Stop Optimizing Risk Out of Your Brand Strategy

As the saying goes: no risk, no reward. And if you’re feeling super comfy with your Brand Strategy right now, chances are you’re not taking them.  

In its simplest form – Brand Strategy is about people and how your offering is going to provoke a behavior change. We measure this in sales, clicks, shares, and loyalty. While it sounds pretty straightforward, human behavior is anything but. 

Humans are risk averse. We like guarantees. We don’t like uncertainty, especially when it comes to our work. As employees, we are loss averse. We want to control outcomes in our favor. We want to keep what we have. However, we are also fickle, impulsive, and hard to predict. We aren’t driven solely by logic or emotion. And we are often hard to understand, which is why we are even harder to measure. 

The growing pressure of performance marketing has turned what was once an intentional and calculated, but also creative and imaginative, endeavor into moments and tactics that are measured and optimized to death. Literally. As partners promise more sophisticated targeting, facial recognition testing, and always-on analytics, marketers are working to optimize the risk out of the process. Relying on algorithms to spit out ‘quick win’ opportunities provides the illusion of choice, with no risk. It is much easier to supervise a measurable plan than it is an intuitive risk.

We shouldn’t ignore the data. While data is predictive, it is not a crystal ball. People are unpredictable. The future is unpredictable. We need to push ourselves to embrace this reality within Brand Strategy and lean into it.  Brand Strategy is about making thoughtful choices about the future, and those choices will always carry risk.

It is time we start building up our resilience again as marketers, strategists, and leaders. We need to adopt behaviors that welcome both analysis and angst. We need to encourage strategic choice. We need to take advantage of the opportunities to understand and manage risk, versus trying to eliminate it entirely.