The imbalance between short-term performance marketing and long-term brand building remains one of the most critical marketing blind spots for businesses.

Brand vs performance marketing. Find out:

• The importance of long-term brand building
• The 3 elements that are critical in building brand recognition and awareness
• How building an emotional connection with consumers can boost profit and market share
• About the optimum balance of brand vs. performance marketing

In the digital age performance marketing has eclipsed brand marketing, yet evidence suggests longer-term brand building is critical to success. Marketers continue to be heavily focused on performance metrics like:

• Click-Through Rate
• Return on Ad Spend
• Conversion rates

These are invaluable in evaluating campaign results, but when these metrics become the ‘centre of attention’ they often lead to short-termism where immediate results are prioritised over lasting brand value.

Enduring marketing success requires thinking beyond the last click. The best marketing isn’t always the most measurable.

Being ‘easy to mind and easy to find’ (because the brand that gets remembered is the brand most likely to get bought) should be a critical element of any marketing strategy. Even so, many marketing strategies forget to include these critical elements of long-term brand building:

1. Consistent brand memory cues

These are the visual, verbal, and sonic elements that help your brand stick in the minds of consumers - even when they’re not making a buying decision. 

Examples:

• Distinctive brand assets: logos, colours, fonts, taglines
• Jingles or sound cues (like the Intel 'bong' or McDonald’s - 'I’m Lovin’ It')
• Repetition of core brand values across every touchpoint

Memory cues like logos, sounds, and taglines are critical to long-term brand success:

• In his book ‘How Brands Grow: What Marketers Don't Know’, Byron Sharp emphasised the importance of Distinctive Brand Assets (logos, colours, jingles) in creating mental availability – the ease with which a brand comes to mind in buying situations.
   
• Research by The LinkedIn B2B Institute showed that using consistent assets across platforms improves brand recognition by up to 80% and supports long-term recall in high-value purchases.

Strong Digital Brand Assets are proven to increase brand salience and are often neglected in performance-heavy strategies.

2. Emotional connection strategies

Beyond rational persuasion (e.g. features, pricing), people remember how a brand made them feel.

Brand storytelling that taps into deeper human values like belonging, hope, nostalgia and empowerment, helps develop a lasting emotional connection with consumers. The John Lewis Christmas TV ads are a good example of this.

Cause-aligned branding (sustainability, inclusion) that feels authentic also works well in building emotional connections with customers. Think of The Body Shop and what it stands for. A pioneer of brand activism, decades before ‘purpose’ became a marketing trend!

Emotionally connected customers are more loyal, less price-sensitive, and more likely to recommend a brand to their family and friends:

• The IPA (Institute of Practitioners in Advertising)'s 2013 report by Binet & Field, The Long and the Short of It, found that emotional campaigns outperform rational ones, generating 2x more profit growth and 3x more market share growth
   
• ‘The New Science of Customer Emotions’, published by the Harvard Business Review, showed emotionally connected consumers are 52% more valuable than satisfied ones.

Emotional resonance is a proven driver of brand loyalty, pricing power, and advocacy, yet it’s often overlooked in short-term ROI campaigns.

3. Investment in mental availability and distinctiveness

Keeping your brand top of mind and easy to recognise, especially in crowded categories, is key to long-term success:

• Increasing Share of Voice (SOV), and where budget permits, investing in non-clickable formats like TV, radio, audio, Out Of Home (OOH) advertising and print, will help keep your brand top of mind
   
• Taking ownership of your own look and voice, and using it consistently across channels, will enhance brand awareness and recognition.
   
• Make sure that your mix of marketing activity is balanced between short-term and longer-term ROI and include brand equity tracking as part of your marketing metrics.

Distinctiveness and 'mental availability' drive long-term growth more than narrow brand differentiation:

• Byron Sharp argued most buyers don't differentiate deeply. They buy what's easy to notice and recall.
   
• The IPA Databank reveals that campaigns maximising reach and distinctiveness outperform those focused on tight segmentation or product claims

So, what’s the optimum balance of brand vs. performance marketing?

Evidence shows that over-investment in short-term tactics weakens long-term brand strength. But what’s the ideal balance between brand and performance marketing?

According to Binet & Field’s report, the optimal budget split for maximum marketing effectiveness is approximately:

• 60% brand building (long-term)
• 40% sales activation (short-term)

Their analysis of 1,000+ campaigns showed brand-led efforts delivered greater profit growth over time.

The IPA 2022 EffWorks update suggests digital-heavy brands may function with closer to 50/50, but brand investment still compounds over time, while performance marketing plateaus.

Key takeaways - brand vs performance marketing

• Marketing strategies that ignore brand building risk becoming overdependent on paid reach and short-term price promotions.
   
• Strong Digital Brand Assets and emotional resonance are proven drivers of brand loyalty, pricing power, and advocacy and have a strong influence on growth in profit and market share.
   
• Buyers don’t differentiate deeply. They buy what’s easy to notice and recall.
   
• Evidence suggests an ideal balance between brand and performance marketing is 60/40, but for digital-heavy brands a 50/50 split may be a better fit.