Mastering Brand Consistency: Balance, Recognition and Creativity

Written By Katya Allison

This episode of "Let's Talk Marketing" explores brand strategy and influencer marketing in today's digital landscape. Host Katya Allison interviews Denise Vitola about her career journey starting in sports marketing and transitioning to leading influencer programs.

What You'll Learn:

- Developing consumer-led brand strategies through feedback
- Ensuring influencer content is authentic and consistent with your brand
- Measuring influencer marketing across awareness, engagement, sales metrics
- Gaining inspiration and perspectives from thought leaders on different platforms
- Embracing risks and failures as opportunities for growth and innovation

Episode Summary

In this insightful episode of Let’s Talk Marketing with Katya Allison, she's joined by Denise Vitola, VP of Brand Strategy at Linqia. Together they explore brand strategy and influencer marketing in today's digital landscape. And dive into Denise's remarkable career journey, from sports marketing to spearheading influencer programs, while emphasizing the importance of listening to consumers when crafting brand strategies. Throughout the discussion, they uncover key insights on leveraging influencers as genuine storytellers, measuring campaign success across the marketing funnel, and balancing brand adaptation with consistency. Tune in to discover how to enhance your brand strategy, maximize influencer effectiveness, seek inspiration from social media platforms, and embrace calculated risks to navigate the evolving marketing terrain effectively.

Key Points Covered

1) Developing Comprehensive Brand Strategies

  • Focus on listening to consumer feedback and adapting strategies accordingly

  • Stay true to your brand identity while acknowledging changing trends

  • Consider non-traditional approaches that are consumer-led rather than fixed guidelines

    2) Leveraging Influencers Effectively

  • Use influencers to authentically share relatable stories and experiences

  • Ensure influencer content aligns with your brand's tone and voice

  • Work with sophisticated influencers and partners who understand the process

    3) Measuring Influencer Marketing Success

  • Align metrics with your marketing funnel goals like awareness, purchase intent

  • Leverage Nielsen ratings and MTA tags to measure ROI against other tactics

  • Take a holistic view involving multiple touchpoints and infrastructure

    4) Gaining Inspiration and Staying Nimble

  • Absorb new ideas by consuming diverse content on various platforms

  • Follow thought leaders, brands, news sources for trends and perspectives

  • Embrace calculated risks and view failures as learning opportunities

Key Takeaways and Insights

Takeaway 1: Influence in the digital era is about genuine storytelling and relatability

Denise Vitola emphasized the importance of relatability and genuine storytelling in influential marketing. Vitola argued that brands should focus on listening to consumers and adapting their strategies based on consumer feedback rather than sticking rigidly to traditional brand strategies.

"Don't worry about your competitors… Your share of voice is clouded and crowded with other things that are going on so your competition isn't really who you think they are," Vitola explained. She suggested that brands should focus on creating engaging and relatable content, and then observe the consumer response to it.

She continued, "I want you to start out with that. Let's say it was a snack like a granola bar. I want you to talk to me about like hey I'm constantly on the go... then bring out the product and say with all that said I always have my snacks with me." The key, according to Vitola, is to tell a story that consumers can see themselves in, making the brand feel more authentic and relatable.

Takeaway 2: Embracing failure can lead to success in marketing

Vitola encouraged marketers to embrace failure as a learning opportunity. She emphasized that failure was not a setback, but rather a stepping stone towards success. She argued that being open to change and being nimble in response to unexpected challenges were key to success in marketing.

Vitola advised, "Take those calculated risks, don't be afraid… I think you need to rethink things. Failure is success and you will learn your biggest life lessons from failures."

She added, "I don't believe them to be failures because in this world that we live in, if you fail fast enough you can turn it into a success… If you get to an intersection that is an unexpected path then, make the right or left and be happy with your decision and you know commit to it and follow through on it."

Takeaway 3: Influencer marketing should be an integrated part of the marketing strategy

Vitola stressed the importance of integrating influencer marketing into the overall marketing strategy. She explained that while influencer marketing can be a powerful tool, brands need to ensure they are using influencers effectively and integrating their content across various marketing channels.

Vitola explained, "Brands integrate themselves into using sports as a vehicle to communicate to consumers and that's exactly what I did working with huge brands like Mastercard and Ford and Chevy Bank of America on programs. Their sports sponsorship programs and how they wrapped it with a marketing strategy so that it would deliver messages that they were trying to deliver to their customers."

She also highlighted the importance of choosing the right partners and platforms for influencer marketing, saying, "Some people are peeking later and they're rising stars that might not be on your network and they might be the most perfect person for said brand. So you really want to work with somebody that has partnerships with all of the platforms."

Insights Surfaced

  • The marketing industry needs to adapt faster to the changing landscape and move away from traditional brand equity concepts.

  • Consumers are now in the driver's seat and marketers need to listen to their needs and preferences.

  • Influencer marketing can be used across the marketing funnel and consumer journey.

  • Misinformation about influencer marketing analytics can hinder its adoption.

  • It's important to measure influencer marketing success based on the objectives set at the beginning of the campaign.

  • Companies need to invest in technology and infrastructure to accurately measure the impact of influencer marketing.

  • The consumer's journey and experience should be the focus of any marketing strategy, not just the brand's colors or identity.

  • Failure is part of success, and marketers should be willing to take calculated risks and learn from their mistakes.

Key Quotes

  • "If you work in an industry you love and you do something that you love it doesn't feel like a job anymore." 

  • "The opportunities are endless and now the opportunities with creators to start creating ads and you're not even tapping them for their channel leveraging on social media."

  • "The consumer is now in the driver's seat and we're a passenger so you need to like follow their lead."

  • "I can tell you what a consumer thinks about any brand at any given moment in time." 

  • "Tell me that story make me understand where I use this product."

  • "It's very easy to measure influencer when people say to me that they can I'm like I don't understand like it's like washing laundry."

  • "Failure is success and you will learn your biggest life lessons from failures."

  • "Make the right or left and be happy with your decision and you know commit to it and follow through on it."

Katya Allison
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