Following a recent report that Birmingham topped the list of UK areas with the most business deaths in 2023, Birmingham-based marketing consultancy NOKAMO has decided to put their money where their mouth is and call for the city’s corporate population to reassess their marketing efforts.
Knowing differentiation is key to creating business stand out, the consultancy has taken out Birmingham’s biggest analogue billboard to appeal to any senior executive feeling underserved by their brand strategy.
The billboard, which can be found on St Chad’s Queensway, sets out the need to ‘adult the conversation’ around brand, looking at its transformative power to grow enterprise value. It comes on the heels of NOKAMO publishing a book entitled ‘The Business Is Brand’ which sets out the case for brand as a lever of financial value across every department and provides all the evidential ammunition required to get it back into the boardroom.
“There’s never been a more crucial time to create competitive advantage,”
“Yet whilst 81% of CEOs think their brand is different, only 7% of customers agree. Businesses must surface themselves from the swamp of sameyness to build a more profitable P&L.”
NOKAMO founder and CEO Ian Humphris.
The message in the billboard is clear. Businesses are being failed by marketers who have become too focussed on short-term tactics and styling – more deserving than ever, perhaps, of their ‘colouring-in department’ moniker.
“Unfortunately, we’re at the point where brand has become more fluff than financial substance,”
“But done properly, a businesses’ brand can increase preference, strengthen pricing power, grow share value, let you recruit better talent and keep them for longer, influence policy makers, and more. It’s an economic flywheel that unlocks value across the entire business.”
Humphris continues
“With more being added to the corporate graveyard every day, we want to help businesses understand that their brand is one of the few weapons they have to defend the P&L against commoditisation,” says Humphris. “This is just the first in a long line of initiatives that will see us do exactly that.”
Since launching in Birmingham in 2019, NOKAMO Consulting has delivered brand strategy for domestic, European and global clients across a range of sectors and business sizes, from start-ups, PE firms and SMES, to billion-pound conglomerates. Projects have spanned meditech, cyber security, finance, FMCG, luxury goods, legal services, building energy tech and automotive.
To find out more about how NOKAMO can help your business stand out from the crowd or to request a copy the book The Business Is Brand visit www.nokamo.com/thinking
