Why Brands Must Embrace a Balanced Strategy

In the fast-moving world of commerce, sales and marketing have undergone radical transformations. From the door-to-door sales of the early 20th century to the algorithm-driven digital campaigns of today, the evolution reflects a profound shift in marketing strategies, and as a consequence, changes in consumer behavior.

In the early 1900s, marketing was a straightforward process. Companies made products, and the role of sales was to push those products to as many people as possible. Brands like Coca-Cola and Ford leveraged mass production and mass advertising to reach broad audiences through newspapers, billboards, and radio. The idea was to reach as many people as possible, in the hope of selling more.

At that point, it was all about mass marketing and product-centric communication. Brands had a limited number of tools to use in marketing, but so was the number of competitors. For the most part, the game’s objectives were to increase awareness, offer competitive pricing, and ensure that people could easily find their products. And, with a limited number of channels to choose from, a big budget offered guaranteed attention. That’s where terms such as soap operas appeared as soap brands fought to sponsor the radio novelas that women enjoyed at the time.

As the decades progressed, the introduction of television revolutionized the entertainment landscape. On 19 June 1946, Gillette sponsored the broadcast of a boxing match between Joe Louis and Billy Conn in New York, USA. Brands like Procter & Gamble perfected the art of emotional storytelling through TV spots, and brand loyalty became a strategic goal. Yet, the focus remained on broad reach and share of voice.

The communication landscape remained essentially unchanged, just more intense, until the internet arrived in the 2000s. With search engines like Google, brands can target consumers with unprecedented precision and receive almost instant feedback, giving rise to programmatic advertising and performance marketing. The arrival of social media then allowed brands to communicate directly with consumers and hold nearly personalized discussions.

At this point, the conversation became more focused on impressions, clicks, conversions, and return on ad spend (ROAS). Marketers became enamored with the ability to track every interaction and predict behavior. And, with such enticing and powerful tools, brands began to prioritize short-term sales activation over long-term brand building.

And it worked for a while. Direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands, such as Casper, Warby Parker, and Dollar Shave Club, scaled quickly by utilizing highly targeted ads and conversion funnels. However, every party must come to an end at some point, and the system began to show some cracks. Customer acquisition costs rose, loyalty eroded, and brands that failed to invest in equity or emotional connection found themselves in a price war.

Today, consumers are exposed to 5,000 to 10,000 messages a day, which means that every scroll, swipe, and video view competes for finite cognitive space. Audiences are overwhelmed, and attention is in short supply.

And not by accident, although our 200,000-year-old brain is an extraordinary pattern recognition machine that evolved to help us survive in small tribes, hunt, socialize, and assess danger. However, it was not built to handle the constant bombardment we face daily. This cognitive overload leads to fatigue, stress, and mental fatigue.

Worse, in addition to parsing information, modern consumers must constantly scan for scams, deepfakes, misleading clickbait, and manipulative marketing. We are tired and have decided to take a defensive posture by tuning out and ignoring anything that feels like a pitch. We use Ad blockers, private browsing, and spam filters. We complain about subscription fatigue and start to engage in digital detoxing.

We are tired and need help.

And that’s where opportunity lies for some brands.

In this crowded environment, being seen isn’t enough; we need consumers to remember our brands. Binet and Field’s research on advertising effectiveness found that campaigns focused purely on short-term gains fail to deliver long-term growth. In contrast, emotional, brand-building campaigns are more likely to stick in the memory and influence future buying behavior.

According to their study, the old mantra of “reach everyone” has become inefficient. Rising media costs, algorithm-driven feeds, and audience fragmentation mean that casting a wide net often leads to low engagement and wasted spend. And that is supposed to become even more pronounced with the insertion of AI as a tool that helps consumers make decisions.

Analysing data from the IPA (Institute of Practitioners in Advertising), Les Binet and Peter Field advocate for a balanced strategy, where a brand should allocate 60% of its budget toward long-term brand building and 40% toward short-term activation.

Brand building involves emotional storytelling, broad reach, and mental availability, so that when a customer is ready to buy, your brand comes to mind.

Sales activation, on the other hand, involves targeting people who are already in the market, with rational messages designed to prompt immediate action.

Nike’s “Just Do It” campaign isn’t selling shoes in every ad, but it’s building a cultural movement around athletic empowerment. However, when it’s time for a product drop, Nike leverages digital tools to activate demand quickly.

If attention is scarce, how can your brand break through?

First, the brand must be emotionally resonant. Research from the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute and Binet & Field both conclude that emotional advertising is significantly more effective at driving long-term results than rational persuasion.

Second, the brand has to be distinctive. Brands that invest in memory structures such as logos, colors, characters, slogans, and visual branding tend to stick in people’s minds. Think of McDonald’s golden arches, Nike’s swoosh, or Apple’s logo.

Third, by being relevant. Today’s consumers expect cultural fluency, inclusivity, and authenticity. Brands like Patagonia and Ben & Jerry’s win because they align with their audiences’ values without pandering.

While facing end-of-quarter pressures, CEOs’ promises, Board commitments, and all other sorts of incentives, marketers are often pushed into the short-term results pitfall. Sure, it is easier to track and measure clicks and conversions online, but it can also create a dependency. McDonald’s Monopoly game, anyone?

For example, a DTC skincare brand may drive sales through aggressive Meta and TikTok ads, but if those ads stop, so does revenue. Without a brand story or emotional affinity, there’s no residual demand.

Sales activation is harvesting. Brand building is planting. Without planting, there’s nothing to harvest.

To break through the clutter and stand out, brands must do both:

• Invest in brand to build long-term preference, pricing power, and customer lifetime value; and,
• Activate demand to capture revenue efficiently in the short term.

The interplay between these two approaches creates a flywheel: the stronger your brand, the more effective your activations become. And the more effective your activations, the more you can reinvest in your brand.

Many brands adopt this approach. In its early years, Airbnb focused heavily on performance marketing; however, in 2021, it shifted its investment into brand storytelling. Campaigns like “Made Possible by Hosts” combined emotional resonance with global media reach. As a result, Airbnb experienced a rise in organic traffic, improved brand recall, and a reduced reliance on paid performance.

Another example is Cadbury. The confectionery brand leaned heavily into price promotions but started to see some brand erosion as a result. To fix the problem, Cadbury returned to emotionally rich storytelling, like the “Mum’s Birthday” ad, and witnessed a rebuilt affection towards the brand, improved brand scores, and an increase in sales.

And then, there is Nike. While brand campaigns focused on empowerment and inclusivity, such as the Colin Kaepernick ad, Nike.com leveraged cutting-edge personalization and urgency for product releases. More recently, Nike abandoned its balanced approach and focused heavily on conversion. As a result, Nike saw a loss in market share and preference. It also experienced a 34% decline in sales over just 12 months.

In summary, sales and marketing have evolved from brute-force reach to precision targeting, and now to an emphasis on emotional intelligence and a strategic, balanced approach. In an age where consumers are exhausted, brands must earn attention through emotional resonance, creative distinctiveness, and cultural relevance.

The future doesn’t belong to the loudest or the cheapest, as that story will end in tears. It belongs to the brands that understand the power of memory, meaning, and momentum, and that know how to balance the long game with the short win.