While the online industry laments the inequity of spending on its medium, a new study shows that marketers aren't taking advantage of numerous branding options in general.
The online poll of marketers found that an overwhelming 93 percent feel most brands do not fully maximize their assets -- either external assets such as event sponsorships and partnerships or internal assets such as the sales force, customer information or even their own employees.
"In a sense, brand-building for many marketers outside the realm of traditional advertising is still a bit of a brave new world, as they seek new mediums and opportunities to connect with consumers," says Steve O'Shea, president of The Concept Studio, which sponsored the survey. "There's obviously a gaping opportunity for many brands to understand and leverage the brand-building potential of other marketing resources, as well as the assets that reside within their very own organizations."
When asked to list which external brand assets are most often sub-optimized, nearly one-third (29 percent) of marketers identified "retailer partnerships" as their top choice. "Event sponsorships" and "media partnerships" tied for second at 20 percent each, while another 14 percent chose "entertainment sponsorships."
"Again, these findings indicate enormous opportunities for brands, in this case to cement stronger one-on-one relationships with consumers, whether it's in-store, at events or as part of entertainment and media relationships," O'Shea says.
Employees (18 percent) topped the list of internal assets that marketers feel are most often sub-optimized, followed closely by customer databases (15 percent), the sales force (11 percent) and the Web site (10 percent).
When asked to identify possible causes as to why a brand's assets are not fully activated, the most common responses from marketers were closely bunched around the following:
- Overlooking the marketing potential of certain assets
- Gaps between marketing and sales
- Assets not aligned with marketing objectives
- Failure to integrate internal and external assets
- Communication breakdowns between a brand's various agencies.
"Not surprisingly, the brands that marketers cited as doing the best job of maximizing their assets are a pretty impressive bunch, led by Starbucks, Apple, Nike and Coke," O'Shea says. He adds that American Express, McDonald's, Virgin Airways, BMW, JetBlue and Anheuser-Busch also each merited multiple mentions from marketers.
The survey was conducted online among subscribers to "Cool News of the Day," an email newsletter of marketing ideas and insights published by Reveries, an online magazine of insights and ideas for marketing people. Reveries is published by David X. Manners Company (Westport, Conn.), a thought-leadership content development and communications company.
Thirty-one percent of the survey's 272 respondents came from the agency side, 29 percent were manufacturers and 26 percent were from consulting firms. Sixty-nine percent of respondents had 10 or more years of experience in marketing.
