Building a powerful events strategy can be a game-changer for businesses in today’s fast-paced and highly competitive landscape. However, it can be daunting, especially for big companies that operate multiple brands or product lines.
The main challenge of creating a multi-brand events strategy involves catering to various target groups, messaging frameworks, products, and markets. How do you create an events strategy that aligns with the narrative of your brands while integrating it fully into your overall revenue growth framework?
In this article, we will explore the main challenges that multi-brand companies face when running events and the steps to building an efficient events strategy.
The Main Particularities of Multi-brand Companies
A series of defining characteristics make multi-brand conglomerates different from other business entities. So before discussing planning challenges and steps to building an events strategy, let’s highlight the elements that make a multi-brand company different from the rest.
- Portfolio diversity: Launching or incorporating multiple brands and product lines differentiates multi-brand companies and conglomerates different from other business entities. For example, names such as Pernod Ricard include numerous brands such as Chivas Regal, Havana Club, Absolut Vodka, and Campo Viejo. Pernod Ricard has one of the industry’s most comprehensive portfolios with 240 premium brands.
- Various product categories: Apart from operating with multiple product lines, a multi-brand company may launch different product categories. For example, a conglomerate can offer products in categories such as apparel, luxury, accessories, and beauty.
- Varying market conditions: Multi-brand companies operate in different markets or industries, considering multiple variables, such as consumer behavior, competition, and economic factors. These variables can change rapidly and unpredictably, making it challenging for multi-brand companies to manage their portfolio effectively and adapt their event strategy to each market’s specific needs.
- Different brand messaging: Each brand and product has a different target audience with distinct needs and interests. To approach each target audience, the multi-brand company must craft a personalized narrative, tone, and messaging.
- Complex organizational structures: Finally, multi-brand companies often have complex corporate structures, with different teams managing each brand or product line.
Although these particularities make conglomerates different from the rest of business entities, they may also significantly impact creating an events strategy.
Challenges Multi-brand Companies Have When Running Events
Compared to other business entities, multi-brand companies will encounter specific event planning challenges, such as:
→ Different audiences
Multi-brand companies and conglomerates have a diverse portfolio of products and services, which means they cater to different target groups. Consequently, each target group may require a different approach regarding event experiences. Understanding each target group’s unique needs and preferences and tailoring the event experience to meet their expectations is essential.
For instance, if a multi-brand company deals with fashion and beauty products, it may have different brands catering to different age groups, genders, and lifestyles. An event targeting a younger demographic may require a more vibrant and interactive experience, while an event targeting an older demographic may require a more sophisticated and refined approach. This reality adds more complexity to the overall planning process.
→ Multiple messages
Event planning for a multi-brand company involves juggling multiple approaches and narratives to communicate effectively with each target group.
Each brand within a multi-brand company has a unique identity, and each target group may have different levels of familiarity with the brand. In other words, the event messaging and approach must align with each brand’s identity while catering to the target group’s preferences and needs.
This requires careful planning and coordination to ensure the messaging is consistent and cohesive across all brands and tailored to each target group.
→ Logistic coordination
Complex organizational structures may create logistical challenges when planning events for multi-brand companies. With multiple brands and departments involved, event planning requires significant coordination and communication. This coordination involves finding common ground and aligning goals and objectives while meeting the needs and goals of each brand.
→ Lack of standardization
A lack of standardization in event planning processes can pose significant challenges for multi-brand companies. Each brand within a multi-brand company may have its unique approach to event planning, which can lead lack of consistency. Subsequently, this may result in confusion regarding budgeting, vendor selection, and overall event execution, leading to inefficiencies and missed opportunities for cost savings.
→ Collaboration with internal and external stakeholders
Another challenge multi-brand companies face when running events is collaborating with internal and external stakeholders. With multiple brands and departments involved, it is essential to ensure that everyone is on the same page regarding event planning and execution. This requires effective communication and collaboration between internal stakeholders, such as different departments within the company, and external stakeholders, such as vendors and partners.
The executive teams from multi-brand companies should always consider all these challenges when designing an events strategy. Otherwise, their efforts may need more coherence, lowering the impact events can have on business growth.
5 Steps To Creating a Multi-brand Events Strategy That Works
Creating an effective multi-brand events strategy can be challenging for companies with diverse product or service portfolios. With different target groups, brand identities, and event planning processes, ensuring consistency and alignment across all brands can be difficult while catering to each target group’s unique needs and preferences. Having this in mind, let’s discuss the steps you can take to create an efficient multi-brand events strategy:
Step 1. Align your company’s goals with the business objectives of each brand
Start by identifying your company’s goals and each brand’s objectives. This requires a comprehensive analysis of your business model, target audience, and product or service offerings. Understanding the competitive landscape and market trends is essential to ensure your goals are relevant and attainable.
Once identified, aligning your company’s goals and each brand’s objectives is crucial. Involve representatives from each brand in the process to gain their input and insights. This will help you create a more comprehensive event strategy and foster a sense of ownership and commitment to the plan.
Step 2. Create cohesive branding to tie all events together
Incorporate the company’s overall branding while remaining flexible enough to accommodate each brand’s unique identity. Ensure consistency in design, messaging, and overall experience to create a seamless brand experience for attendees.
Creating a branding guidebook that outlines guidelines for each brand’s use of the company’s visual elements can help ensure consistency. The guidebook should also include messaging, tone, and voice guidelines that align with each brand’s unique identity while maintaining consistency with the company’s overall brand messaging.
When developing the branding approach, it’s essential to consider the different types of events each brand will host and ensure that the branding approach can be adapted to fit the specific event’s objectives and target audience.
Creating a cohesive branding approach can strengthen the company’s overall brand and create a recognizable and consistent brand experience for attendees across all events, regardless of the event’s hosting. This will help the company achieve its broader business objectives while supporting each brand’s goals.
Step 3. Establish planning guidelines across your brands
Although your brands may differ in audience, messaging, and offer, you can always ensure planning efficiency by standardizing the logistics. For example, you can create best practice guidelines for each brand, including timelines, vendor selection, communication protocols, and event management software.
Also, you can provide a planning framework with templates and action roadmaps to help your teams run better events. This planning framework may include the best email templates to attract powerful speakers or efficient marketing campaigns that guarantee success. Moreover, you can run internal event planning workshops for all your teams, achieving strong coordination and standardization.
Step 4. Agree upon the key metrics
Each brand and event will have different goals, so you must be flexible when identifying key metrics. For example, some brands may focus on attendance or engagement rates, the number of qualified leads, or revenue. At the same time, other brands will pay attention to up-sell and cross-sell metrics and brand advocacy ratio.
Although each brand may identify a different metric to measure, aligning these indicators with your company’s overall goals is important. Once the metrics have been agreed upon, tracking progress toward achieving them is important, as using the data collected to adjust future events. This allows continuous improvement and refinement of the multi-brand events strategy over time.
Step 5. Identify a trusted event tech partner
Lastly, identifying a trusted event tech partner is the only way to achieve planning coherence and standardization and increase overall efficiency across brands and departments. A trusted event tech partner can provide the tools and resources to streamline your planning and execution process across all brands.
When selecting an event tech partner, consider their experience and expertise in the industry, the quality of their software and services, their customer support, and their ability to customize their solutions to meet your unique needs. You should also assess their compatibility with your existing tools and systems and their ability to integrate with other platforms you use.
A good event tech partner should be able to provide you with a wide range of services, from registration and ticketing to mobile apps, event management software, and data analytics tools. They should also offer features that allow you to tailor the attendee experience to each brand’s unique identity while maintaining consistency in design and branding.
For example, Eventtia has developed innovative and cutting-edge solutions designed to specifically meet the needs of retail businesses and multi-brand companies, focusing on enhancing the attendee experience and improving event ROI.
Wrap-up
Developing a multi-brand events strategy is crucial for businesses operating in multiple industries. Such companies face unique challenges, such as catering to different target groups, coordinating logistics and messaging, and collaborating with internal and external stakeholders.
To create an efficient multi-brand events strategy, companies must align their business objectives with company goals, define their target audience, create a consistent messaging framework, implement effective event planning processes, and measure the event’s impact. By following these steps, businesses can ensure their events align with their brand narratives, improve customer engagement and loyalty, and drive revenue growth.
