Kiwi brands like Whittaker’s, Air New Zealand, and Zespri show how combining performance marketing and brand-building can drive both short-term results and long-term success. Kiwi brands like Whittaker’s, Air New Zealand, and Zespri show how combining performance marketing with brand-building can drive both short-term results and long-term success.
This article will teach you how you can learn to implement performance marketing and brand building to strengthen your brand.
What Is Performance Marketing
Performance marketing focuses on achieving measurable outcomes, such as sales or conversions, through strategies like digital advertising or paid media campaigns. It’s highly data-driven, enabling brands to optimise their marketing spend and get real-time results.
Key metrics include click-through rate (CTR), return on ad spend (ROAS), and conversion rates. This approach allows brands to generate quick returns on marketing investments.
What Is Brand-Building
Brand-building focuses on building brand awareness, emotional connections, and trust with the audience. It’s a long-term strategy that aims to foster loyalty, not immediate sales. Metrics for brand-building include brand recall, customer engagement, and sentiment analysis.
Whittaker’s, for example, strengthens its brand over time through authentic storytelling, which doesn’t drive instant sales but creates a foundation for future customer loyalty.
Setting Clear Goals for Both Strategies
For sustainable growth, brands need to set complementary goals for both performance marketing and brand-building. Performance marketing targets short-term sales, while brand-building aims for long-term loyalty.
Successful brands like Whittaker’s use performance marketing to generate immediate sales while building trust through ongoing brand initiatives. Businesses create value in both the short and long term by aligning these efforts.
Integrating Performance Marketing with Brand-Building
Here are steps on how you can implement both performance marketing and brand-building for your brand:
Consistency in Messaging
Consistency is key when integrating both strategies. Brand messaging should be cohesive across all platforms—whether digital ads, social media, or in-store experiences. Air New Zealand exemplifies this, using compelling storytelling to drive bookings while reinforcing its brand message across different touchpoints.
Using Data to Enhance Brand Strategy
Performance marketing data provides valuable insights that can inform brand-building efforts. Zespri, for instance, optimised its campaigns by using retail data to target high-value audiences, resulting in a 5% sales uplift. This data-driven approach not only boosted immediate sales but strengthened Zespri’s long-term brand positioning.
Striking the Right Balance
Research suggests that a 60:40 split, with 60% of marketing focused on brand-building and 40% on performance marketing, is ideal for long-term success. Kiwi brands like Whittaker’s maintain this balance, building trust while still generating immediate sales. Brands can achieve short-term growth while positioning themselves for long-term success by getting this balance right.
Emotional Connections in Performance Marketing
Storytelling’s Power
Storytelling plays a vital role in both performance marketing and brand-building. By creating emotional connections with their audience, brands like Whittaker’s increase customer loyalty, which, in turn, boosts the effectiveness of their performance marketing efforts. Emotionally resonant content drives conversions by fostering deeper connections with customers.
Creative Content in Performance Marketing
Creative content should serve both emotional engagement and measurable results. Zespri uses emotionally engaging campaigns to highlight the quality of its kiwifruit, combining brand-building with performance marketing to increase both engagement and sales.
Measuring and Optimising Marketing Strategies
Measuring and optimising strategies based on performance data is essential. Brands like Air New Zealand regularly adjust their marketing mix to maintain both brand strength and revenue growth. Tracking both brand awareness and conversions ensures alignment with both short- and long-term goals.
Conclusion
Sustainable growth comes from combining performance marketing and brand-building. By being consistent, using data, and building emotional connections, Kiwi brands can get quick results while also building long-term customer loyalty.
Brands like Whittaker’s, Air New Zealand, and Zespri demonstrate how a balanced, data-driven, and emotionally engaging strategy can lead to sustainable growth.