The Alluvus Brand Execution Path is the device we use to work with clients to align our collective effort with execution. The path consists of five layers:
1. The Brand (and/or Campaign) Purpose
2. Awareness, Favorability, Action and Preference Pillars
3. Target Audiences, call-to-action, engagement KPIs and preference metrics
4. Tactics
5. Marketing spend
Layer 1: The Brand (and/or Campaign Purpose)
The first layer features the brand purpose – or in some instances a campaign purpose that is informed by and intrinsically connected to the brand. We use this as the starting point for the Alluvus Brand Execution Path because we often find that when we engage with an organization, we may encounter two camps. One camp may be focused on a new brand and/or a renewed brand. This focus usually means that the organization is focused on brand development as the primary effort.
On the other hand, by working with our clients to examine the brand purpose, we often find that the brand is actually strong and supported by all necessary brand assets such as an identity guide, core messaging and consistent application across all brand channels. By working with our clients to begin with a focus on the brand purpose, we are able to discern if identity and messaging are the primary focus. This is important because if brand development is the focus, we can then discuss whether or not the team is prepared to invest in a rebrand. Typically, we have found that brand development is an important effort in its own right and could require six- to 12-months to examine, explore and create a new or renewed brand.
We also begin with an examination of the brand purpose because any and all related marketing efforts will need to ensure that they are dual purpose. The brand is going to need to cascade down to inform and support all related efforts and any and all activity is going to need to ladder up to support the brand. It is very much a two-way street.
Agreement on the brand purpose and its value ensures that we begin the engagement with a shared perspective.
Layer 2: Awareness, Favorability, Action and Preference Pillars
With the brand purpose and value established – Alluvus then works with our clients to examine where target audiences are when it comes to awareness – do they know who we are (awareness), do they like us (favorability) and do they support us (action – aka, the CTA). Finally, we examine preference – are customers or stakeholders passionate supporters?
We define awareness, favorability, action, and preference as pillars because the pillars then serve as a construct we can use to examine how target audience research, calls-to-action – especially when it comes to trial – and engagement and re-engagement lead to the ultimate outcome – preference. The Alluvus Brand Execution Path is designed to ensure that we are working together to continuously move target audiences across the funnel from discovery to becoming passionate brand advocates.
The awareness, favorability, action, and preference pillars also serve as a useful organizing device to examine where a team’s comfort level may be. For example, our experience has found that in some instances a client may have outstanding awareness metrics, yet when we examine action, we may find really low engagement metrics.
We don’t want to single any one organization out, so we’ll use an example of an emerging space – enhanced reality and/or virtual reality goggles, glasses, etc. Virtual reality devices have fantastic awareness metrics – be they from Apple, Meta or soon, Samsung. The virtual/altered/extended reality device space gets a lot of attention. As a result, if an established and trusted company announces a virtual device, they can count on extensive coverage. However, as adoption and sales metrics make clear, the experience, comfort and cost of virtual reality devices all factor into play and impact adoption.
So, for those individuals working on the next virtual reality device, they can probably expect fantastic awareness metrics – the media and influencer interest is there. Virtual reality devices are always going to make a big splash and get a lot of attention, but if the user experience isn’t there, social media will follow and no amount of coverage or promotion will overcome the authentic voice of the customer.
Layer 3: Target Audiences, CTAs, Engagement KPIs & Preference
Layer 3 of the Alluvus Brand Execution Path is pretty much embedded in layer two. Before we set out on any brand/campaign journey, we’re going to need to know who we’re talking to. Segmentation – informed by market research – is key here. The opportunity we have found is to examine what inputs are available when it comes to understanding target audience. Many of our clients can’t afford to spend on in-depth market research spend. While we’re not here to say market research isn’t worth the investment – it is! – working with our clients to examine target audience data that is available serves as a pragmatic starting point. And, this step often informs the value of investing in market research that is informed by what we know – and don’t know – based on this assessment.
Calls-to-action (CTA)s follow with any and all CTAs informed by the simple question: “What are we asking them to do?” An obvious point, perhaps. But it is surprising how many organizations spend so much time on who they are trying to reach and then fall short on the next question – what do we want them to do and how easy is it to reach us?
This then leads into the action pillar of the Alluvus Brand Execution Path. What KPIs are being used to ensure target audiences remain engaged? The names for engagement metrics will vary – repeat sales, recurring donations, annual subscriptions – but they will all share the same essential quality: succinct metrics that make clear that target audiences keeps coming back.
While repeat buyers, supporters and donors are key – the final pillar, preference – ensures that your most passionate supporters are ranked and rewarded for being a passionate fan, advocate or supporter. The holy grail – aka, word-of-mouth – is what we’re all after. Word-of-mouth makes clear how target audiences value your organization and what they are ready to do with you.
Layer 4: Tactics
This usually consists of three, four, maybe five sub-layers. When we use the Alluvus Brand Engagement Path to align the flow from brand promise to brand preference, we then work to audit and align all tactical efforts against the brand awareness path pillars to examine how advertising, communications, digital and marketing efforts are working together to move target audiences down the path. By making clear the KPIs across each pillar, this effort ensures that we are able to work with our clients to audit and align tactics using engagement metrics aligned with the Alluvus Brand Engagement Path as our predictor.
This is important because we’re looking to examine the tactics through a value-neutral lens. We’re looking for those “better than’s” with the metrics being the arbiter. With that said, we’re also looking for the “different than’s” or “have we asked ourselves this than’s.” By better we don’t mean bad – we’re just asking if the way we have thought about supporting tactics can change. We’re also using this lens to examine if investments can be shifted across the brand engagement path to address where the outages are across the brand engagement path.
Layer 5: Marketing Spend
We find this to be the favorite layer of the CFO. This is where we work with clients to examine marketing spend across the four Alluvus Brand Engagement Path pillars with a close examination of how dollars are being allocated to move target audiences along the path. This exercise may find that resources are being spent addressing opportunities that have actually turned into challenges, or where spend may be informed by a level of comfort rather than the customer’s perspective.
That’s okay – we can work through that. The goal of this layer is to simply get all the resources aligned across each of the four pillars and then total them up to understand the current spend. Then, working in partnership with our clients, we can work together to reallocate total spend across the four pillars to ensure that resources are applied based on what we have learned together on our journey. This ends up being an informed conversation that ensures a team views any reallocation as nothing more than an investment in each other as we work together to connect with the customer.
Now What…
Well, time to build that dashboard! If we are effective in using the Alluvus Brand Execution Path, we can then move to working with our clients to build an equally cohesive dashboard that measures progress. The dashboard becomes a shared accomplishment that reflects the shared commitment to learning that we have all participated in as we walk the path together.
As we approach the new year, we work with our clients to set themselves up for success in 2025. How can we ensure the strategy is moving in the right direction? Usually it’s by working in partnership with the team to identify Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that tell us if we’re on track. Choosing performance metrics that are effective in demonstrating meaningful outcomes is sometimes just as important as the outputs themselves. In this blog, we’ll discuss how we work with organizations to select meaningful performance metrics that support the strategy, best practices for tracking KPIs and mistakes to watch out for.
Why KPIs Matter
Data is king, right? But it’s not just about collecting data, it’s about collecting the right data…and, let’s not forget the qualitative assessments. KPIs are more than numbers on a dashboard – they’re the compass that guides the strategy, helping the team to understand what’s working, what’s not and where to focus.
The Art of Choosing Meaningful KPIs
1. Identify your strategic objectives…and align: Start by figuring out what really matters to the business – whether it’s growing revenue, expanding into new markets, or organic growth. Here are a few examples of performance metrics that can be tracked based on goals:
a. Revenue growth: Total Revenue, Revenue Growth Rate, Average Transaction Value (ATV), Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
b. Market expansion: New Market Penetration Rate, Number of New Customers Acquired, Market Share Growth, Sales in New Markets
c. Customer retention: Customer Retention Rate, Churn Rate, Repeat Purchase Rate, Net Promoter Score (NPS)
d. Brand awareness: Social Media Reach and Engagement, Website Traffic, Media Impressions
e. Product innovation: Time to Market, Adoption Rate, R&D Spend as a Percentage of Revenue
If you made it through that list – well done. The real takeaway here? There is no shortage of KPIs you could track. But don’t muddy the waters by trying to track everything. Keep it clean, clear and focused on what really moves the needle.
For example, if brand awareness is an objective, tracking social media reach and engagement might be more valuable than immediate sales conversions. It’s important to not get distracted by flashy metrics just because they seem “right,” metrics need to make sense and align with your goals. Which takes us to our next consideration…
2. Focus on quality over quantity: It’s tempting to track everything, but to our earlier point, more metrics don’t necessarily mean better insights. Think primary vs. secondary – what are your top two or three metrics that will really demonstrate success. And then, examine secondary metrics that you’re interested in and can also help you learn.
3. Ensure Your KPIs are SMART:
- Specific: Your KPIs should be crystal clear and focused. Instead of “increase social media presence,” try “grow Instagram engagement rate by 25% quarter-over-quarter.“
- Measurable: If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. Your KPIs need numbers attached so you can track progress and outcomes.
- Achievable: Set goals that push the team, but are grounded in reality. Let’s say your Instagram channel is well-established and has about 10K followers. A 500% increase in engagement rate in one quarter would be nothing short of a miracle. However, an increase of 25% makes sense within the bigger picture and builds on where you are today.
- Relevant: Your KPIs need to tie directly to what matters most for the business – no busy work, just impact. If your goal is to “grow Instagram engagement rate by 25% quarter-over-quarter,” look at metrics that indicate whether your audience has interacted with your content – likes, comments, shares, saves, etc. – not follower count.
- Time-bound: Establish a clear timeframe to stay on track. That “quarter-over-quarter” timeframe matters. Without it, you may be calculating engagement rates without understanding progress against the fiscal year.
Best Practices for Tracking KPIs
Implement the right tools: You need the right tools to keep your KPIs on track and give you the insights you need. Sure you can invest in analytics platforms, which are great, but if that’s not where you are at scale, you may also consider establishing an Excel template that gets you where you need to be. Ultimately, the goal is the same:
- Integrate multiple data sources: Bring everything together so you’re looking at your metrics holistically.
- Stay consistent: Ensure consistency around when and how you’re examining data. Are you pulling raw data on the last Friday of every month? Do you know what the data source is for every metric?
- Generate actionable insights: Ensure that the numbers meaningfully connect to strategies that drive action. Whether you’re using an analytics platform or Excel, ensure that you have a method for translating your metrics.
Create a regular review schedule: Don’t just set it to forget it – track and adjust regularly to stay ahead. A solid schedule looks like this:
- Monthly deep-dive analysis: Every month, take a hard look at the numbers and dig into what’s really going on.
- Quarterly strategic reviews: Every few months, step back and see if your KPIs are still on point with your big-picture goals.
- Annual comprehensive assessment: Once a year, do a full audit, figure out what worked and plan for the year ahead.
Be prepared to pivot: The most successful organizations view KPIs as an evolving set of metrics. Assumptions that inform your initial thinking might not work as you examine your KPIs. Build flexibility into your tracking approach, and be ready to adjust and learn from your KPIs as your organization evolves.
Common KPI Mistakes to Avoid
Vanity metrics: Sure, getting likes and followers feels good, but they don’t always pay the bills. Don’t get caught up in shiny numbers that may not drive real results. Focus on metrics that demonstrate real impact and align with your objectives.
Inconsistent tracking: If you’re only measuring KPIs here and there, you’re missing the full picture. Sporadic tracking leads to incomplete insights and makes it tough to spot trends or adjust quickly.
Ignoring context: A number without context is just a number – it doesn’t tell you what’s really going on. Make sure you’re looking at KPIs in the right context: compare them to benchmarks, track them over time and relate them to your strategic goals. Without that context, you’re flying blind.
In Closing
Choosing the right performance metrics is part art, part science. It requires a deep understanding of your organization, your goals and the stories hidden within your data. As you plan for the new year, remember that the most valuable KPIs are those that provide clear, actionable insights that drive meaningful decisions.
Mindful Marketing Tip: Involve your entire team in the KPI selection effort. This ensures that the team is engaged and has ownership in the outcomes. In addition, different perspectives can help you identify metrics you might have overlooked.
In a previous blog, we talked about the Three Cs: Curiosity, Collaboration and Creativity. If you’re new here, please take a peek if you want some framing before going further.
So, we’re following up, carrying through on our promise to stay curious with three resources that can help get you started on the journey to answer the question: “What if we/you/me could do anything?”
The Marginalian
1. The Marginalian: Who doesn’t love a source for curiosity that begins with “Hey, I thought you could use a poem today…” And then opens with a statement like, “To me, freedom is the boundary condition where matter reaches for meaning–life, after all, is the only component of the universe free to comprehend the rest.”
Well, that’s a start. The Marginalian delivers weekly sources of inspiration, thoughtfully curated and delivered purposefully. The Marginalian demonstrates the value of a deep thinker and sensitive soul who takes time to present stories, resources and sources of inspiration that can serve as a catalyst for your own curiosity journey.
For us here at Alluvus, The Marginalian creates opportunity to pause over a cup of coffee and examine curiosity. As the author notes, “The Marginalian [has] always been profoundly personal–not overt advice to anyone else, but notes to myself about what I have needed to learn and keep relearning.”
The Marginalian is a resource we find useful for reminding ourselves of “our capacity to create — which is, essentially, a function of fruitful thinking — [and] is predicated on a vast and diverse pool of insights, impressions, influences, and other mental resources.”
Barking Up the Wrong Tree
2. Barking Up the Wrong Tree: This resource helps us examine this idea of creativity being a product of a vast and diverse pool of insights. Yep, we’re talking about a resource that helps to examine how we can work together. While The Marginalian can be deeply personal, Barking Up the Wrong Tree often helps us understand the importance and value of a team.
The author, Eric Barker’s voice is empathetic and delightfully curious, and the articles always link to useful resources that help inspire us about how we can work with our clients to create a culture of curiosity and foster teamwork. Here at Alluvus, we never go it alone – so, fostering an environment of curiosity and building a team that collectively contributes is the key. For example, this post on high performing teams notes that: “A huge part of team leadership is merely creating the right environment. Do that well and a lot of things fall into place automatically. A good team environment has 3 parts: safety, vulnerability, purpose.”
Barking Up the Wrong Tree helps remind us that while we need to foster our own sense of curiosity, it’s equally important to ensure that those we work with feel like their curiosity is also welcomed. The best ideas are a product of a team and a high-performing team is usually a function of how we relate to each other. This resource is a great starting point for understanding each other so that when you look across the table or into Zoom, you can relate to where s/he may be coming from…
The Public Domain Review
3. The Public Domain Review: – Why include this resource? Look no further than the Public Domain’s about page: “Founded in 2011, The Public Domain Review is an online journal and not-for-profit project dedicated to the exploration of curious and compelling works from the history of art, literature, and ideas… As our name suggests, [our] focus is on works now fallen into the public domain, that vast commons of out-of-copyright material that everyone is free to enjoy, share, and build upon without restriction. Our aim is to promote and celebrate the public domain in all its abundance and diversity, and help our readers explore its rich terrain – like a small exhibition gallery at the entrance to an immense network of archives and storage rooms that lie beyond.”
The Public Domain Review is like that light that shines through from a forgotten closet door or an undiscovered attic and creates opportunity to discover. While these may be archives of ideas that came from many years ago – the Public Domain Review reminds us that while copyrights have an expiration date, unlike that box of almond milk in your fridge, these ideas and exhibits can be drawn upon again and again and again as a source of inspiration.
We’ll tap into the left-side of the brain soon enough. For today… if you’re looking for sources that can serve as a catalyst for curiosity. Please consider beginning here…
Oh! And if you take the time to examine these resources, bookmark them and/or subscribe to support the authors, listen and contribute to KNKX while you’re at it…
In today’s crowded marketplace, we are inundated with choices. A brand refresh can be an effective way to rejuvenate your image, capture attention and foster deeper connections with your target audiences.
But before jumping into a rebrand, you should consider these four territories that can provide valuable insight for answering questions related to your brand:
1. Shifts in Company Goals
2. Outdated Brand
3. Target Audience Behavior Changes
4. Increased Competition
Shifts in Company Goals
Is your business changing, expanding its offerings, entering new markets or undergoing a leadership change? Shifts in a company’s business goals can serve as a catalyst for reevaluating your messaging, mission and vision. In doing so, take time to examine how your brand foundation has served to get you to where you are today. While the business goals may have changed, the core purpose and intention that got you there can still ring true. If that doesn’t resonate, you might be ready for a change.
Take careful consideration of how the assumptions that were made at the beginning of your brand journey can be refreshed to reflect where the organization is today. This will ensure you don’t jump into a radical change prematurely. But also will ensure that when you do make a change to your brand, that those changes are rooted in the core drivers of your business and goals.
Target Audience Behavior Changes
Target audience behaviors are in a constant state of change. This doesn’t mean you need to “rebrand” and pursue a new identity all the time. If you’ve validated your purpose, then perhaps time is better served examining how and why your customers have changed. Where they are now and how you can ensure that you are prepared to meet them. They may not be asking for a new you, just a new way of finding out how they can reconnect with you.
There’s a wide range and scale when it comes to a rebrand. You may find that small tweaks to color or style choices will be effective ways to re-engage target audiences without necessarily embarking on a full rebrand.
Increased Competition
What is the competition up to? Keep a close eye on what your competitors are doing, but be thoughtful about how that should influence your brand’s behaviors and choices. Sometimes it’s not about a new brand, as much as it’s about a new campaign – don’t confuse the too. We often find when it comes to competitor envy, really what a brand is in need of is a new campaign or strategy, not a complete brand overhaul.
What Should You Do Next?
Validating what you stand for and benchmarking yourselves against the competition are necessary steps to take before jumping into a rebrand. Refreshing what you stand for, revisiting your customer relationships and taking stock of your competition are incredibly efficient and useful steps to take before deciding whether or not you need to change your brand.
A brand refresh isn’t just about your logo and color palette – it needs to be a strategic move that ensures your business remains relevant and continues to resonate.
At Alluvus, curiosity, collaboration and creativity serve as the foundation to our approach to client engagement. It’s the spark that drives us to ask, “What if we could do anything?”
Curiosity, in its purest form, is about openness, exploration, and a willingness to entertain all possibilities. It’s something we believe every team member and client can tap into, regardless of experience or expertise. After all, curiosity doesn’t require any special skills—it just requires an open mind and a shared commitment to exploring every avenue.
And collaboration, well, that’s how we get the work done. True partnerships are what we’re all about, and a belief that when we work together we all succeed.
Our third “C,” Creativity is how we then push ourselves. Maya Angelou sums it up well: “You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” It’s such an inviting way for Alluvus to work with a team to embrace creativity. There is no better than. There is no bad idea.
In this blog I’ll share more about how our three Cs approach comes to life, and how you can utilize this same thinking in your own work.
Curiosity.
When we bring curiosity to the table, something powerful happens. We shake things up, look beyond the obvious, and uncover opportunities that might have otherwise been overlooked. This isn’t just about finding answers; it’s about creating a collaborative environment where every voice is heard, and where creativity flows freely.
Curiosity is the starting point for a journey that leads to innovative solutions – because when curiosity leads the way, there’s no telling how far we can go.
Curiosity requires no special talents (just ask Albert Einstein) and serves simply as a gentle reminder for all of us to enter into any engagement with an open mind. Being curious is something we celebrate and encourage at Alluvus because when we ask our clients and ourselves to be curious, we create opportunities to level-set as we begin the journey. Passionate curiosity ensures that we work together to create passionate outcomes.
Prior to any kick-off meeting, we usually ask our clients to simply slide all of those files, reports and memos into a folder (or box) and send it to us. No organization needed. We relish receiving this gold mine of information because the mess that’s inside looks and feels like opportunity. All we ask at Alluvus is for team members to unpack the information with intention and care as they sort through what’s inside. We carefully examine all that’s contained with a commitment to create structure and avoid leaving anything out.
Curiosity ensures that when each box is opened, we take time to honor the moment and consider the potential of answering a simple question, “What possibilities lie inside?”
Collaboration.
Ken Blanchard, author of The One Minute Manager (which perhaps has now been displaced by “ask Siri”), is the source for this quote which sums up the importance and value of collaboration. “We can’t do it alone.”
Our second “C”, Collaboration, is in service to the first “C,” Curiosity. If anything, by beginning our journey with the simple request to be curious, we establish an equal footing and begin the journey together, as collaborators. “Be curious” goes hand in hand with the question, “What can we do, together?”
It really does take all of us collaborating together and working in partnership to examine how we can tap our collective curiosity to figure it out. Collaboration creates shared commitment and results in an outcome that is a result of everyone involved – client, agency, expert. Collaboration fosters an environment that ensures we are comfortable with each other. When we trust each other, we help each other get to where we all want to be.
Creativity.
There is only opportunity when it comes to being creative. Being curious ensures that we will be creative. As we work with our clients to consider everything, we find that we can connect each and every creative outcome with the journey that came before. It’s easy to demonstrate how every idea links back to the formative stage of an engagement: “Remember when we wondered if…”
We’re not talking about pie in the sky mindsets here; and we’re not advocating for creativity for creativity’s sake. We’re not trying to be cute. When we’re working with clients, we understand that there is a lot at stake. Budgets. Reputations. Jobs. But isn’t that the obvious point? We know we have to work together to deliver an outcome and we know that any outcome needs to demonstrate an ROI.
“What does success look like?” is the organizing question that ensures any investment results in value. The CFO is out there somewhere.
And we’ll get to where they want us to be. However, as we work together to do so, Alluvus knows that the journey becomes so much more rewarding when we embrace the three Cs of Curiosity, Collaboration and Creativity – which exist in all of us. These three C’s result in meaningful and measurable outcomes and bring us together to celebrate what we have in common. (A couple more “Cs” there, but who’s counting?)