RED Marketing: The 3 Ingredients of Leading Brands

The RED marketing concepts, which stand for Relevant, Ease, and Distinctive, are not just buzzwords. They hold a unique value in the marketing world, emphasizing the significance of a brand's consistency, frictionless experience, and cultural relevance. For instance, Taco Bell's Breakfast Crunchwrap successfully applied the RED concepts in it's campaigns, resulting in their success to build traction in a fast food space widely owned by McDonalds. While these concepts may not be new to most marketing professionals, they are often the ones we need to revisit and reinforce in our strategies.

These fundamentals are a collision of marketing science and art, a combination of an understanding of human beings' true desires and motivations with the knowledge to respond to the science successfully in a compelling, original, and memorable way.

To walk down this path, brands must be open to the exciting journey of discovering truths about themselves they otherwise weren't aware of. This process can be intriguing and engaging, leading to new insights and opportunities for growth.

The RED concepts are rooted in the forces that shape the human decision-making process, including culture, economics, and human behavior. Furthermore, the guidance to understand what our customers find culturally and socially relevant is apparent once you hear it. To understand the culture you are trying to resonate with, you need to be immersed within that culture to understand it. This step is not just important, it's urgent. A simple way to start immersing yourself in the culture is to watch shows and movies and listen to music your audiences engage with.

Being an accessible brand for your customers can be difficult if you don't spend enough time in their perspective. This concept is as straightforward as it comes, and you want your customer's experience with your brand to be frictionless. This ease should be experienced throughout their customer journey, from becoming a functional customer to building a loyal relationship. As you explore and understand if and how your brand's friction level sits within your customer base, ask yourself a few questions. What friction is your customer experiencing? How can you anticipate and reduce friction? Can you identify that specific friction? Can you align with other categories to 'piggyback' on their ease?

When it comes to brand differentiation, it's crucial to understand that consumers are more influenced by distinctiveness than mere differentiation. Being a distinct brand means you're meaningful and memorable. Differentiation just means you're unique. While it's natural to focus on understanding competitors and finding ways to stand out, the book's examples highlight the power of building on our distinctive qualities to better resonate with our customers. Reviewing our brand assets and strategy to determine our level of distinctiveness can be a straightforward process if we follow the steps outlined in the book.

Being distinctive requires consistency and presents opportunities to tap into the Mere Exposure effect and Ehrenburg's law of Double Jeopardy; both concepts relate to the benefits brand exposure harnesses when keeping your audience's attention on your brand.

I lean into the data side of most marketing scenarios, and learning the RED marketing concepts improves my capacity to understand what additional data exists beyond the standard attribution models. Branding and cultural movements force my analysis process to seek out what indirect drivers are shifting a performance story in a direction I need help to work out through the standard analysis process.  This experience has reinforced my belief in the power of the RED concepts in improving branding strategies.

This all comes down to being clued into what's happening in the world that motivates our audiences to act.

Our tactical marketing efforts play a small role in our customer decision-making process. But, our brands' integration into the cultural/social ether to the point that it's 'cool' to be associated with our brand is the sweet spot. Build a brand that people want to discuss with their friends at a party, where they want to be the first to bring up our latest brand activation in conversation. This comes down to consumers flocking to brands that help them express who they want to be.

I enjoyed RED Marketing:  The Three Ingredients of Leading Brands by Greg Creed and Ken Muench, and I think you would too.