Creating anxiety in a year of mass anxiety is a sure-fire business.

Recently I heard another idea that has heightened anxiety among brand practitioners: brand managers are going out of history.

? When I first saw this statement I panicked a batch, as a brand marketer in this industry for more than 10 years, I thought I was about to lose my job, I'm going to be the last wave to die on the beach. But a closer look reveals that the support for this viewpoint is still the clichés and stale cases of recent years. These clichés, you must have seen many times in various occasions, they are just piling up some hot words in recent years, what Martech era is coming, marketing technology and big data marketing is more important than brand marketing, content marketing; growth hackers allow you to efficiently acquire customers; management of the private domain traffic is the only correct choice in this era and so on. Stale cases are always the same, the most typical representative is Coca-Cola removed CMO, the new CGO position; McDonald's canceled CMO, the new "senior vice president of marketing technology".

I don't think that's a good idea, because all those trendy terms, "Martech", "growth hacking", "private traffic", they've only been around for a single-digit period of time, and they've been around for a few years. Those trendy terms, "Martech", "Growth Hacking", "Private Traffic", they've been around for single digits, whereas the word "brand" has been around for at least a couple hundred years. Will those trendy ideas still be around in years to come? Do you remember the buzzwords that have been popular all over the world - "O2O", "pig on the wind mouth", "eco-reversal ", "new species". The fact that Coca-Cola and McDonald's have withdrawn their CMOs does not mean that they are not doing branding, on the contrary, these brands with strong brand advantages have not stopped building and improving their brand power for a moment, and they will always be ranked at the top of the world's brand value list. To say that "the brand manager has to leave the stage of history" is essentially not to understand what the brand is, not to recognize the strategic value of the brand, and not to understand the difference between the brand and the emerging marketing game.

The problem of strategy and tactics

Essentially, Martech is good, growth hacking is good, private traffic is good, they are all tactical issues of marketing a brand, at most, it is considered an emerging marketing technology, like emerging tactics in war. And what kind of brand to build, how to build the brand, how to let the brand form an asset, let the brand in the enterprise to play the value, this is the strategic problem . Brand guru Kevin Keller's book "strategic brand management" in the reason why the emphasis on the word "strategy", is also so.

Strategic brand management includes positioning the brand, executing the brand campaign, evaluating the brand equity, and enhancing the brand. The problems described above in the "brand manager out of history" viewpoint belong at most to the execution of brand activities part of it, and basically do not involve the other three parts of the process.

For an organization, branding is strategic, and emerging marketing is tactical. Tactics are complex and variable, and can be changed at any time, tactics can be wrong to start again, but the strategy out of the problem, is by no means tactical can make up for, must do not use the tactical diligence to cover up the laziness of the strategy.

During World War II, Germany's blitzkrieg tactics were invincible, with the army advancing to the bottom of Moscow, but the strategy of attacking the Soviet Union was wrong in itself, and even if the army was more elite, the tactics were more advanced, and the destiny of the failure could not be avoided. Chinese brands such as Metersbonwe and Hongxingerke were destroying cities below the third tier, and their revenues were rising, but they did not add value to their branding. They failed to position and enhance their brands during the period of socio-cultural transformation (the era of consumer upgrading, so to speak), and had to go into a downward spiral. I have discussed this point in Generation Z Cultural Shock, How Luxury Brands Lead Pop Culture Again and Realize Evergreen Brand Value.

I know some people go to some companies to interview for brand-related positions, and sometimes the interviewer asks how to do a brand, or how to make the brand value enhancement of such strategic issues, while the interviewer often answers how to make a poster, how to organize an event, how to operate WeChat group of private traffic tactical level issues. When people ask you about strategy and you talk about tactics, the end is doomed.

? The problem of long-termism and short-termism

Emerging marketing techniques particularly respected similar to the net red live with goods, short video marketing tactics, because the net red live with goods can bring real sales.

Recently saw a point of view, said netroots is a brand, which I take a negative attitude. As a brand, first of all, there must be a unique brand connotation, whether it is Nike's ordinary people fighting spirit, Coca-Cola's happy delivery, Google's do not do evil, all have this connotation. But I don't see that in most Netflix, and it's not just saying "OMG" to the camera that makes you a brand.

For most of the so-called Netflix brands, I would say that if you look at it 5 years from now, if the Netflix is still around and has a good momentum, then it's a brand. Unfortunately most of the cases show that it is often difficult to get to double digits in terms of the number of years a netizen has survived.

As a brand must also be adhering to the principle of long-termism, earn a withdrawal, that is not a brand, that is to cut leeks. I have read reports that a live netizen to try hundreds of products every day, from which to choose to promote, such a large number of products, once there is a problem, it will be a huge loss to consumers. Brands that are committed to long-termism are those that invest heavily in their products and provide the best products for consumers, because if they go against this principle, it can lead to problems and ultimately to the demise of their brand.

Branding is an investment

Investment has long-termism and short-termism, Long-termists are optimistic about the value of the brand, with the brand *** with the growth of the brand growth of the proceeds . And short-termism is the short-term operators, they do not care about the brand, the core is just to earn a withdrawal. Just like a continuous contribution to excellent works of acting actors, focusing on long-term to build their image and reputation, they can form a brand, and the opposite of the so-called traffic stars, and not with the netroots there is a fundamental difference.

Doing branding must be adhering to long-termism, while playing emerging marketing is inevitably short-sighted.

Being in charge of the brand is not the same as not being responsible for the results

Emerging marketers believe that brands are not responsible for the results, and therefore will be out of the history books. This view is extremely wrong, the process of Strategic Brand Management above, in which the third part of the process is to assess the brand effect, only this effect needs to be more multidimensional assessment, unlike the mathematical formula so flush. The world's knowledge field, basically divided into natural sciences and social sciences, natural sciences is very obvious, a Newton's law formula can be calculated clearly how much power a person out of how much effect can be achieved, it is like a big data marketing information flow put. Social science is not so immediate in comparison, it needs multiple arguments, also need a longer period of time to reflect, an economic, social policy often need a longer period of time to see the effect, which is like the construction of the brand and play a role in the process. But this effect needs to establish a system that suits your brand. For example, I have given the formula for calculating consumer equity in "The core of accumulating consumer equity is to return the brand to the consumer".

Brands are not unaccountable for results, they are accountable for longer term, not shorter term, results.

Brand Finance publishes an annual list of global brand values, and this list is a reflection of brand results. As mentioned earlier, the so-called growth hacking, private domain traffic and other emerging marketing plays are just a part of strategic brand management in promotion, and a qualified brand leader should know these things. In the past, most of the core work of brand practitioners was to do a good job of brand promotion through creative, to create a good brand image. But today the situation is different, with creative or other ways to do a good job of branding, these are just tools, tools to change with the times and change. A good brand marketer today, must be able to understand and master these emerging marketing play for the brand to help. I said in the article "How to do a good job of marketing integration - a necessary path for the transformation of the marketer", only write a few lines of copy, think of a few creative practitioners of the road may be getting narrower and narrower.

The so-called "brand manager out of the historical stage", but also those who do not want to forge ahead, stick to the fixed thinking of the brand manager.

The best brand managers are the ones who keep up with the times and promote the brand.

In the new period, the person in charge of the brand not only should not withdraw from the stage of history, the person in charge of the brand should take on a greater mission, the excellent brand manager also need to take on a greater mission.

? He needs to have strategic thinking, constantly exploring brand trends to support the company's long-term strategic development.

? He needs to have Internet operation thinking , develop the brand's user strategy, so that the user stickiness is getting higher and higher, and become a lifelong value contributor to the brand.

? He needs to have product thinking , based on the needs of customers, for product development ideas.

? He needs to have a technology mindset, constantly exploring and mastering the latest technology to provide richer weapons for brand marketing.

Branding is a strategy, and emerging marketing is a tactic, if the brand is an adult, then hacking growth, private traffic, these emerging marketing technologies can only be considered a child , and they may be caught in the dilemma of "hours and hours, big may not be good". Great brand people should have a strategic mindset and make good use of tactical weapons. Such a brand manager will not only not exit the stage of history, but will become more and more important role.