Want to know what sort of ROI you can expect on a fresh brand identity or marketing campaign? Here are the cold, hard figures you need to know.
In the 20-or-so years that I’ve been in business, I’ve rebranded a handful of times and invested in many of my own marketing campaigns (you’ve got to practice what you preach, right?). And while I’m happy to say I’ve more than recouped my investment every single time, the initial financial outlay and the effort sometimes made me wince.
So I can understand why, when I’m discussing a new creative project with a client, there will sometimes be an intake of breath or a request for a pared-down version (by the way: ours is by no means an expensive agency). I know that my counterpart will be mentally totting-up how else he or she could spend the money and perhaps how that sum could equate to an investment in a member of staff, say – a living, breathing person who can go out and sell the brand. I get it, I really do.
I also understand that my somewhat biased evidence of how I increased my turnover by 22% following a rebrand, or how I got a 65% response rate on one (wildly effective) Direct Marketing campaign, is less than compelling. So I did a bit of digging. I wanted to get an up-to-date, verifiable set of figures that demonstrate the value of branding in cold, hard stats. The sort of results that get the approval of finance directors as well as marketing people.
It wasn’t difficult.
Bring on the brands
Every year, the DBA Design Effectiveness Awards recognise examples of design that have had a tangible and measurable effect on business success – the brands and campaigns that don’t just look great or sound clever, they’ve had a transformative impact on a company’s bottom line.
This year, there were 54 wide-ranging examples to choose from and they weren’t just the household names with the big bucks budgets, or the funky products and services that you’d expect to have a creative approach. Charities, hardware manufacturers, universities and industrial engineers were all recognised.
Beery bonanza
A few notable successes took my eye. Carlsberg Export’s rebrand, for example, helped it to a 170% increase in grocery distribution points and even gained the beer a place back on Sainsbury’s shelves having been delisted for five years. These big wins stabilised the brand’s gross profit, which has since grown by 2% on every hectolitre sold. I have no idea what this equates to financially for a brand like Carlsberg, but we can assume it’s the sort of figure that gets high fives in the boardroom.
And if you’re thinking, ‘yes, but how much did they spend on marketing this new Carlsberg brand?’, all of this happened before any other supporting comms aired and within a remarkably short period of time – just 14 weeks after relaunch.
B2B boost
Meanwhile, in the world of B2B, YPO’s (Yorkshire Purchasing Organisation) new proposition as ‘Public Value Champions’ and a more modern, sophisticated personality resulted in 384% increase in associate members. That’s 384%! Plus, the company’s UK-wide growth has seen its workforce swell by 12% with 57 new jobs created.
Or take Danone’s Light & Free yoghurt brand as another example. In the food sector, consumers are moving away from calorie counting to more natural products with low sugar, salt and artificial colours and flavourings. Danone’s creative agency noted these changing perceptions and created a stylish brand that 3.9 million households tried within 32 weeks. It also achieved the ‘highest penetration’ of all yoghurt innovations in the last four years.
Fresh thinking
Final word goes to software brand Advanced, which took a gamble on a highly (some might say insanely) creative marketing approach built on fairy tales and a proposition of ‘right-first-time-solutions’. The happy ending? A sales pipeline of £3.93 million, up 293% (on a target of £1 million). And that’s enough to make any financial director jump for joy.
So. Who wants a rebrand? Please form an orderly queue at www.sim7creative.co.uk or contact me directly at sim@sim7creative.co.uk