We looked after a lovely and friendly male puppy, Ernie, at the weekend. Within minutes of being in our house he had cocked its leg twice, once upstairs and once downstairs. I put him outside whilst I mopped up and he proceeded to sniff every blade of grass in our garden and give a little spray every time he came across the scent of our own dog.
Other than making me think I was glad we went for a girl dog, it got me thinking about how brands could take a leaf out of Ernie’s book when it comes to ‘marking their territory’.
Why mark your territory
Brand awareness is an essential part of the success of any business. Whether a small business in a niche market place, or a large corporation with multiple audiences; it is important that those you need to know about you, actually see you metaphorically cocking your leg.
Brand awareness comes from consistently putting a marker down and letting people know you are there. Market dominance comes from getting your brand seen in place of your competitors, which let’s face it, is why animals mark their territory. Ernie was basically just saying to our dog “move over, this is my space now”. We see that behaviour every day from fast growth brands who swamp their competitor’s space with their own band message and presence.
Have lots of touchpoints
Touchpoints is a marketing term that has been around for a long time but the execution of it has evolved over the years. For a brand to be remembered, the general belief is that it needs to be seen between five and seven times. In crowded markets though you are fighting for recognition and to be remembered, with plenty of competitors trying to make their brand more memorable than yours. The plethora of media and social media platforms that audiences engage with now and the speed with which people engage with content almost makes that five to seven statistic irrelevant.
If we stick with the five-seven principle though, depending on the business/product and the market you are operating in, it may be that you need to be creating either 5-7 touchpoints a week, a month or dare I say it, a day.
Spray with intent
Ernie didn’t just stand in our house and spray willy nilly (pun fully intended). He purposefully placed his scent at the top of our stairs and then by our back door (high traffic points). Once outside he sniffed every inch of the lawn and strategically covered over the smells of either our dog, the neighbours’ cats or the foxes that sneak in at night.
Whilst it is important to have plenty of touchpoints, to be efficient with your communication efforts, you need to be making sure those touchpoints are being made in the right place, at the right time. This is where coordinating all your marketing communication activity comes into play. There is a whole load of psychology behind which methods of communicating work effectively in which situations and the benefits of one versus the other depending on what you want to achieve. By and large though I think it best to work on the simple formula that ‘owned’ and ‘paid’ media platforms let you say what you want, how you want; ‘earned’ media platforms give endorsements and validates what you are saying through your owned and paid platforms. You therefore need to be coordinating the messages you spray so that if you say one thing yourself in an email or on your TikTok feed, then you want to be getting an influencer or media outlet to be endorsing that same message at the same time.
Leave a lingering smell
I’m not for a minute suggesting you create a foul, long lasting stench here, but the theory is the same. Some of the smells Ernie picked up as he sniffed around our garden will have been there for a long time, as will his own mark that he left over it. In the same vein, your communications activity needs to leave a mark that lingers in the mind of your audience.
As with everything, your approach to this will be determined by your brand personality, the audience you are talking to and the marketplace you are in, but your content should grab attention and then leave an imprint – it could be insightful and thought provoking; funny; controversial; or providing an offer.
Note: we are not dog trainers, but we can definitely help you mark your territory as a brand.
