Feature | Stable brand building, the dynamic digital media way!

Highest likes, many followers and a hoard of comments! Sounds familiar? This is the new branding lingo in the paced digital age. Branding has over the years travelled through various media exploring its opportunities as important touch-points for its consumers. Now brand building has very efficiently landed itself in the tech-world of digital space, where branding is synonymous to SEO, Facebook page, Twitter accounts etc.

As more and more brands clog the digital media, we try to decipher if brand building works well in the digital space.

So as marketers of the world talk of better engagement, customised offers, better lead generation and that very important conversation between their brand and their consumers, Adgully catches up with industry leaders to understand their view on the issue.

Talking about brand building through digital media, Vivek Bhargava, Managing Director, Communicate2, says, "Content is a very important part of brand building, so instead of spending lot of money on paid media, spend a huge amount of your investment on content creation. Create a perfect mix of content which starts a conversation with your consumers and promote that content. Then gradually one should focus on maximising efficiencies than minimising them. So rather than targeting the traditional category defined audiences, identify your target audiences and then focus on reaching out to your core TG better."

He further adds that "content is king' when a brand decides to start a conversation with its consumers. He also points out that hearing is an important mechanism too; consumers might not drop in to say positive things only. Some consumers might have negative remarks to make, and so a brand should hear it out and further the conversation to a positive note.

Giving thumbs up to the digital media, Peshwa Acharya, Sr. Vice President- Marketing, Reliance Communications, says, "Brand building through digital media is true for various brand categories like- brands which are purely digital brands, brands which are offline brands, brands which are actually e-tailers and brands which are retail brands. Until lately whenever we spoke of brand-building for mass based brands we have usually considered traditional media. However there is a huge opportunity where brands can purely be built on the digital space. But brand building on digital has to be purely contextual; it will be very difficult for an old and well established brand to say that we will only have digital presence."

"For many of the large premium and service brands it is not about should we be present on digital, but in fact digital presence is a must. But the brands have to be careful in analysing what is earned out of the presence, is it just branding, is it generating leads, is it helping in build an experience etc. Digital media is a very essential tool to brand building today," he adds.

Acharya points out that every lead generated has to be successfully converted into a loyal buyer, so digital media plays an important role in it. "At the same time through creations like "augmented reality' the consumer can have an experience in itself of a product or offering before he/she actually visits a showroom to buy it," he contends.

So as it is evident right now the digital media's spread seems to be amongst the urban youth or tech savvy professionals. However the digital media works best when a brand looks at engaging with the aforementioned category of consumers.

So when Imagine TV realised that its offering Ratan Ka Rishta worked well amongst the young viewers, the channels launched a huge digital initiative which included online game, audio blogs, live chat for a day and a suggestion section.

Talking about the increased use of digital, Nikhil Madhok, Senior Director Marketing & Communications, Imagine TV, tells Adgully, "The first two seasons we tried to establish the Swayamwar brand and what we learnt from the first two seasons is that this show had a slight more youth centric viewership. So when we came out with the Season three we were thinking about how we will market it to the youth. Hence we realised that the digital platform is a great way to reach out to our core TG that being the youth. I think it's primarily because they are constantly glued on to the mobile and the web. Secondly it helps us to interact with them in a slightly more fun and engaging manner. Therefore the digital platform became an integral part of our communication strategy."

As marketers show an inclination for digital media when it comes to brand building, it is very important for every brand to have an important story to tell their consumers and have leaders or a set of loyal consumers who can pass on the message. Brand building on the digital media has to be consistent and should patiently continue the conversation. Though the medium is dynamic, the brand message and conversation should remain constant. | By Prabha Hegde [prabha(at)adgully.com]