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WELCOME to Setter, where the award-winning creative talent og a boutique ad agency is fussed with the experienced strategy resources of a consulting firm. From dynamic brand strategies to show-stopping marketing communications, we’re uniquely built to help you focus your brand, differentiate your message, and win.

The Arrival of Inbound Marketing

It’s amazing isn’t it? It almost doesn’t make sense. You’ve got a company that has 13 full-time employees, generates absolutely no revenue, and gets sold for $1 billion. I’m of course talking about the early April acquisition of the photo-sharing mobile app Instagram by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. What’s even more remarkable is that Zuckerberg bought the app knowing that monetizing it might compromise the value that Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom worked so hard to build.

So why did Zuckerberg throw ten figures at an app that is seemingly impossible to monetize?

There’s a new metric business leaders and marketers are beginning to embrace; it’s called return on engagement. When Zuckerberg purchased Instagram, he wasn’t purchasing a novel photo-sharing technology (although that was a huge plus). What he was really doing was absorbing a community of 35 million highly engaged users.

This purchase and many more like it reflect a change in the way we appraise value. Marketers are beginning to understand that it makes more sense to pitch to 1,000 engaged users vs. a million annoyed users (e.g. poorly targeted TV spots, cold-calls, print ads, etc).

Take a look around. Everyone has their face in an iPhone or a computer. People are making their own decisions as to what they want to consume. Everything is “on-demand” and as far as the consumer is concerned, if you don’t give them what they want they’ll find it elsewhere.

So that begs the question: How does a company get their target consumer to listen? Especially if they’re blocking out your ads with TiVo, commercial-free Internet radio, and spamware?

The answer: Inbound Marketing.

4 Examples of Brand Strategy Driving Organizational Success

Social media, SEO, and mobile dominate today’s marketing discussion, with good reason. New media technologies require new thinking to capitalize on them. But, like radio and TV before them, new media are merely enablers, not solutions.

The single greatest determinant of marketing success is, and has always been, brand strategy.

Which customer niche should we target? Who are the key competitors we need to differentiate ourselves from? How can we effectively position ourselves as something better? If you don’t get the answers to these types of questions right, communications are powerless, and the media channel irrelevant. So while it’s important to leverage media technology intelligently, brand strategy is the primary determinant of marketing success – and often organizational success.

This post shares stories of organizations I’ve worked with over the course of my career who have developed bold brand strategies to distinguish themselves, gain competitive advantage, and drive sustained growth. I use the word “bold” because it’s not easy to overcome the temptation to play it safe and be all things to all people. These organizations understood that representing something truly meaningful to some ultimately attracts attention, builds momentum, and earns a brand identity that ultimately appeals to all.