Are you building brand utility?
In an earlier post, we explained why being seen as a thought leader is desirable for a brand. Recently, one of our clients talked to us about increasing their brand utility. This feeds into the topic of content marketing so let’s explore what brand utility means and how you can use it to help create relationships with specifiers.
Essentially, brand utility (also known as ‘branded utility’ or ‘utility marketing’) is about creating additional value for your customer, often in ways that are detached from selling the product itself.
Why does brand utility matter?
Some of the motivations for creating brand utility are similar to those that make content marketing such a good idea:
to engage your existing audience in new ways
to reach new potential customers
However, unlike some forms of content marketing – which you might create for, say, entertainment or PR – utility marketing:
always solves a problem
is truly useful because it is always based on genuine needs
When brand utility succeeds, it creates a sense of reciprocity. In other words: you’ve done something good for me, so I’ll do something for you. It’s in our nature as humans to show goodwill to those who help us out; specifiers have more reasons to feel good about your brand and strengthen their relationship with you.
How does utility marketing differ from content marketing?
The lines sometimes blur between brand utility and content marketing. All types of content marketing should be interesting and relevant – however utility marketing must explicitly solve a problem.
Your goal is to be useful. You might not even mention your product. This is why many brands create a service, an app, or a gadget.
Examples include the Nike Run App, which helps runners set goals and monitor their training, or when a supermarket provides a battery recycling bin at their entrance.
So how do I create brand utility?
Problem solving is largely what specifiers do. This gives you a great opportunity to provide them with solutions. Achieve this and you’ll engage them, moving towards becoming one of their go-to resources, and creating brand loyalty.
You might already be creating brand utility by offering samples or ensuring your sales team are on hand to answer specifiers’ questions. If so, great! But you can go further.
Find new and achievable ways to integrate brand utility into your content marketing. You could:
offer CPDs that help specifiers overcome key problems
write blogs that explain potential issues and specification essentials
publish case studies that highlight common obstacles and how they were resolved
Remember, the key is to focus on solving real problems with solutions that genuinely help. Get this right and you’ll be at the top of the list when it’s time to specify products.