Unveiling the Path to Business Success with Brand Management and Go-To-Market Strategies
It’s another #Brand New Day! This week has been busy with my continued job search, volunteering as a Marketing Manager helping to develop signage for the upcoming AZ PM Summit, and cleaning up the home after some recent monsoon storms. However, it’s time now to carve out a little time for my next blog post. Let’s look at the confluence of brand management and how it works with the Go-To-Market (GTM) plan. This is something that is often seen with tangible products, but you will also see it pop-up in the realm of digital products and also services. I suppose I should rephrase and just say – Go-To-Market is strategy is about the steps necessary to take an offering to market.
Convergence: Synergizing Brand and Go-To-Market Strategies
Branding and GTM strategies have something of a synergistic relationship, in that they both become better in the presence of one another. When they work together the brand story is amplified through the execution of the GTM strategy. The brand strategy sets the foundation by providing the identity of the organization, helping to lay out the vision, ideals and value proposition. The brand strategy lays out who our key audience is going to be, why we want to target them, and provides an idea of what our internal essence is going to be. As Stephen Houraghan of Brand Master Academy describes it, the brand strategy as the strategic direction and the strategic expression of the differentiated organization or offering.
Then the GTM strategy takes the framework provided by the brand strategy, and then integrates and executes on it to tell the brand story. This story helps to create a consistent image and experience in the consumer’s mind. The story can be told through a variety of touchpoints, including social media, email/direct mail marketing, public relations, print advertising, tv and streaming video commercials, events, influencers, and online communities; just to name some of the myriad places where a GTM strategy can unfold.
Brand Visibility and a Customer-Centric Approach
One of the tasks of a Brand Manager is to increase the awareness of the brand. The GTM plan is realization; the tool to execute on these strategies. If successful, they will have increases public visibility, knowledge and understanding of the brand; which should in turn help an organization boost whatever it was they were attempting to boost. It’s most likely conversions for sales/revenue, but it could also be click, donations, registration/attendance, ratings, or any other demand-driven metric. The GTM strategy will provide guidance for how to tackle new avenues for engagement, which will allow the brand to resonate and grow mindshare in the consumers.
Because really, at the heart of both Brand Management and GTM Strategies is a focus on the customer. We need to spend more time trying to listen and get to know who they are and what make them tick. Then we meet the customer where they are at in their lives. Brand strategies help us discover and empathize with our customer preferences, pain points, and aspirations. GTM Strategy will help us leverage that to provide the brand identity and value proposition, to but our offering in front of the consumer in a way that tells the story of the brand. The GTM Strategy fuels the GTM plan (or marketing plan), the tactics and technologies that will show (with honesty) how the consumer can become the hero of their own unique story. This how we can cultivate loyalty and trust with our brands.
A Dynamic Union
As you can see, Brand strategies and GTM strategies blend together; with each making the other more powerful. The brand identity is the heart of your organization that will connect with consumers, and turn them into fans. We are spreading good vibes and building lasting relationships with our audience. The GTM is true to its acronym: Go-To-Market, because it is the strategy that will allow your brand to go exponential in the minds of our consumers. Cheers!
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