Importance of Brand Activation and Sales Activation

Importance Of Brand Activation and Sales Activation

Brand activations can aid in establishing your company's uniqueness. You have certain things in common with every business owner as a manager, marketer, or owner. Each of you wants to offer your consumer base the finest possible product, service, or experience. Everyone among you wants to outperform any rival firms. And you all want to tell as many people as possible about your company or brand.

No matter how fantastic your brand or product is, it isn't easy to be successful if people don't know who you are. Therefore, promoting your brand and letting people know about the high caliber of your work should be the first step in every successful business or organization.

What Is Brand Activation?

A campaign, event, or encounter that promotes your brand and creates enduring connections with your target audience is known as brand activation. Most brand activations are interactive, enabling customers to interact with a brand and its goods.

Brand activation is sometimes misunderstood or conflated with more generic branding tactics. The misconception is understandable because most branding and marketing operations focus on raising awareness and engaging an audience.

However, rather than the overall, continuing branding process, brand activation refers to a particular campaign or event, an isolated experience with the sole objective of enhancing your brand.

Why Is Brand Activation Important?

Imagine that your business just started up yesterday. You are aware of your target market, but they are unaware of you, and the few who are aware of your brand have no real affinity for it.

It would help if you created a stir to launch your brand. It would be best if you encouraged participation. Give your audience a reason to be enthusiastic about your business. You must, in essence, ignite your brand.

How Is Brand Activation Different From Ordinary Marketing?

Given this definition, you would observe that brand activation sounds a lot like conventional marketing. How then does brand activation vary from conventional marketing? Do they share the same characteristics yet have different names?

The quick response is both yes and no. Despite being two different ideas, they do have some similarities. The continual activity of promoting your brand and developing your public image is known as brand marketing. Brand activation describes a specific, constrained campaign running while a company is starting or attempting to launch a new identity.

Brand marketing is involved in brand activation in this way. But even after the first brand activation, brand marketing keeps on. This is because the two are associated with one another and coexist harmoniously. Brand activation started the process that brand marketing continues because there would be no brand to market.

Four Types Of Brand Activation

Preparation is key to successful brand activation, possibly even more so than a standard marketing activation campaign or event. The good news is that modern marketers who want to activate their brand have access to many solutions.

Let's examine some of the best brand activation and marketing tactics available.

1. Experience-based marketing

Experiential marketing, also known as engagement marketing, is an activation technique where a brand develops a compelling, in-person encounter to connect with its target market. These experiences encompass a company's values, the messages it wants to convey to its audience, and the specific items that make up that brand.

Take experiential marketing as an example. You want to advertise photo editing software. People can take pictures with their pals in a pop-up photo booth and then get edited versions of those shots to take home. This campaign creates interest in your goods and increases brand awareness while giving your audience a pleasant and interesting experience.

Live participation is a key component of most experiential marketing programs, frequently as a component of a bigger event or concert. However, virtual and augmented reality technology has also made it possible for digital experience marketing. Your audience may interact with your brand from the comfort of their own homes with the help of virtual tours, games, and interactive content.

2. Samples and free trial campaigns

One of the most tried-and-true methods of brand activation is a sample campaign. The concept is to provide customers the opportunity to try a product for free in the hopes that they will enjoy it and want to purchase it or other products from your company.

Remember that there are proper and improper ways to execute a sample campaign. Consider all the times you've had to fight off an overly eager mall vendor trying to ram a free energy drink, snack, or other random items into your hands. It doesn't make you feel good, and it doesn't encourage you to look into or even recall the brand in question.

Instead of approaching others under unfavorable circumstances, pick your surroundings carefully. Consider upcoming events your target demographic will likely attend if you want to carry off an in-person sample campaign.

Fortunately, organizing a test campaign digitally is considerably simpler. Make a list of all the addresses of your customers, and then send each one a surprise sample of one of your items. Include a message requesting social media sharing of a photo of the free sample. You can also create an email campaign offering a free trial of your product if your business sells intangible goods like software and technical solutions.

3. Brand activation in-store

Establishing solid bonds between your brand and audience is the goal of brand activation. So naturally, the corporate offices are the ideal location for brand activation.

Retailers and other B2C companies are most likely to use this strategy. They arrange events at their locations, offer services like food and drink, and let customers see and try their items firsthand. The goal is for consumers to leave the experience with a renewed respect for these companies and how they handle their clients.

However, B2-B brands use this type of brand activation less frequently. Desks and cubicles don't exactly evoke the same attraction as a physical store, so that we can understand why.

However, a company office can provide a favorable environment for an on-site activation. To celebrate the arrival of summer, for instance, you might invite your target market to a picnic outside your workplace. Customers have the opportunity to speak with the people who design, promote, and market your products while they consume their free hot dogs and hamburgers.

4. Trade exhibitions and industry events

Lastly, there are plenty of opportunities to engage your brand at trade exhibits and industry gatherings. These events increase brand authority and promote your company to new audiences, whether you host a live seminar or lecture or reserve space for a branded booth on the trade show floor. In addition, a trade show is ideal for testing additional brand activation strategies like experiential marketing and sample giveaways.

Advantages of Brand Activations and Event Management

As we know, marketing aims to win the battle for market share in this fiercely competitive environment. Brands are everywhere, and they have permeated every aspect of our lives. Every company's top priority is to be the greatest in their industry and produce the finest results possible. Therefore, companies must go above and beyond the norm to plan, develop, and develop creative promotional ideas that complement and fit the brand to draw customers closer to the product.

A brand experience is created through the marketing process known as brand activation. It is a crucial component of every brand's mobilization and evolution. First, we need to use the power of a big idea to ignite the consumer's passion for increasing demand for the brand. Additionally, crucial is that a customer feel an emotional connection to a brand.

Your brand is activated by the staff that is serving you. When a brand is properly activated, it can retain its current market share while attracting new clients. Conversely, this process will negatively impact the brand's reputation when not carried out properly.

Event management is a crucial component of the brand activation process. People get together for the same cause at gatherings and conventions. Therefore, numerous events and programs must be held to address the goal, message, or impression that the organization is seeking to convey.

Flexible brand activation is necessary. The ideal product activation procedure must evolve and react to the prevailing market trends. The key to brand activation success is considering customer preferences and tastes, paying close attention to customer feedback, and making the necessary and relevant modifications.

Sales Activation

The goal of sales activation is to increase sales. It occurs when a customer has reached the purchasing decision-making stage. Brand building and marketing are how a client enters this stage.

A sales activation effort is one in which a marketing campaign is designed to persuade potential customers to make a purchase. Although it is a short-term strategy, it is significant because it brings in money.

Conversion, another name for sales activation, is intended to bring in money. But, as you know, sales activation and brand marketing are more successful than marketing initiatives and brand generation.

Short-term marketing strategies take advantage of brand equity by presenting a compelling message to a group of similar customers. You must breathe life into your brand and build a sustained emotional bond with your target audience. A long-term marketing tactic builds brand equity by mentally preparing your target audience for a wider audience.

Attracting, involving, and motivating your consumers at different stages of the purchasing process is the ultimate purpose of brand activation.

How Do These Efforts Work Together?

Consider the development of brands and sales activation as a partnership. Again, balance makes for the best partnerships.

Without brand building, sales activation attempts won't be as successful. Consumers lack the connection and trust in your product without excellent branding. Your potential customers must feel a connection with your goods before they decide to buy. Your brand-building activities begin before you close a deal. Consider it a marketing strategy that uses a focused, alluring, and precise message to capitalize on brand equity. You're not making the best use of your time and energy if your sole goal is building your brand and you don't use any marketing strategies to encourage people to make purchases.

Managers prepare their marketing initiatives during the planning phase, followed by the activation phase. Marketing analyses in the feedback phase then assess the outcomes. According to Binet and Field, marketing activation is the most crucial element of a company's marketing and sales strategy. At least 50% of marketing activations and 30% of sales activations, with a maximum of 10% of overall marketing investments, should make up the ideal marketing investment mix.

Two marketing activations can be employed as a component of a marketing strategy, depending on the business goal. Sales and marketing activation make up the first and second types of activation, respectively.

As a result, consumer relationships and brand loyalty are strengthened. Brand engagement, which often goes by the name "brand activation," aims to increase customer base brand awareness, brand loyalty, and brand trust. Experiential marketing is a crucial marketing activation method that respects the beliefs and sentiments of the brand and, as a result, fosters consumer and business interactions marked by deep emotional bonds.

It is restricted to companies and products and supports brands in building remarkable, immersive experiences in the physical world so that customers can interact with the brand. Multiple shared experience marketing tools help ignite businesses and connect with millions of people worldwide.

Conclusion

The basis for measurable, long-term sales success is laid by brand activation. A sales-oriented brand experience that follows customers throughout their full customer journey while adhering to the primary brand strategy is what constitutes effective brand activation. Individual measures wouldn't be able to add much value without it, which might result in fewer potential customers.

Brands are initially introduced to the appropriate customer group through activation, who then directs them to the merchandise on the sales floor. Products can only be put in the cart in this manner. Unlike marketing, our branding emphasizes the qualities and attributes of the products rather than making a direct appeal to purchase. When a marketing campaign is over, customers still recall the brand. Effective brand activation is crucial because it should provide an emotional connection with the product or brand engagement.