Marketing is asked to prove its value in financial terms while the space for real thinking keeps shrinking. New data puts a number on brand strength, and the sharpest growth territory sits outside the category map. Both depend on judgement, which clients say is the thing they receive least.
At IVALO, we spend our time on the calls that decide where growth comes from.
INSIGHT 1
Brand strength moves enterprise value
Brand metrics now have a valuation number attached to them. Across 23 listed companies and 675 company months, a 10 point rise in consideration was associated with a 20 point rise in enterprise value, with awareness close behind.
Josh Lerner and his co-authors call the link an association and stop short of claiming cause. It still hands brand investment a language the board already trades in.
What works?
- Bring brand tracking into the valuation conversation. Consideration and preference track the numbers finance already watches.
- Prioritise consideration in your reporting. It showed the strongest link to value in this data.
- Carry the caveat yourself. Strong companies can also afford stronger brands, so say it before your CFO does.
Read More
Bella Private Markets: Brand Strength & Firm Valuation
INSIGHT 2
Own one frustration completely
The strongest entry points sit in what people quietly tolerate elsewhere: the airport queue, the sad meal deal, the third coffee of the afternoon.
Diego Chicharro shows how P&O, Buxton and Taco Bell each stopped mapping their own category and claimed a frustration their substitutes created. Taco Bell made the supermarket meal deal the villain and grew lunchtime revenue by 100% against market growth of 5.3%.
What works
- Map what buyers do instead of choosing you. Substitutes reveal demand your competitive set never measures.
- Look for the frustration nobody wants to name. Incumbents have little reason to highlight the problem they created.
- Commit to one territory for years. Fame comes from depth, and depth needs repetition.
Read more
WARC: A modern take on Category Entry Points: How challenger brands can win by expanding the category they compete in
INSIGHT 3
Ask your agency to challenge you
Senior marketers rate stretch and growth thinking as the most valuable thing an agency offers, at 83%. Only 48% believe they get it.
Challenging the brief shows the same shape, and the gap widens further up the organisation. New IPA and Tracksuit research points at how the work is priced, with 64% of clients agreeing that current agency charging undervalues it.
What works?
- Put challenge in the brief. Name disagreement as a deliverable and someone will provide it.
- Pay for judgement on its own terms. Hourly models price effort, so the thinking arrives for free and gets treated that way.
- Protect the weeks before the brief is locked. That is where thinking still changes the commercial outcome.
Read more
WARC: Why agencies need to prove the value of thinking: new IPA/Tracksuit study »