Things to consider for your client's ongoing success during times of chaos. Philip Jay LeNoble, PhD.

Do Short-Term KPIs Create Short-Term Brands?

• by John Trahar , Op-Ed Contributor, July 2, 2023

The conflict that pervaded Pride Month belies a fundamental problem limiting brands. By prioritizing immediate sales, marketers are sacrificing long-term relevance. Monthly or quarterly metrics and demands are driving knee-jerk decisions.

Bud Light’s about-face after supporting a trans influencer, Target’s removal of Pride-themed displays, and Starbucks’ recommendations to managers on Pride flags and posters, all aim at protecting short-term sales in the face of extremist pressure. These are dramatic reactions in a trend away from LGBTQIA+ representation in marketing. Kantar studied 400 major brand ads from 2022 and found that only 3% had an LGBTQIA+ character. 

Based on the typical, transactional KPI framework, these brands are all making the prescribed choice: protecting traffic, trial and conversion at all costs to meet revenue goals this quarter. That’s the real source of retrenchment across the marketing world. In the process, they’re ignoring the long-term relationships their brands really need to develop. KPIs are Key Performance Indicators.

Is it time to move from measuring lifetime customer value to measuring lifetime brand value? What cements a brand’s relationship with people is what it gives them, not what it takes from them. We need to track lifetime value to customers. 

Revenue isn’t relevance. Relevance comes from innovation, which boils down to solving problems for people in meaningful ways. Instead of how many items a consumer buys over time, we can track how many meaningful solutions we’re introducing over time. 

Problem- to-solution ratio. If we’re causing or contributing to increasingly more solutions than problems -- functionally or societally --  we’re mattering to more people over time. 

Measure lifestyle alignment. What do the majority of people do and think? Are we going with or against this current in our products, marketing, or public works? Are we creating more goodwill than our competitors?

Appreciate median age. Similarly, are we expanding with the population? In the same way birth rate assures propagation of the species, lowering median age signals longevity for the brand. 

Brand consistency is paramount. Just as the function our products deliver cements trust over time, the emotional stakes we plant in the ground build trust if we stay true to them. And they erode trust when we deviate. That’s where a sudden, well-meaning attachment to a transgender influencer fell short for Bud Light. The move wasn’t a continuation of an established inclusivity stand. By contrast, the new “That’s who we are” campaign is a step forward in value to consumers.

Industry standard KPIs focus us on the small increments -- engagement, traffic, conversion, sales, cost per acquisition -- that seem to advance a brand quarter to quarter. To move to lifetime relevance indicators, we need to take long-term views of a brand. It’s not quarter to quarter, or even year to year. 

One of the most creative acts in marketing should be to define and implement KPIs that fit your brand to the humans it serves -- just as effectively as the right content does.