Posted by Martin Nixon
31 March, 2021

I hope you’ll forgive the title I’ve given this post; I just thought it was amusing.

Joking aside of course, if your brand isn’t relevant to your target audiences, why on earth should they bother engaging with you, let alone become loyal customers? And by loyal, I mean steadfast, devoted advocates for whatever it is you excel at, and that your competition seemingly doesn’t; or at least, not for now.

At Nixon, we talk a lot about difference. In a world where we’re all bombarded with choice, what makes your brand stand out is increasingly more powerful than a product’s USP; Nurofen vs Ibuprofen remaining a prime example. 

Today, timing matters more than ever. An Instagram campaign that a customer is oblivious about on a Monday could be captivating on a Tuesday, but only if it chimes with them because they’re looking for a particular service or product. 

Add to this the likelihood that most consumers haven’t travelled the intricate customer journey you envisioned they’d use to find you, and it’s easy to see why things become less straightforward in today’s omni-channel world. So think carefully about your marketing calendar and when to start a campaign, which channels to use and how to ensure maximum impact. Every business is different of course, as are their respective target audiences, so what works for one sector may not do the trick for another.

That age old marketing acronym of AIDA – Attention, Interest, Desire, Action – has been replaced, it seems, with the less acronym-able AFCATL: from Awareness, through Familiarity, given Consideration, leading to a Transaction, and finally, Loyalty.

Peter Drucker said, many years ago, that, ‘the perfect advertisement is one which the reader can say “This is for me, and me alone”.’ Audiences seemingly can’t get enough of tailored messages that speak directly to them, and increasingly they’re willing to divulge data to access it. But only if it’s valuable, meaningful and enhances their lives, rather than simply sells them more stuff. The more relevance the message has, the less friction to get it across.

While I love perversely responding to sponsored content on Instagram to signal that it’s not relevant, ultimately I more often have to say I’ve seen an ad too many times to remove it from my feed. I’m now familiar with the brand even though I’ve removed it. Who knows? Next week I might be in the market for that new garden shed…