DVJ Insights: the key to brand growth

In partnership with Marketing Week, DVJ Insights have published a fascinating report into the nature of brand growth.

They conducted a survey of brands that have seen their revenue grow (high-performing brands) and once that haven’t (low-performing brands). These companies have varying attitudes on several important issues – and perhaps this explains their differing fortunes.

Let’s take a look at what they had to say on a range of marketing issues.

1. “Sales activation will become more important over the coming year.”

High-performers: 17% agree

Low-performers: 27% agree

The answer here reveals something interesting: top organisations take a more holistic view of marketing. To them. it’s as much about building and growing brand awareness as it is about getting people to buy here and now. Laying the foundations for long-term growth, high-performers attach relatively less importance to more traditional marketing. Indeed, 60% of winning brands believed a combination of sales activation and brand building was integral to success, compared to 49% of low-performing brands.

2. “We focus on lead generation and conversion.”

High-performers: 68% agree 

Low-performers: 53% agree

Balancing short-term and long-term marketing priorities, top marketers still focus on lead generation and conversion. Specsavers’ marketing chief Shaun Briggs sums up the issue: “Without leads we’ve nothing to convert, and without conversion I’m wasting leads. Nail both and I’m delivering optimum short-term results. Of course, if I’m ignoring the longer term when doing this, future leads are likely to be harder and more expensive to acquire.”

3. “Our innovation budget has been cut.”

High-performers: 7% agree

Low-performers: 22% agree

Both high- and low-performers agree that their budget isn’t enough to fully support innovation (73% and 71% respectively), but lower-performers are feeling the pinch especially.

4. “We view marketing as an investment.”

High-performers: 47% agree

Low-performers: 13% agree

This is particularly interesting; this issue contained the biggest difference in opinion across the entire survey. If your firm views marketing as costly and inefficient, you have to ask yourself: is this a false economy? Indeed, it seems like this problem will perpetuate itself: 22% of low-performing brands expect their marketing budget to rise, compared with 50% of high-performers. Without the resources to outwit their competition, low-performers could get left further behind.

5. “We work with lots of partners.”

High-performers: work with 6.1 agencies on average per year

Low-performers: work with 3.3 agencies on average per year 

Willingness to seek out niche expertise is key to success, with successful companies using almost twice as many agencies as their struggling competitors.

Conclusion

This report suggests that companies with a dynamic, flexible approach to marketing are more likely to have commercial success. High-performing companies value marketing that develops their brand as well as generating and converting leads. And they’re more willing to use outside help to achieve their goals.

Marketers everywhere: take heed of this report, and use it to your advantage!

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