Growing Brands with Influencers
By: Manish Hada
Tags: Influencer Marketing, Storytelling, Branding, Influencers, Influencer Marketing Tips

A question I’ve been asked quite a few times in the recent past is “Is there any value for Brands to go in for Influencer marketing and if yes, can it be measured?” The short answer is Yes and Yes.

Having worked nearly 6 months now in this space, it is clear to me that Influencer marketing holds immense value for any and every Brand and that core value lies in creating “Brand Love” (some call it Brand Goodwill or Brand Recall).

What is “Brand Love”? It’s basically an impression (positive 😊) of the Brand in the mind of a potential customer, when an intent to purchase comes up. This feeling is what makes the Brand stand out against competing Brands in such situations. To understand this better, lets see what factors affect the growth of a Brand:

Brand Growth = Segment Growth + Brand Presence Growth + Product Love + Brand Love

Let me define the above parameters -

Segment growth is the growth of the overall category the Brand is operating in. So if Home Automation is growing, all Brands operating in the segment will see growth.

Brand presence growth refers to the fact that over time, a Brand’s presence tends to grow across channels and more touchpoints with potential customers will result in higher sales growth for the Brand.

Product Love is defined as the love for the product which pushes existing customers in creating growth through repeat purchases and also through referrals/evangelising the product.

Brand Love is the goodwill and love which is created in the minds of potential customers. Most new and upcoming Brands need to create as much Brand Love as possible to build sustainable growth, which eventually tends to get superseded by Product Love in the longer term in the case of successful Brands.

Some would argue that paid advertisements also can create the same impact and at a cheaper cost. I think the comparison is not fair and use-cases for both forms of marketing are completely separate. Paid ads work well if there is an instant message which needs to put out which can potentially result in immediate ROIs for the Brand. Influencer marketing, on the other hand, is what leads to growth and ROI which is greater and is created and sustained over a much longer period (much like a SEO vs SEM debate).

Now getting to measuring Brand Love created by an Influencer marketing strategy. It is very much possible, but the approach will sound a bit theoretical. When other things are constant, the delta you see in sales for a Brand is the ROI from the Brand Love created. Let’s take an example of a Rice Brand which has done a campaign with popular chefs catering to its TG. Let’s assume that the Brand is currently operating in a stagnant, crowded market with the same customer touchpoints as before and no real product referrals being generated. The positive delta the Brand will see in new customer sales will be the direct result of the Influencer marketing campaign. Large aspirational Brands have created goodwill which is valued tangibly at multiple billions of dollars and this largely is comprised of the Product & Brand Love they have been able to create over their lifetimes.

To sum it up, Yes, Influencer Marketing creates a lot of value for Brands which is sustained over long periods. To maximize value through campaigns, it is important for a Brand to:

Think strategically and build the right use-cases for these campaigns Create the right story Pick the right Influencers to tell that story

— — — — — — — disclaimer — some pitching happening below — — — — — — — — -

About BigBang.Social where I lead Data/Strategy — a 2-sided #Brand #Influencer marketplace which helps #Brands come up with interesting stories, tell them using #Influencers and create impact. With over 5k influencers already onboarded, we can curate the perfect set of Influencers for every Brand objective. Proud to be associated in building this out and creating #BrandLove by being #truetoBrands. #influencermarketing #storytelling