What Does Your Brand Really

“We need to do TikTok.” It could be a good idea. But there is a question that should come first: why?

Because TikTok is not an objective. An influencer isn’t either. Neither is a campaign.

They are tools. And a tool only makes sense when we know what problem we are trying to solve.

Imagine you have a brand on a supermarket shelf. Your product is there, next to ten others. You have distribution. You can advertise. You even have a budget.

But what does your brand actually need?

Maybe nobody knows it. Maybe they know it, but don’t remember it when it’s time to buy. Maybe they see it on the shelf, but don’t find a reason to choose it. Maybe it is a well-known brand, but it is starting to feel old. Or maybe you simply need to take advantage of a commercial opportunity.

All of those problems could end with the same sentence:

“We need to advertise.”

But they are not the same problem. And they probably don’t need the same advertising.

That is where the real work begins.

01First, identify what your brand needs

Before choosing a medium, a campaign, or an agency, it is worth understanding what is happening. A brand can have many problems, but some are especially common.

No one knows us

We need: more people to know we exist. Advertising can help build awareness.

They know us, but they don’t think of us

A brand can be known and still not come to mind when people are ready to choose.

We need: to increase the likelihood that they remember us when it matters.

They see us, but they don’t find a reason to choose us

You are on the shelf. The product is available. But from the outside, you look just like everyone else.

We need: differentiation.

They know us, but they don’t consider us

They know who we are. They may even have a positive opinion. But we don’t really make their shortlist.

We need: to build a stronger reason to consider us.

They consider us, but they don’t try us

There may be different barriers:

• price;
• lack of trust;
• not understanding the product;
• not finding a strong enough reason to switch.

Advertising can help reduce some of those barriers. But we may also need promotion, better distribution, or a more convincing product experience.

We need to sell more

This is probably the most common objective. And also the most dangerous if we don’t go deeper.

Because: “we need to sell more” still doesn’t tell us what advertising to do.

First, we need to understand why we are not selling more.

02A result is not a strategy

It is a simple distinction, but it changes many conversations.

Selling more is a result. Getting more people to consider us may be the change we need to produce. Building a more relevant reason to choose us may be part of the strategy. Doing TikTok is an activity.

They are not the same thing.

When we mix these levels, we start discussing solutions before understanding what we need to solve.

A brand that needs to sell more may need advertising. But it may also need better distribution, a different price, a more compelling proposition, or a better experience.

Advertising may be fundamental. But first we need to know what part of the problem advertising can help solve.

And that is where the TANGO® case becomes especially useful.

03The TANGO® case

TANGO® is a historic Nestlé Ecuador brand. Its challenge was not simply that nobody knew it. It was something else:

How do we make a historic brand remain relevant to a new generation?

The question changes everything. Now we are no longer simply talking about “doing advertising.” A clearer need emerges: reconnect with young people and regain relevance.

Then comes the strategy. And only then the execution.

In 2025, TANGO® launched the campaign “Yo quiero mi TANGO” with Ecuadorian artist BLANKO, connecting the brand with local music and younger generations.

Now the execution starts to make sense. The music makes sense. TikTok makes sense. Influencers make sense.

Not because those tools are automatically good. But because they are responding to something that came before.

We can trace the logic backward:

And that is what we should be able to do before approving any investment.

04Don’t ask advertising to do everything

Here is another common mistake. A brand has a problem and the first reaction is to ask advertising to solve it.

But a campaign cannot do everything.

It can help make a brand known. Remembered. Considered. It can reinforce a difference. It can generate interest.

But it cannot replace a bad product. It cannot solve poor distribution. It cannot make someone repeat an experience they do not want to have again.

Advertising is part of a broader system. A person may discover a brand in a campaign, see it on the shelf, receive a recommendation, try the product, and form an opinion after consuming it.

So the more useful question is not: “what can we do in advertising?”

What part of our problem can advertising help solve?

It may sound like a small difference. But it completely changes how decisions are made.

05Then we choose the tool

Now we can talk about TikTok. Television. Influencers. Outdoor. Point of sale. Retail media. Promotions. Music. Or any other tool.

The question is no longer: “what medium should we use?”

The question is: what medium can help us achieve what we need?

And there may not be one single answer. A brand may need different touchpoints to do its job. A person may discover it in a campaign, find it later in a supermarket, and finish forming an opinion when they try the product.

That is why choosing a medium should not be an isolated decision. It should follow from what we are trying to achieve.

06An idea can come first. The investment needs a reason.

Reality does not always work as an orderly process. A great creative idea can come first. A trend can open an opportunity. A medium can inspire a campaign.

That is fine. The problem appears when we invest before understanding why.

A conversation can begin with: “we need to do TikTok.” With an influencer. With a song. With an idea that seems brilliant.

It doesn’t matter. What matters is that, before approving it, we can work backward and answer:

What are we trying to achieve?
What needs to change?
What problem are we solving?

An idea can come first. But before investing in it, we should be able to explain why it makes sense for the brand.

07And how do we know if it worked?

Go back to the beginning. The answer depends on what we wanted to achieve.

If we needed more people to know the brand, we should measure awareness. If we wanted to differentiate, we should assess whether that perception changed. If we were looking for consideration, we should see whether more people start including us among their options.

And if we were trying to contribute to a commercial result, we need to understand the role advertising played within the set of factors that also influence that result.

Because:

Seeing is not paying attention. Paying attention is not remembering. Remembering is not choosing.

And choosing does not necessarily mean buying again.

Advertising can produce different effects at different times. That is why measuring a campaign well starts long before the campaign launches.

It starts when we decide what change we want to produce.

A brand can have many problems. And advertising can help solve several of them.

But a tool does not become strategic simply because we use it. A campaign can be excellent and still be a bad investment if it solves the wrong problem.

A great idea can come first. But before investing, we should be able to trace the path backward:

So before choosing the campaign, the medium, or the budget, start with a simpler question: why do we need to advertise?

Because advertising does not start with TikTok. It starts when you understand what your brand needs.

About the author

Rafael Peralta es estratega de comunicación y director de One Headlight, estudio creativo y agencia de publicidad. Trabaja en la intersección entre estrategia, creatividad y producción para transformar objetivos de negocio en comunicación.