Specsmanship skips over relevance and resonance…

Our goal in this article is to reverse some entrenched myths about brand outreach, consumer behavior and sound strategy, working to reorient thinking on the most effective deployment of your investments in marketing communication.

The status quo in marketing

All too often we find brands laser-focused on touting their “superior” specs: formulations, ingredients, sourcing, process, science, engineering and standards of performance, believing this forms the unshakeable foundation of their brand outreach path to fame and fortune.

• Afterall, doesn’t it make sense considering the steep investments in R&D, processes, better ingredients, superior formulation skills and novel manufacturing design. Thus, the theory goes once the world is made aware of this better tech, consumers will in turn respond by beating a path to the shelf or showroom and reward the hard work, high quality commitment with ever increasing sales.

• Isn’t it then vital to tell the world why your brand is better than the other choices? That you offer 25% more of the best ingredient than the closest competitor. Or that your sourcing standards are flying above everyone else?

Better mousetrap marketing has been a foundational paradigm of go-to-market thinking since the dawn of the mass media era in the early 1950’s. Companies showcase their deep commitments to build a compelling value proposition through their efforts to innovate, improve, engineer higher quality into products. It seems fundamental then, that brand communication must focus on telling stakeholders about the facts and details of these accomplishments.

Are you always reaching for product ‘betterness’?

The rinse-and-repeat environment that fosters this way of operating is woven into the institutional fabric of many brands and businesses.

• The regional potato chip brand that believes to beat the big guys they must be better by meticulously sourcing an improved strain of potatoes. They carefully curate a blend of frying oils to impart taste and texture without any greasy residue. In-house chefs work to test and combine the highest quality spices and flavoring ingredients for dusting the chips to assure the perfect taste notes. Their manufacturing technologists perfect a frying process to achieve the right texture and crunch. Surely this level of quality commitment and superior craftsmanship forms the foundation of a compelling story to capture the hearts and minds of chip lovers?

• The team of highly talented engineers and food scientists committed to inventing the future of more sustainable food, works tirelessly to develop a molecule that perfectly replicates the identical protein of a meat or dairy product. Their discovery delivers ideal, sought-after characteristics of a protein ingredient that is indistinguishable from its conventional counterpart, such that no taste or nutrition sacrifice is required in the finished product.

The new innovative process completely reinvents a legacy product category without any requirement to employ the living, resource-intensive, carbon emissions contributing impacts of an animal-derived version. It’s an incredible leap forward to fully satisfy the consumer’s preoccupation with taste and eating experience, yet is sustainable, cost comparable while it also de-risks the supply chain. Surely this bio-technology achievement story well-told to consumers, investors and retailers will draw people like a magnet to the new, better solution.

• The pet food company that knows dogs and cats require high quality proteins to assure their health, wellbeing and quality of life, so their nutritionists and scientists devote considerable energy to formulating food that utilizes the very best in class animal-derived protein ingredients, fruits, veg and botanicals. The formulation meticulously combines this cornucopia of better ingredients into a nutrient dense feast for fido and fifi.

Their supply chain experts scour the globe for the best sources to secure ‘human grade’ food ingredients that will deliver on the foundational ‘better’ nutrition story. Manufacturing works to optimize the process by improving cooking techniques designed to preserve the nutrient quality of the finished food in a shelf stable or refrigerated form. Of course, once pet parents know of these details, the decision to buy will follow.

• The auto brand known for its better engines that employs world-class engineers using higher quality parts to produce superior power that won’t break down over time.

• The running shoe company that devotes countless resources to understanding human anatomy, the mechanics and physics of athletic performance, building better shoes to help the wearer win races.

• The computer company that looks at machines as enablers of creative expression and reinvents designs to democratize technology forming an intuitive tool anyone can use.

The list goes on and on… That said, what if this isn’t the reason why your brand will be more successful. What if this incredible investment of time, talent, quality and infrastructure is actually table stakes to your victory. And second, that all this data and information works harder and more effectively with consumers as post-purchase confirmation of why their decision was a good one.

Best-in-class product creation is a must-do

Yes, you need to make the very best product

Yes, you need to employ the highest quality ingredients

Yes, you need to refine and improve manufacturing processes

Yes, you need the best people

Yes, you need to continuously innovate and improve.

However, this is not the path to successful brand communication that helps you achieve leaps in sustainable business growth.

Our point is while authentic best-in-class products are integral to your marketplace growth, there is a difference between providing top quality solutions and effective, engaging brand communication. If you consider how consumers think and behave you see that fact-based, analytical selling is not the path to consumer behavior victory on brand preference and purchase.

Facts don’t change minds

The brand that gets closest to the consumer wins. That means embracing their humanity.

It also means acknowledging that consumers are feeling creatures who think and not thinking creatures who feel. Facts and features serve to feed our need for confirmation bias after purchase that we’ve made the right decision. The experience with your product is rewarded by its performance because you’ve labored to produce the very best product. However, when it comes to effective outreach communication…that’s something else entirely.

Heart-felt connection

Moving as close to the consumer as possible means putting your brand in league with them on their journey. It’s forging an emotional connection founded on trust and integrity, where the consumer understands and wants to join your brand mission, purpose and deeper meaning. Ultimately, they see through your integrity and actions you have their best interests at heart.

• Your ability to form a relationship with consumers is not based on the stats and specs of your product formulation. Relevant brand engagement operates on a higher plane of context much like the heartfelt bonds that form between people we care about.

The neuroscience informed path to purchase

The steps to taking action on a purchase decision look different when you know how the brain’s Limbic System informs our actions. Emotion is at work here. It is how we feel about a brand that guides our decisions, not rational analysis of factual arguments. Simply stated, humans are not analytical, fact-based decision-making machines.

Sound strategy: different beats better

Most of what we see in legacy marketing outreach is a belief that “better” is the winning approach. Except that’s not bank-able strategy to start with. Uniqueness and differentiation comprise the basis of beneficial strategy, not being better. Better is tantamount to saying you’re the same as the other choice, only better. This is a zero-sum and unwinnable game of one-upmanship that operates to commoditize your business. Parsing degrees of better-ness isn’t as powerful as “only” and uniquely different.

When you know emotion rather than analytical arguments form the basis of successful communication, how will that change your messaging approach? This isn’t an indictment of your efforts to make the best product. It’s a given you must never dilute your quality commitments. However, when it comes to brand communication, the most effective outreach is based on emotional drivers, not specsmanship.

If this article has you thinking about improving brand communication and you have questions, use the link below to ask them. We promise to respond quickly.

Looking for more food for thought? Subscribe to the Emerging Trends Report.

Bob Wheatley is the CEO of Chicago-based Emergent. Traditional brand marketing often sidesteps more human qualities that can help consumers form an emotional bond. Yet brands yearn for authentic engagement, trust and a lasting relationship with their customers. For more information, contact [email protected] and follow on Twitter @BobWheatley.

Specsmanship skips over relevance and resonance…

Our goal in this article is to reverse some entrenched myths about brand outreach, consumer behavior and sound strategy, working to reorient thinking on the most effective deployment of your investments in marketing communication.

The status quo in marketing

All too often we find brands laser-focused on touting their “superior” specs: formulations, ingredients, sourcing, process, science, engineering and standards of performance, believing this forms the unshakeable foundation of their brand outreach path to fame and fortune.

• Afterall, doesn’t it make sense considering the steep investments in R&D, processes, better ingredients, superior formulation skills and novel manufacturing design. Thus, the theory goes once the world is made aware of this better tech, consumers will in turn respond by beating a path to the shelf or showroom and reward the hard work, high quality commitment with ever increasing sales.

• Isn’t it then vital to tell the world why your brand is better than the other choices? That you offer 25% more of the best ingredient than the closest competitor. Or that your sourcing standards are flying above everyone else?

Better mousetrap marketing has been a foundational paradigm of go-to-market thinking since the dawn of the mass media era in the early 1950’s. Companies showcase their deep commitments to build a compelling value proposition through their efforts to innovate, improve, engineer higher quality into products. It seems fundamental then, that brand communication must focus on telling stakeholders about the facts and details of these accomplishments.

Are you always reaching for product ‘betterness’?

The rinse-and-repeat environment that fosters this way of operating is woven into the institutional fabric of many brands and businesses.

• The regional potato chip brand that believes to beat the big guys they must be better by meticulously sourcing an improved strain of potatoes. They carefully curate a blend of frying oils to impart taste and texture without any greasy residue. In-house chefs work to test and combine the highest quality spices and flavoring ingredients for dusting the chips to assure the perfect taste notes. Their manufacturing technologists perfect a frying process to achieve the right texture and crunch. Surely this level of quality commitment and superior craftsmanship forms the foundation of a compelling story to capture the hearts and minds of chip lovers?

• The team of highly talented engineers and food scientists committed to inventing the future of more sustainable food, works tirelessly to develop a molecule that perfectly replicates the identical protein of a meat or dairy product. Their discovery delivers ideal, sought-after characteristics of a protein ingredient that is indistinguishable from its conventional counterpart, such that no taste or nutrition sacrifice is required in the finished product.

The new innovative process completely reinvents a legacy product category without any requirement to employ the living, resource-intensive, carbon emissions contributing impacts of an animal-derived version. It’s an incredible leap forward to fully satisfy the consumer’s preoccupation with taste and eating experience, yet is sustainable, cost comparable while it also de-risks the supply chain. Surely this bio-technology achievement story well-told to consumers, investors and retailers will draw people like a magnet to the new, better solution.

• The pet food company that knows dogs and cats require high quality proteins to assure their health, wellbeing and quality of life, so their nutritionists and scientists devote considerable energy to formulating food that utilizes the very best in class animal-derived protein ingredients, fruits, veg and botanicals. The formulation meticulously combines this cornucopia of better ingredients into a nutrient dense feast for fido and fifi.

Their supply chain experts scour the globe for the best sources to secure ‘human grade’ food ingredients that will deliver on the foundational ‘better’ nutrition story. Manufacturing works to optimize the process by improving cooking techniques designed to preserve the nutrient quality of the finished food in a shelf stable or refrigerated form. Of course, once pet parents know of these details, the decision to buy will follow.

• The auto brand known for its better engines that employs world-class engineers using higher quality parts to produce superior power that won’t break down over time.

• The running shoe company that devotes countless resources to understanding human anatomy, the mechanics and physics of athletic performance, building better shoes to help the wearer win races.

• The computer company that looks at machines as enablers of creative expression and reinvents designs to democratize technology forming an intuitive tool anyone can use.

The list goes on and on… That said, what if this isn’t the reason why your brand will be more successful. What if this incredible investment of time, talent, quality and infrastructure is actually table stakes to your victory. And second, that all this data and information works harder and more effectively with consumers as post-purchase confirmation of why their decision was a good one.

Best-in-class product creation is a must-do

Yes, you need to make the very best product

Yes, you need to employ the highest quality ingredients

Yes, you need to refine and improve manufacturing processes

Yes, you need the best people

Yes, you need to continuously innovate and improve.

However, this is not the path to successful brand communication that helps you achieve leaps in sustainable business growth.

Our point is while authentic best-in-class products are integral to your marketplace growth, there is a difference between providing top quality solutions and effective, engaging brand communication. If you consider how consumers think and behave you see that fact-based, analytical selling is not the path to consumer behavior victory on brand preference and purchase.

Facts don’t change minds

The brand that gets closest to the consumer wins. That means embracing their humanity.

It also means acknowledging that consumers are feeling creatures who think and not thinking creatures who feel. Facts and features serve to feed our need for confirmation bias after purchase that we’ve made the right decision. The experience with your product is rewarded by its performance because you’ve labored to produce the very best product. However, when it comes to effective outreach communication…that’s something else entirely.

Heart-felt connection

Moving as close to the consumer as possible means putting your brand in league with them on their journey. It’s forging an emotional connection founded on trust and integrity, where the consumer understands and wants to join your brand mission, purpose and deeper meaning. Ultimately, they see through your integrity and actions you have their best interests at heart.

• Your ability to form a relationship with consumers is not based on the stats and specs of your product formulation. Relevant brand engagement operates on a higher plane of context much like the heartfelt bonds that form between people we care about.

The neuroscience informed path to purchase

The steps to taking action on a purchase decision look different when you know how the brain’s Limbic System informs our actions. Emotion is at work here. It is how we feel about a brand that guides our decisions, not rational analysis of factual arguments. Simply stated, humans are not analytical, fact-based decision-making machines.

Sound strategy: different beats better

Most of what we see in legacy marketing outreach is a belief that “better” is the winning approach. Except that’s not bank-able strategy to start with. Uniqueness and differentiation comprise the basis of beneficial strategy, not being better. Better is tantamount to saying you’re the same as the other choice, only better. This is a zero-sum and unwinnable game of one-upmanship that operates to commoditize your business. Parsing degrees of better-ness isn’t as powerful as “only” and uniquely different.

When you know emotion rather than analytical arguments form the basis of successful communication, how will that change your messaging approach? This isn’t an indictment of your efforts to make the best product. It’s a given you must never dilute your quality commitments. However, when it comes to brand communication, the most effective outreach is based on emotional drivers, not specsmanship.

If this article has you thinking about improving your brand communication and you have questions, use the link below to ask them. We promise to respond quickly.

Looking for more food for thought? Subscribe to the Emerging Trends Report.

Bob Wheatley is the CEO of Chicago-based Emergent. Traditional brand marketing often sidesteps more human qualities that can help consumers form an emotional bond. Yet brands yearn for authentic engagement, trust and a lasting relationship with their customers. For more information, contact [email protected] and follow on Twitter @BobWheatley.

Absence of trust creates uncertainty…

What trails consumer decisions like an ever-present shadow and has profound influence on the path to purchase? Fear and risk aversion. Fear is a pervasive if unwanted participant in brand growth outcomes, one that requires a closer look. How does fear manifest?

• Fear of making a bad decision
• Fear of disappointment
• Fear of loss (or loss of control)
• Fear of disruption or change
• Fear of rejection
• Fear of the unknown or unfamiliar

This is the number one barrier to consumer buying decisions and actions for any emerging brand or product. If consumers are unsure and perceive there’s any risk involved in purchase, they invariably opt out. Why? Disappointment is an emotion people universally seek to avoid. More often than not, marketing strategies assume the consumer is primed and ready to buy as soon as “consideration” is activated through an awareness building tactic.

That approach, however, fails to account for the reality of how people think-then-behave and what’s required to intentionally displace fear with trust.

• This article is about moving past fear to embrace trust and the steps brands must undertake to earn consumer faith and belief to unleash growth and business expansion.

Why is this challenge gaining traction?

Fear breeds anxiety and uncertainty, and what do consumers treasure above all things? Certainty. Perceptions of risk are persistent and exist systemically around: what is unknown, relationships with other people, income/careers, politics and social protocols. Risk and its evil twin fear are omnipresent. In part because consumers are constantly reminded of unexpected consequences through the daily barrage of “who knew” information and negative opinions they encounter in social and digital media channels.

Origin of the anxiety build up – social media transforms passive readers into active makers

Indeed, the world was forever altered in 2007 with the game changing introduction of Apple’s iPhone and Facebook’s decision to open source their platform. This kicked off the rapid rise of social media channels as enablers of citizen journalists and soothsayers, while also unleashing armchair critics, public humiliation, ghosting, bad actor media, even turning dating rituals into an electronic catalog of human choices with often spurious selling propositions designed to trigger a risky swipe.

Big media with its legacy rules and standards of professionalism, lost control of the information age while an unintended consequence of this “always on” scrutiny spotlight emerged – increasing levels of anxiety about ourselves and the state of the world around us. People resent feeling they’re no longer in control or are potentially being manipulated.

This is the instrument that brought about a sea change in how brands are built. It presaged the modern era of brand higher purpose, meaning, beliefs and values – all human characteristics we admire, trust and respect. In sum the entire cultural shift has placed a premium on the importance of trust because the old-world paradigm of family social vigilance and the ‘village’ traditions of influence has evaporated. Trust-ology as we call it, is now a core pillar driving brand growth and evangelism, in response to correcting the growing impact of risk.

Fear as a marketing tactic

On the flip side some brands have appropriated fear as a strategy to advance their business goals by working to demonstrate various forms of loss people reap if they fail to use the promoted insurance, drug therapy, beauty product, career platform, safety device, et al. It can be a powerful tool because it hits on that sensitive nerve of deficit avoidance – whether its social, financial, physical or self-esteem. Of note, occasionally the negative sell will backfire.

Dr. James Richardson, the former Hartman Group researcher and “Cultural Anthropologist,” pens a Substack column entitled Homo Imaginari, where he published a revealing analysis on fear and the election. Here is an excerpt:

“We know that fear and humor are the primary drivers in consumer marketing, though consumer brands skew towards humor because their objective is to maximize reach in the target segment. Political ads tend to stoke fear as the critical emotional variable because fear aligns with imaginings of external threats to one’s niche lifestyle or beliefs. And fear motivates a smaller group to act immediately. Humor is more memorable than motivating.

Also, voting to protect yourself is vastly more compelling than voting to reform society (an abstraction).

The former has an immediate, albeit largely imagined, payoff. Not the latter. 

America’s current political system is polarized, yes, but it is the fear-based manipulation of tiny, extreme population segments that will continue to determine many races at many levels. 

This stoking of fear runs in parallel to the high baseline anxiety many of us feel due to the extreme lifestyle fragmentation all around us. If you don’t know what to say to your neighbor because you know they are gay or voluntarily childless or atheist, that mundane awkwardness exposes many of us to fear-based manipulation from bad faith media sources. When the world is genuinely confusing us, it takes little to push some into high anxiety right before election day.”

Humanization of brands helps break the grip of fear

Brands imbued with deeper meaning and values are worth more because they are trusted.

• They convey a deeper emotional thread
• They encourage a scaled community of believers
• They are more human like and thus more relate-able
• They are more culturally relevant and resonant

When honesty, integrity and operating in the consumer’s best interests are held high and canonized in brand values, trust breaks out. The impact of that is de-escalating risk, mitigating anxiety and removing barriers of hesitance on the path to purchase.

Importance of validation, verification and advocacy

Why is word of mouth the most powerful form of communication? Because people trust the voices of their peers. Important knowing brands cannot claim or invoke trust. Earning trust benefits from a brand’s ability to credibly verify their claims and commitments.

This is where outside third-party voices and respected experts can prove invaluable in authentication of what you want consumers to believe. Earned media plays a role here, too because it is widely seen as “reporting” information rather than promoting a brand’s self-interest.

Higher purpose commitments convey presence of a soul

Do brands and businesses have a soul? Fair question, and in many instances, it may be hard to detect. However, brands leaning into trust do so with more strength and power when it is the outcome of a belief system. We define this as a higher purpose and mission that operates beyond balance sheet considerations.

People want to be part of something greater than themselves, and smart brands are in a position to provide that deeper meaning. This soulful adventure makes a brand transcendent, inviting consumers to join the brand on its mission as advocates and ambassadors rather than just transactional customers. The corrosive conditions of risk and fear are in left the rearview mirror when the consumer’s welfare, growth and needs take precedence and people believe the brand has their best interests at heart.

This is the new world order for healthy brand growth. The primary benefit: risk melts away in the face of trust and belief. 

If this post struck a chord about optimizing trust and belief to activate a committed community of brand believers and evangelists, us the link below to ask questions and start an informal conversation. The impact on your growth could be transformational.

Looking for more food for thought? Subscribe to the Emerging Trends Report.

Bob Wheatley is the CEO of Chicago-based Emergent. Traditional brand marketing often sidesteps more human qualities that can help consumers form an emotional bond. Yet brands yearn for authentic engagement, trust and a lasting relationship with their customers. For more information, contact [email protected] and follow on Twitter @BobWheatley.

Encountering the media with intention and strategy…

More than at any other time in the history of modern corporate leadership imperatives, CEOs have moved well beyond their traditional roles in fiscal, operational leadership and legacy focus on rewarding investors. CEOs have transitioned to also being the visionary voice of brand mission, higher purpose, and guidance on societal, political, environmental, diversity and other piping hot and at times polarizing issues.
 
To be sure it can be uneasy territory, filled with potential potholes and existential challenges. However, times have changed and if you don’t change with them, well, you’re in trouble. Our goal here is to help parse the right path forward, one that leads to successful outcomes when it feels like the critic hounds are already barking at the door.

“It is not the critic who counts. Not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”   Teddy Roosevelt.
 
What’s changed – culture and expectation
 
Gone are the days when CEOs could stay largely out of range while corporate communication teams handled all the media inquiries and published statements. Leaders are expected to be out in front with a clear point of view about issues that impact their industry, society and even the world at large.

• Here we will provide a framework for how to operate in an uncertain media environment that demands a point of view from leaders not only on business and balance sheet progress, but positions concerning society’s most pressing and complex challenges.

CEOs will rely on communications and corporate affairs teams to help navigate the complexities of modern business society, politics and culture. That said, knowing the rules of the road can help refine decision making and performance in this context.
 
The new spotlight-intense environment for business leaders
 
Prior to the ‘glass house’ in which businesses now operate in the digital era, many in the C-suite sought to avoid saying anything in the public domain about a sensitive issue or controversial event. The goal to remain as “Switzerland” as possible – neutral to any provocative issue that leaned into opposing camps and divergent opinions.
 
Today however, stakeholders expect the CEO to weigh in on challenges from sustainability progress and global warming to the impact of wars and weather anomalies on supply chain disruption, even the advent of new technologies like AI and biotechnology advances that may change the shape of an entire industry.
 
For their part, consumers demand that businesses bring more than commerce to the marketplace. They expect to see beliefs, values and a useful point of view on challenging conditions such as food insecurity, standards of living and public policy on ESG, DEI initiatives, ageism, LGBTQ+ rights and reforms. Of course, this means accepting that it is no longer possible to please all of the people, all of the time.
 
A classic example of this new visibility came to light in Chicago during the recent International Manufacturing Technology Show — IMTS 2024 – when the Chicago Tribune published an editorial about a startling statement on America’s workforce made by Apple CEO Tim Cook. Working to correct a popular belief that companies manufacture in China because of low labor costs, Cook declared, “the reason is because of the skill, and the quantity of skill in one location.” He added: “In the U.S., you could have a meeting of tooling engineers, and I’m not sure we could fill the room. In China, you could fill multiple football fields.” Said the Tribune, “Based on the latest numbers, there has never been a time when the need to match job seekers with the nation’s most needed jobs has been as critical.”
 
A tougher stage: politics
 
If you are Elon Musk, you might feel compelled to take on highly politicized positions without any concern over how the organizations and businesses you lead will respond to the statements you make. However, for most top executives this paradigm does not exist. That said, there are important reasons to weigh in with perspective on more sensitive issues.
 
In a recent Fast Company download about this development, Daniella Ballou-Aares, founder and CEO of business membership organization the Leadership Now Project said, “reinforcing the legitimacy of elections rises above partisanship. It’s a commitment to uphold the rule of law, reinforcing trust in American institutions and strengthening the economy.”  

What’s in it for business? For one you might agree companies are dependent on an enduring system of laws, even as some may bemoan or seek to circumvent regulations. Government instability can lead to downgrades to the U.S. credit rating and foment market volatility. Meanwhile uncertainty over election outcomes and potential changes in regulations and policy can interfere with a clear path on capital expenditure decisions and long-term planning.  

We are all operating now in the midst of deep distrust in institutions including media and government. Knowing this, businesses have an opportunity to support voting and civic engagement in a positive and constructive way. Alan Fleischmann, founder of global CEO advisory firm Laurel Strategies said, “many CEOs I know and work with are encouraging their teams to exercise their right to vote while promoting civility and mutual support.”

Consumers respect honesty

People desperately want businesses to rise above a perceived myopic preoccupation with balance sheet demands to recognize they have a legitimate role on societal challenges such as global warming and the impact of wars on quality of life both here and abroad.
 
Recent studies reinforce that people truly respect businesses that are open and transparent about the challenges they face in meeting sustainability and emissions goals. This humanizing of the corporate façade is an open invitation to bringing assessment and contributions to the public discourse. What do people seek in this context? Truth and transparency.

Your call to action: courage, honesty, integrity and being on the side of the angels

When we operate from a foundation of empathy and compassion for the welfare of people and the world around us, audiences are drawn to this voice and character of communication. Practically speaking it means dialing down jargon and complex arguments in favor of simple storytelling that respects those receiving the message.

When you are in alignment with your corporate higher purpose and with the publics’ best interests at heart, you are “on the side of the angels.” This positioning can free you to speak with confidence and compassion about what you believe is right.

Process of preparation

In the same way we invest heavily in the work underneath building a new brand narrative, its vital you collaborate with your communications team to do the homework and due diligence around fully understanding the most pressing issues you should be prepared to weigh in on. Stakeholder research can be a significant contributor to decisions in this area.

Some of the narrative will be related directly to the operations and conduct of the business you lead. Other topics will reflect your belief system as a company and what you think is important on issues where your organization has a stake in the outcome – and where the topic is relevant to your new role as a respected voice in society.

These story platforms can be mapped out with key messages and alternative approaches for discussion internally. From our perspective, we stop short of scripting the entire story line because too often it promotes antiseptic memorization that lacks the authentic human voice.

Keys to stronger communication outcomes:

Be real

This may read as an offbeat example, but the Olympics gave us a shining model of authenticity from an unexpected source. Of note, authenticity is vital to how a CEO is perceived in the glare of the media spotlight.

During the Paris games a new sports presenter emerged: Snoop Dog. Note that Snoop didn’t change who he was to fit his commentator role. Instead, he embraced his persona, delivering his perspective with a signature laid-back style and his own observational humor. This authentic delivery fostered a tangible connection with the viewing audience that felt like they were watching a friend, not just another sports analyst.

Too often, we think the media milieu means reliance on scripted, one-size-fits-all language that isn’t designed to truly connect emotionally with the target audience. CEOs need to think about how they relate to core stakeholders, ensuring their voice resonates as genuine, relevant and personal. People gravitate to people they trust, and trust is built on authenticity. 

Be human

People prize honesty and truth. They respect confident and open individuals who aren’t afraid to admit mistakes or acknowledge they don’t have all the answers. Here are some of the characteristics you should be reaching for in media settings:

• Show empathy, care and consideration for other people
• Display openness and honesty
• Avoid lecturing or admonishing

Be consistent

Media and stakeholders alike will quickly observe the connection between your statements and the behavior of your business and its policies. Thus, its important the organization operates, makes decisions and takes action in alignment with the beliefs you convey.

You don’t have to know everything

It is the business of media to probe and form questions in the moment. Possible that a query can arise that you don’t have the answer for. That’s fine. Much better to convey you’ll look into a topic and report back later than give a speculative answer that could prove to be inaccurate.

Building a baseline record on issues in relevant, unedited forums

Media unfortunately is mostly a headline and soundbite gambit. Speaking opportunities in the right venues can offer a long-form and unedited forum to take a deep dive of the issues you and your company has a perspective on, thus constructing a public record of your complete positions in the process.

For example, if sustainability is a key issue for your organization, there are a number of conferences focused on these developments where you can explore the details of what you think is important and supply the supporting rationale. You can post recordings of those speeches and discussions at your web site as validation.

There will be some constituents or pundits who disagree. That’s ok, too. You are a subject matter expert now, with a responsibility to convey your organization’s point of view. Welcome to the new world of corporate leaders as advocates.
 
If this article has you thinking about constructing a comprehensive strategy around communicating positions and views on issues above and beyond your business performance, use the link below to ask questions and start an informative dialogue. We can help you navigate the most pressing and relevant topics to build an effective executive comms plan and message map.

Looking for more food for thought? Subscribe to the Emerging Trends Report.

Bob Wheatley is the CEO of Chicago-based Emergent. Traditional brand marketing often sidesteps more human qualities that can help consumers form an emotional bond. Yet brands yearn for authentic engagement, trust and a lasting relationship with their customers. For more information, contact [email protected] and follow on Twitter @BobWheatley.

The benefits of a focused strategic platform and message

There is no substitute for a relevant, focused brand story that capitalizes on a form of ‘secret sauce’ — conjuring added meaning, purpose and value to support why consumers should join your brand’s “movement.”

These transformational moments in business trajectory are an outcome of amplifying a story that rises beyond your products to focus on a higher purpose platform. One that unifies the brand value proposition in a more impactful, powerful narrative.

It may seem counterintuitive to push hard on meaning and mission ahead of product features and benefits, but the neuroscience, consumer insight and real-world examples of this are too compelling. Want a deeper relationship with your core consumers (of course you do)? Then imbue your brand with deeper meaning and make that the hero of your narrative.

It all begins with…

The power of an anchoring, differentiating concept –

In every case where we’ve been privileged to help shape transformational growth for a client, there is one recurring and vital theme: a foundational idea that focuses marketing and your message on pushing deeper meaning into the brand.

When this occurs, it is always in collaboration and partnership with a courageous client looking to transform their business outcomes — rather than settle for recycling another product-as-hero launch “campaign” with reworked theme and tactics.

• The alchemy of this transformational thinking falls from consumer insights blended with a refined understanding of brand purpose and value. There is a core principle at work here that can manifest across different businesses when brands reimagine who and what they are about – we describe this as leveraging your brand “why.”

These ideas always forecast change, momentum, growth and renewed energy for a brand because they spring from a culturally relevant insight: people now want to be part of something greater than themselves. This explains why brand building has shifted to a more purposeful, relationship-centric path.

Here’s the thinking that informs this approach:

When connecting your brand to a new and deeper understanding of its higher purpose, we create a cohesive guide for all go-to-market tools, strategies and decisions.

This method is a consistent winner because it employs the new rules of brand building:

• Relevant brand relationships are now built on admiration and trust and will deliver significant financial premiums
• They represent goodwill that can be isolated as a component of business value
• They can result in higher margins, traffic
• They also work to reduce the cost of promotion, improving ROI and balance sheet performance

This strategic foundation creates the opportunity for transcendence – the state of being admired – where consumers “join” the brand as community members, not just customers.

In order to mine an opportunity for building a more relevant and resonant brand, we have a responsibility to push added meaning, trust and belief to the forefront of the brand-to-consumer relationship.

We express it this way because the world has changed and relating to a brand is now fundamentally the same thing as relating to another person we care about.

Brands that lean into deeper meaning and prosper

• Chobani just announced its intention to transition to a wellness lifestyle brand. Yes, while they make yogurt and other related dairy products, this challenger brand is about to enter a new phase in its storied growth founded on these deeper meaning principles. It will be interesting to see how it manifests since acquiring upscale coffee shop brand, La Colombe.
• Redbull began as a highly charged energy concoction aimed at fueling a subculture of young people who inhabit bars and dance clubs. Along the way Red Bull launched a DJ training school to help solidify its relevance in this subculture. Successful yes, but then they smartly pivoted to embrace a bigger concept in extreme sports. They quickly became the author and face of this engaging athletic world with one of the most sophisticated brand content creation strategies ever devised for a beverage business.
• Yeti is a cooler brand? From the start this company understood the concept of a higher purpose and platform. Their marketing is focused on outdoor adventure lifestyle experiences. Was this approach centered on feature/benefit selling of their insulation tech? No. It was an effort to support, celebrate and align themselves with inspiring outdoor experiences inspirational to hunters, fisherman and hikers. Enlightened, engaging, unexpected and has paid business dividends since inception.
• In the early years Clif Bar pioneered the energy bar market and from day one focused their brand on celebrating a specific channel of outdoor adventure in trail, road and mountain biking experiences. Their storytelling invested deeply in this lifestyle space and created a happy marriage with the “fuel” aspects of their product line. It also provided guidance on their product formulation standards that kept their brand in sync with the ethos of people who embrace this lifestyle. Clif Bar’s narrative elevated the conversation with this unique audience and helped drive their rise to category leadership.

For our part we’ve devoted our thinking to these principles in due diligence discovery with client businesses, working to recalculate their brand narrative.

• For Sargento we helped them lead premiumization of the dairy aisle cheese business, nourished by focusing on a highly engaged consumer cohort called Food Adventurers. The brand became a guide, coach and enabler of consumers who enjoy cooking and see it as a form of creative expression and a measure of their self-esteem. New media, new voices, new narrative, new stories and new products. The business results were dramatic and transformational.

• For First Alert home safety products, inventors of the residential smoke alarm, we helped them move from an engineering centric brand focused on its tech achievements to a business centered entirely on saving lives and protecting the wellbeing of families. Storytelling shifted from product features to focus on families impacted by unforeseen, life-threatening events and their stories of rescue. When we launched the first residential carbon monoxide alarm in the U.S. this strategy helped deliver a new $250 million business and 80% market share within 18 months of launch. Emotional stories drove the purchase.

• Jamba Juice started as a smoothie innovator that owned a ‘healthy halo’ because of the blended fruits in their beverages. But alas the world changed, and consumers started to demand healthy lifestyle choices from an increasingly discerning audience that called out the sugary truth about Jamba’s classic drink nutritionals. Chairman and CEO James White recognized this and the opportunity to shift the business down a different pathway. We came on board to help author the framework for a healthy lifestyle brand transition, that included developing a slate of new better-for-you beverages. Our goal to help this brand secure a respected voice for healthy living. Lifestyle relevance led resonance for this new story.

• For Champion Petfoods we created a foundation concept designed to earn brand trust and belief by positioning Champion as the pet industry transparency leader. At a time when consumers were demanding more complete and credible information about how pet foods are made, we created the perfect truth serum. The Champion Transparency Council delivered the voices of trusted third parties to observe, examine, see and report on the truth about how Champion sources ingredients and crafts its pet food. The openness rewarded brand believers and reinforced the role of higher quality nutrition as the consumer’s primary path to express love for their furry family members.

Merits of a focused platform

When the brand narrative centers on a core idea that brings deeper meaning and purpose to life, great things begin to happen:

Deeper engagement – because the approach is always consumer driven, people see themselves in the narrative. We quickly achieve higher engagement levels while cultivating a stronger community of ambassadors and evangelists.

Emphasizing earned, owned and social channels – higher purpose brand outreach is steeped in story relevance and so the path to engagement is dependent on expensive “better than” paid media awareness building tactics. You don’t have to chase awareness when your story is naturally magnetic.

Focused message builds clarity – outreach effectiveness and message comprehension go up because all channels of communication are complimentary to each other and there’s less risk of confusion by chasing too many message imperatives.

• The product story doesn’t disappear. It simply moves adjacent to the core concept as information that reassures and confirms consumers have made the right choice.

If this approach to building business has got you thinking, we would be honored to help you sort through the options and determine the right anchoring idea. Use the email link below to start an informal conversation.

Looking for more food for thought? Subscribe to the Emerging Trends Report.

Bob Wheatley is the CEO of Chicago-based Emergent. Traditional brand marketing often sidesteps more human qualities that can help consumers form an emotional bond. Yet brands yearn for authentic engagement, trust and a lasting relationship with their customers. For more information, contact [email protected] and follow on Twitter @BobWheatley.

Trust failures infect successful brand building…

Now more than ever, earning consumer trust is paramount to the growth and development of your business. You can’t claim it. You can’t invoke it. Trust is only earned through credible, verifiable behaviors and openness. We believe this is sufficiently important that it deserves a unique discipline in the marketing eco-system we’re calling “Trust-ology.” Emerging trend: the world around us keeps supplying consumers with reasons to be skeptical, wary and thus more susceptible to perceiving added risk from engaging the vast array of brands and businesses seeking our attention.

Dramatic and ‘didn’t see it coming’ case in point

The iconic, premium positioned grocery Deli dominant meat brand, Boar’s Head, suddenly faces an unprecedented self-inflicted challenge to its busines and reputation. Tainted meat processed at one of their plants is recalled after 9 customer fatalities and 57 hospitalizations from listeria food poisoning. Amazingly, the investigation reveals an incredible failure in the most fundamental aspects of quality control, food safety and plant hygiene. Astounding. Once again, the world sees a business reputation fouled by performance that incredibly fractures the perception of basic standards and values the public expects. What was hidden behind a corporate veil is suddenly revealed in the intense, bright spotlight of media reporting.

As the lens of this media scrutiny inevitably widened on Boars Head, we also discover disturbing allegations of sexual harassment, racial and disability discrimination the company is facing in the form of lawsuits now getting visibility in the press. Where there’s behavioral smoke, there’s bad reputation fire?

Yet another example of why consumers are skeptical and hesitant of what companies say vs. what they do. What appeared as bright and shiny on the outside (gorgeous roasted hams) is revealed to be darker and without proper values on the inside. Thus, why trust must be earned through openness, vigilance and purpose when brands operate with the consumer’s best interests in mind 100% of the time.

This recurring barrier to brand belief is soaking in reputation challenges

In the digital era, all things that can be known, will be known instantly. Every brand now exists in a glass house that too often reveals breakdowns in trust. We observe brands, businesses and individuals outed on half-truths, misstatements, bogus claims, failures to admit mistakes, reckless hyperbole, baseless assertions, lies by omission, overt selfishness and outright deceit.

Who do you believe?

Who has an unassailable reputation?

Who is honest?

How do you know what’s truthful?

The mechanics of effective brand marketing requires trust. Without it, messaging becomes noise, dismissed as self-promotion wired to self-interest acted out on a paid media stage.

Consumer shift

Consumers today are demanding, for good reason, more information about the products they use and how they were created – some companies are paying attention. Earlier this year, bedding brand Boll & Branch launched Origin Track, which lets consumers trace how their sheets are made, from raw materials to finished product. At the foundation of this development is trust and how to acquire it. Brands that offer more disclosure and information earn deeper loyalty and engagement from consumers.

The dawn of trust-ology

Trust is needed in any brand-to-consumer relationship that lasts. You can’t simply say ‘we’re trustworthy’ and expect consumers to fall in line. Trust must be earned through daily deed and credible supporting action. Trust is the must-have goal as you work (hard) to secure consumer belief in your statements. This requires vigilance and intent.

Anatomy of trust-ology

• Belief is an idea rooted in a form of truth
• Faith is more than a thought — it is a deep-seated conviction
• Belief is centered in faith, and faith is centered in trust
• Trust is actionable, based on a credible, verifiable validation of rightness

Trusted means you accept the sender’s message because you believe they have your best interests at heart. You have faith in them and what they tell you. It is earned through consistent actions and verified by the validation of third-party trusted sources – expert voices without a compromising financial incentive.

The hierarchy of trust-ology

1. Consumers come first – you genuinely care about their welfare and happiness
2. Their best interests are always served
3. It is supported by honesty, reliability and consistency in how you operate (business behavior)
4. Your brand is consistently empathetic to their needs and aspirations

Trust-ology as strategy

In a study from Innova Research on the Top 10 Trends of 2023, they report 66% of consumers would trust a company that is upfront and truthful about the challenges they’re facing to operate more sustainably. The report goes on to say honesty and transparency are the most important values related to food. More specifically:

• How food is produced
• Where ingredients are sourced
• How value chain stakeholders are treated

In sum, consumer interest in transparency is fueling demands for more transparency. Why? Enabling trust. Allowing consumers to see for themselves how you do what you do results in credible proof of what you want them to believe. Thus, why trust building is a core proposition underneath brand strength and business growth.

Will you do something bold, new and unexpected in the name of earning credibility?

The trust-ology building platform – Champion Transparency Council

Champion Petfood owns some of the highest standards for quality ingredients in the pet food industry. However, that can be a tough message to credibly convey in an industry known for its lack of transparency and visibility to supply chain details, verified ingredient standards and manufacturing processes. Champion needed to reinforce trust at a critical time when consumers were demanding that pet food companies back up their assertions of high quality, human grade food ingredients.

Three steps to transparency transformation

1. Emergent’s solution: build trust through the voices and observations of real people and respected Veterinarian physicians
2. The strategic vehicle: The Champion Transparency Council
3. Their mission: see everything in every phase of pet food making from farm to production and report on what they witnessed firsthand

Leverage: we tapped into a unique operational commitment at Champion — their legacy long-term contracts to supply fresh proteins from farms, ranches and fisheries within driving distance of their kitchens.

We took Council members to nearby farms and fisheries to witness how animals were raised, chat with farmers and hear about their story and methods. We took them fishing so they could participate in the harvest of fish that would be used in making pet food. They observed the fresh proteins arriving at Champion’s kitchens. We invited them to see and ask questions about every aspect of pet food manufacturing, from intake to final packaging.

Their first-person reports verified Champion’s claims and were published through an array of channels reaching consumers and retailers. It was the truth about pet food making from a company that had nothing to hide and everything to gain by being totally transparent.

The Council strategy nourished Champion’s community of brand evangelists and enthusiasts with validation and proof that their faith was warranted and respected. We provided the media with unprecedented access to Council members for interviews.

Does your organization see transparency and traceability as a business opportunity? If so, how are you surfacing data and information to enable it and help your business benefit from it?

Components of trust-ology

Access

Openness

Dialogue

Customer-first values

Demonstration

Transparency

Integrity and honesty

This approach assures that the marketing story is consistent with company performance and consistent delivery of promises.

Why is this so vital to business growth?

Imagine for a moment that consumers no longer trust the claims and assertions brands make. Consider that their fears of misplaced loyalty and belief are confirmed in surprising moments of outing via an internal whistle-blower, government or media investigation or aftermath of a recall event. This manifests as a compelling need to know more, see more and make an informed evaluation based on evidence provided. Trust is merited through trustworthy actions.

This is why trust-ology should be a component of the marketing discipline, and trust creation must be a considered and embedded platform within the brand marketing game plan.

Open the curtain and let people see firsthand. Actions speak louder than words. At stake is rewarding their faith in your brand. When trust is secured, you should continue to invest in retaining it. As we’ve seen repeatedly, once lost, trust can be hard to reacquire.

• Trusted brands earn loyalty, admiration, and advocacy. Just make sure this commitment is woven into the fabric of your organization’s belief system. Efforts here will make your marketing more effective and your brand more resilient. Someday we hope to see a Chief Trust-ologist on the c-suite team.

If this discussion makes you anxious to discover more about the pathway to deploying trust-ology and belief, use the link below to arrange an informal meeting and start a dialogue on your questions.

Link to Download Champion Case Study

Looking for more food for thought? Subscribe to the Emerging Trends Report.

Bob Wheatley is the CEO of Chicago-based Emergent. Traditional brand marketing often sidesteps more human qualities that can help consumers form an emotional bond. Yet brands yearn for authentic engagement, trust and a lasting relationship with their customers. For more information, contact [email protected] and follow on Twitter @BobWheatley.