrate ROI.

We are guiding our clients in developing a combined strategy, and demonstrating how well-rounded activities can drive immediate results while building long-term growth, brand equity and customer loyalty.

Thanks for reading.

Ger Whelan is the Creative Director at Brandcentral, an award-winning brand agency dedicated to helping brands thrive.

Feed your inner nerd:

• The Subconscious Mind of the Consumer (And How To Reach It) by Manda Mahoney with Professor Gerald Zaltman.
• WARC: The Voice of the Marketer Report 2024.
• Neuromarketing: Predicting Consumer Behavior to Drive Purchasing Decisions by Valerie Kirk for Harvard.
• The Long and the Short of It – the brilliant and still relevant marketing accountability book by Les Binet and Peter Field. Watch the 10 years on video interview and consider getting the book.