Lean Six Sigma is mostly applied to the production and operational aspects of a business. But surprisingly, it can drive a successful marketing and branding strategy as well. It has immense potential to get you quick results with minimal effort, time, and investment. Many startups and established businesses are embracing the lean approach for ramping up their branding plans. Others are more than keen to join the bandwagon.
The lean branding framework primarily focuses on iteration, testing, and measurement. Estimating and guesswork are replaced by data-driven analysis and measurable results. It facilitates flexibility and smooth coordination with other departments such as PR, sales, and partnerships. By embracing this approach, you can simplify and speed up complex projects. The new way of branding is relevant for all businesses as it can help achieve recognition without doing too much. Let us explain how the lean approach can boost branding.
Better than the traditional approach
The traditional branding approach determines the final product beforehand. Teams do not have the flexibility to adapt and adjust throughout the creation process. Branding specialists seem to repeat activities endlessly, even without measuring success regularly. It is harder to align with the evolving customer interest. Eventually, they may disengage and move away from your brand because its messages are not creative and personalized enough. Lean Branding is better on any day because it focuses on testing and continuous improvement. It never takes a trend for granted and always seeks perfection. Switching to the lean methodology is a wiser approach for any business.
Prioritizes customer segmentation
Lean Branding is laser-focused as it prioritizes customer segmentation. By embracing this approach, brand marketers dig deeper into details and divide consumers into smaller segments. It gets easier to understand them better and learn their pain points and challenges. Once you segment your customers, you can fine-tune your tactics and take a more personalized approach to target them. Modern customers want nothing more than personalization, so lean makes a win-win strategy when it comes to retaining them for the long haul.
Delivers faster
Breaking large, long-term deliverables into smaller tasks is the mainstay of the lean approach. Further, it creates timelines for the delivery of milestones and iterates toward an optimal solution. The focus is also on agility because it matters in the competitive market. If your brand fails to keep pace with the competitors in the market, it will fade out eventually, and buyers will hardly remember it. When you think the Six Sigma way, you limit your work in progress and pick branding tasks in smaller batches. You can test and launch campaigns faster and quickly tweak and realign when there is a need. Results come dramatically faster, making the switch worthwhile.
Makes your team more focused
The Lean branding strategy encourages your team to focus on single tasks rather than juggle too much. It does not advocate multitasking because it tends to lower productivity levels. If you have a professional with lean six sigma green belt in the team, they can show the way to others too. Employees are made to pick one task at a time, tackle them one-by-one, and focus fully on them. They end up finishing tasks much faster and better. Additionally, lean is all about continuous improvement, so the team gets better with time. You can minimize the context switching by limiting the work in progress for them. Your branding plan is on point when teams get more focused on the tasks at hand.
Includes frequent status meetings
Frequent status meetings are a key element of lean branding. They make a valuable strategy because the team gets to discuss what is working and what is keeping them from doing more. You start the day with a short stand-up meeting and have a plan ready. Everyone is on the same page and synced, which cuts down wastage and improves coordination. Every member has to share the tasks picked on the previous day, the ones they plan to pick today, and the challenges they face while working. Regular meetings transform your branding team into a Lean machine that always works together in sync. Problems can be pinpointed and resolved before they get out of control. Further, daily stand-ups create a culture of peer-to-peer learning and take your organization closer to success.
Drives flexibility in plans
Another reason that makes lean branding a better approach is that it drives flexibility in plans. Even as planning is handy, it does not always help to stick with them. The market is dynamic, and customer expectations evolve every day. Getting rigid with your plan may lead to branding failure. Going lean enables you to find the perfect balance between following plans and staying flexible on the way. The best part is that you can be more confident about pivoting or preserving your current state because you can base your decisions on data rather than instincts.
Validates the brand
Lean branding validates the brand, so you are in a better position to understand whether your business is moving in the right direction. It gives you the right set of metrics to assess the performance of the existing strategy. Traditionally, companies look to the customer for feedback and decide whether they need to rebrand. But it is not the best approach because you have to invest extensive efforts in surveys, and results are often not reliable enough. Embracing lean is the better option as you have well-defined metrics to measure the outcomes of branding campaigns. They let you tweak and refine and do things the best possible way. Also Read – How Is Technology Changing the Way Businesses Operate?
Lean branding is the need of the hour as it lets you achieve more with less. Your spending reduces, yet results come faster. Moreover, you have a focused and engaged team that goes the extra mile to achieve the targets. At the same time, your plan has the power of flexibility, and you can adapt and align quickly to match the needs of customers and market trends. If you have second thoughts about embracing the approach, do it sooner rather than later.