TV ad or new store layout? Press ad or training for customer service staff? Poster campaign or improved website design?

Your customer touch-points say more about your brand than any high profile brand advertising, and brand managers need to start focusing their budgets accordingly.

Before embarking on any big budget brand activity, brand managers should consider their existing customer touch-points: the sales staff, the shop, their website, their customer bill or statement.

Sure, it’s a less glamorous use of your budget, but this is where your real customers, prospects and browsers are, either because they want or need to be.

They are experiencing your brand. They are forming very real opinions about your service, how you work, how you compare. And they will draw on these experiences when referring to you or recommending you to a friend.

Look at how Barclays articulate their warmth and approachability through new in-store language and signs.

Through their navigation bar, Tesco articulates a breadth of range better than any TV ad.

And even online error messages can reinforce what a brand is all about.

So before you sign off that advertising budget, take a long hard look at all your customer touch-points. If they’re not reinforcing your brand experience, you need to prioritise your spending.