Why is it evaporating in CPG and retail brand building?

Your customers want to be part of a brand world and ecosystem you construct through conscious cultivation of your brand’s deeper meaning, higher purpose, convictions and expressed values. Never before have CPG and retail brands had this extraordinary opportunity to build such close and endearing user relationships because our culture — and consumer behavior with it — has permanently changed. Yet far too many organizations struggle with this, or ignore it, because they have inadvertently lost, diluted or forgotten their own soul. Yes, brands indeed have a soul.

• In the absence of a clearly wrought and codified “brand constitution,” too many compromises amidst the battles of year-to-year commerce and the inevitable maturation of category rules and conventions, work to chip away at this essential brand foundation.

In the go-go 80’s and early 90’s prior to arrival of the Internet and the power transfer from corporations to consumers, much of the dialogue in brand building had a distinct military flavor to it, with brands seeking to dominate their categories, erect barriers to entry and defend their territory through command-and-control tactics. Vestiges of this thinking still remain, despite the evidence that consumer-to-brand relationship creation has transformed. In this milieu, too often the disciplines of soul nurturing are circumvented by surface level attempts to bolt on shiny imagery and applied marketing lipstick that glosses over a baked in priority for commerce metrics and transactional behaviors over consumer-relevant strategic thinking.

Building, codifying, prioritizing and delivering on the levers of brand soul are indeed vital and essential to sustainable growth in the modern consumer-powered era. People are far more interested in and attracted to your “why” (values, purpose, beliefs) than either what you do or how you do it — no matter how enamored you may be of your superior product mouse trap.

How a brand’s soul gets buried

As virtually every business category grows and matures, an implicit set of rules and boundaries begin to arise, informed by consumer and retail customer expectations, competitive actions, regulatory requirements and industry standards of conduct. These conditions tend to push all category participants towards the middle resulting in comparable product offerings, features, benefits and pricing. Over time this includes growing similarity in business practices, supply chain standards and even manufacturing processes.

The not-to-be-taken-lightly threat that incubates in this environment is the ceaseless, endless and rust-advancing march of commoditization. The condition that compels category players to emphasize scale over other considerations as they pursue efficiency gains, enforce retail leverage and bolster thinning margins.

Commoditization has already taken root in cell phones, computers, hotels, airlines, cars and many food and beverage categories – and in doing so, opportunities for innovative, soul-inspired disruptors are unleashed to move in and gain marketplace traction.

In sum, over time…

1. Meaningful differentiation can dissipate
2. Marketing leverage based on budget tonnage in spending eventually starts to post diminishing returns
3. Brand soul and purpose recedes into the background amidst commoditization pressures
4. Increasing similarity rules the day among category participants
5. Businesses begin to focus on price promotion to achieve volume goals

Whole Foods was once a champion of purpose and meaning, its business model informed by advancing the organic movement, education around same and the firm belief foods produced this way ultimately contribute to the improved health, wellbeing and happiness of people and the environment. Since its acquisition by Amazon the belief system has receded, and in its place traditional supermarket merchandising mechanisms like PRIME promotions are driving the brand story.

Meaning and values were at one time the insulation and inoculation for Whole Foods’ higher pricing and the value proposition underneath it. Now the banner faces more competition and pricing pressures because the belief system is no longer the tip of the brand spear. Further the adoption of organic brands and sections within mainstream supermarkets serves to commodify the uniqueness of Whole Foods’ differentiation and so the advantages of its original specialness atrophies.

• Soul is the engine that drives brand separation and elevation with consumers who actively pursue and are attracted to deeper meaning and values-leaning strategies.

Symbols can tell the tale

Consumers are remarkably adept at reading the room. We immediately understand the cues, signals, icons and images that explain what and who we’re dealing with, where we are, how to behave and what to expect from a brand.

• What signals is your brand transmitting?
• Are you sending the right message?
• Do your values come through in the symbolism you generously (or not) display through every point of consumer contact?

Brands informed by their soul are always focused on fulfilling consumer need, dreams, expectations, desires and growth. They are also unafraid to express views on societal issues that consumers care about such as sustainability, environmental responsibility and the wellbeing of disadvantaged people.

Soul signals and consumer-centricity

Brand soul and higher purpose tends to fall from a deep understanding and preoccupation with supporting consumers on their life journey. This manifests from genuine care and consideration for their welfare and personal growth while also helping people realize their hopes and dreams.

It is in those dreams and aspirations that we find an emotional anchor for storytelling that moves people to embrace and join your brand ecosystem. Every human, every day wishes for progress and improvement. Are you actively helping them on their journey to grow?

From:

Unhealthy to healthy

Good to great

Weak to strong

Lonely to popular

Confused to wise

Invisible to recognized

Novice to expert

Poor to secure

Plain to fashionable

Make no mistake, to be human is to be emotional. However, brands without a soul-led code of conduct tend to talk endlessly about themselves and product features rather than enablement and celebration of consumer passions. In doing so the brand story is likely to be fact-dense and analytical, despite the reems of research confirming people won’t burn the mental calories to decipher that kind of messaging. People simply are just not fact-based, analytical decision-making machines.

How do you know if you’re succeeding? When consumers can state with clarity what your brand stands for, its meaning and purpose.

A powerful tool at your disposal: surprise and delight

Do the unexpected. In his book Unreasonable Hospitality, restaurateur and author Will Guidara tells the tale of a table of New York City visitors who were overheard saying they were disappointed that the following day they were leaving the city without ever having sampled a hot dog from one of the many carts that line the streets of Manhattan.

Mind you his restaurant, Eleven Madison Park, is one of the finest, most elite culinary palaces in New York. His team sprang into action sending a runner to track down hot dogs at a cart. They were ferried back to the kitchen where the chef arranged an artful hot dog presentation. The diners were blown away that the restaurant would do this without a word ever being spoken to staff about their hot dog curiosity. It was the restaurant’s soulful belief in unreasonable hospitality that brought the surprise to life.

Have you ever been to Harrod’s department store in London? If so, have you shopped in their over-the-top food hall? Harrod’s isn’t a supermarket mind you but thy indeed sell fresh and packaged foods. Their fresh fish displays are legendary for their artistry and creative arrangement of fresh fish choices.

Of course, any grocery store with vision and applied talent could do the same thing, with the goal of making their store talked about and Instagram worthy. Yet nothing of the sort happens past the layers of crushed ice surrounding rows of whatever fish is on feature.

Surprise and delight are a choice. It is a strategy. It recognizes the very human preference for artistry and empathy.  Stores and brands with a clearly curated and developed soul are more likely to find this path and exploit it than those that don’t and who are more comfortable staying within the category accepted norms of behavior.

• When you’re willing to be a disruptive player you have a chance to alter the paradigm of what consumers think you are about and engineer a new and more engaging perception of your brand.

If this article has you thinking about how this could be brought to life in your business, it’s important to note you will need outside experts to help you work through the right mix of tools and messages. Use the link below to start a conversation with our team of brand soul experts.

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Narrowcasting to fans, followers and advocates…

If you look under the hood of a strong brand with a demonstrated higher purpose, belief system and investment in social community building, you will find a percolating audience of consumer ambassadors and believers. A symbiotic relationship exists here as the brand invests in them and they reciprocate with support as frequent users and evangelists often via word-of-mouth. All of this, mind you, can be strategic and intentional, even when the manifestations appear to be organic.

An outcome of the digital age, we find greater efficacy in narrower channels of media that cater to special interests and topics resonating to the hearts and minds of the brand’s most devoted followers. In many cases this also attests to the 80/20 rule: 80 percent of profits come from 20 percent of a brand’s most ardent followers and users. This happens repeatedly.

• So we pose the question: how does this play out in earned media strategy? It’s a fair question because earned media outreach is often devoted to a long-standing tool of the mass media era, the venerable press release, its distribution usually a shotgun affair that goes in every direction.

Narrowcast vs. broadcast

Name the category where strong brands exist and you’ll find media resonant to core lifestyle interests and passions of a brand’s most frequent users. It is here where the truly gifted earned media artists devote time and energy to building relationships with editors and contributors – those who populate these influential media channels with engaging content.

Earned media isn’t transactional, at least not most of the time. The path to outcomes in this setting are negotiated through interaction and conversation between people. The communications experts from the brand side are packaging and presenting relevant story background ideas/material to discuss with reporters whose areas of focus closely matches the topics of interest for a brand’s best users.

The entire proposition is driven by mutual respect, credibility, service to the reader, editorial sensibility and well-researched supporting material, reports and sources who form the alchemy of any solid feature story treatment. The paradigm is fueled through mutual interest and effort over time to build a solid, reliable relationship between source and scribe. It’s definitely not “spray and pray” as press releases can be referred to in wire service distribution terms.

• Our point: there’s more to be gained in narrowcasting earned media strategies to specific channels where special interests are served, and this is territory where media relationships are nurtured over time. Reporters tend to go back to reliable sources.

The ladder: vertical to national

Ask any brand executive and you’ll get feedback that national bluechip media coverage is always a desirable outcome from elite media brands like the New York Times, Bloomberg, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal or network TV news. Vertical media often get the short sheet in this conversation, but they shouldn’t. Category trade media plays a vital, vibrant role not only between a brand and its key stakeholder audiences of distributors and retailers, it’s also a proving ground for larger story ideas.

Trade coverage that touches on a core editorial idea relevant to larger national media is an immediate credibility booster to the story efficacy and dimensions in a non-competitive setting. This comprises a circular editorial eco-system where coverage in trades is useful in conversations with national media. While national coverage tends to drive incremental stories in vertical channels. Both are good, solid, strategic components of a strong earned media plan.

• Both indeed are driven by relationships, creativity and solid performances by brand PR experts who know their results depend on fulfilling the promises in a good working relationship with key editors, reporters and producers.

If this stimulates some questions about optimal editorial media strategies or similar situations you wrestle with, use the link below to open an informal dialogue.

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How’s your sustainability practices’ steering right now?

Last year was the warmest ever for our planet. We continue to pump more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere anyway. Consumer sustainability concerns are evolving and it’s about to take a hard turn. Are you ready to navigate? Stay with us while we peel the onion on how we got here and what’s coming.

In June of 2020 Emergent started working with a new food technology start-up called Air Protein, founded by MIT physicist Dr. Lisa Dyson. We came onboard to help install the strategic building blocks for a new category, brand and business. Dyson’s ground-breaking mission to create meat proteins that were identical in every way to the animal version without any animal involved in making them. Instead, she borrowed a chapter in protein creation research from NASA that launched during the Apollo Mission era – aimed at figuring out how to feed astronauts during extended space travel.

The basis for this ground-breaking work was emerging evidence responding to the detrimental impacts of livestock farming and industrial agriculture on our environment. We were in a word, awestruck, by the gravity of the environmental challenges and convinced that Dr. Dyson’s “carbon transformation” technology held great promise for a more sustainable way to create meat proteins that didn’t carry the eating experience challenges of plant-based options.

• The more study we did through our relationship with this important new company, the more persuaded we became that the entire food and beverage industry needed to step up on the journey to more sustainable practices. Admittedly, we were likely ahead of the curve at that time on the details that sit underneath why our food system (industrial agriculture) is a significant contributor to carbon emissions.

By late 2020 and we had amassed enough secondary research on the emerging issue of climate impact and sustainability to draw some conclusions. First, consumers were responding with some alarm to stories of global warming outcomes and rising greenhouse gas levels. Second, it was clear to us that food, beverage and retail brands were trying to figure out what this meant to the business and how they should navigate the issue.

Early in 2021 we responded by creating the Brand Sustainability Solution (BSS) platform designed to help frame the key challenges, compile what we knew about evolving consumer preferences and tie it all together with a five-point sustainability readiness best practices guide.

At the time our primary conclusions were:

1. The food system is a significant contributor to greenhouse gases, primarily from raising livestock for protein.
2. Consumers are trying to identify sustainable choices, but brands were behind the curve in responding.
3. Businesses were unsure of the correct path to sustainability readiness. Even what readiness consisted of was hotly debated.

Today we stand at the edge of a significant change

Sustainability impacts to date have been defined within a framework of Systems 1, 2 and 3 impacts. System 1 and 2 are both within an organization’s own ability to manage and make changes whether that be energy use, resource consumption or packaging upgrades. However, studies have confirmed that 80 to 90 percent of companies’ carbon emission challenges are in System 3 – outside their direct control and in the hands of suppliers. In sum, the primary source of greenhouse gas emissions for food, beverage brands and retailers are in the supply chain. Said another way, how products are produced, the ingredients that go into them.

Now comes the tough part

Consumers are increasingly connecting the dots between sourcing, ingredients and emissions. As have regulators and other influential players including media. Here’s what the New York Times recently had to say: “Supply chain hurdles complicate food companies’ climate pledges – The bulk of emissions — in many cases more than 90 percent — come from the companies’ supply chains. In other words, the cows and wheat used to make burgers and cereal.”

• Witness the explosion of interest in regenerative farming practices as brands seek to mitigate the System 3 conditions. Goes without saying, we’ve reported time and again that scientific assessments are vital to this process for the simple reason you can’t know where you’re going until you know where you are to start with.

Now we enter the era of emissions reporting. Businesses will need to conduct credible System 3 assessments of current conditions, report on that data and also set realistic targets over time for mitigating GHG (greenhouse gas) contributions. The operative word here is reporting. People want to know what products constitute a more sustainable choice, and the conditions underneath the supply chain will be a determining factor in that understanding.

Our analysis over time of where companies are on the path

For 18 months we conducted questionnaire assessments with numerous CPGs and retailers on their sustainability journey. We learned:

• Science based System 3 assessments were lacking along with the mitigation goals that accompany them.

• A significant disconnect between sustainability investments and policies, and programs designed to convey that progress to all stakeholders, especially consumers.

• A pervasive presence of siloed conditions inside organizations where newly formed sustainability teams were working separately from marketing, where outreach and communications resources usually reside.

Far too many brands are still preoccupied with the low hanging fruit of say recyclable packaging when we know that the vast majority of emission issues are in the ingredient supply chain. It’s time to make science-based assessment of System 3 a core part of the sustainability management discourse, and to connect that analysis with reasonable steps to improve through partnerships and goal setting among suppliers, farms and other actors along the product creation path.

What consumers want

Truth, transparency and honesty from the brands they care about, backed up with credible, third-party verified data on current performance and a clear path forward for setting sustainability improvement goals.

The hard turn

Transparency and reporting of emissions status, visibility to science-based analysis and disclosure of current conditions followed by reasonable targets over time for advancements. Thus, a call for brands and businesses to collaborate with supply chain partners to create a virtuous ecosystem designed to bring all participants along on the path.

Importantly, communicating this work to all stakeholders, too.

Marketplace competitive leverage

Progressive brands get the urgency of this and the opportunity it presents. As consumers want to make more sustainable choices, this presents an opportunity for category leadership in sustainability best practices. And by doing so to gain lasting competitive marketplace advantage as a best practices leader.

The downside of pushing this off

As the call for clear emissions reporting and standards gains traction, brands will increasingly be held to account on their progress or lack thereof. Those who choose to wax on about progress in System 1 and 2 at the expense of dealing with the more complex and taxing conditions in the supply chain will risk being called out for half measures and greenwashing.

As consumers start to look for this information from brands and on product packaging, those operating without that data will become conspicuous regardless the reasons. This is an opportunity to seize the day and lead the category towards better practices and outcomes for people and the planet.

The future ahead

What’s notable now, however, is the absence of clear standards that help prevent a descent into the wild west where brands and businesses decide independently what constitutes an acceptable outcome. Third party recognized frames for different businesses are essential. It will come. Here’s the evolutionary changes we expect to see:

• Carbon emission labeling
• Development of recognized standards of performance
• Best practices in supply chain emissions management

Sustainability guidance for 2024

The most glaring error we’ve encountered on this journey is the absence of robust efforts to communicate. Too many brands labor on these issues behind the corporate curtain without a strategic, creative program in place to let consumers and other stakeholders know what you’re doing. Some may be fearful of getting called out for not going fast enough.

We think its time to worry more about helping people understand the great efforts you’re making to map a more sustainable future. In fact, we’d say you have already acquired a responsibility to do this early and often.

Should you decide your organization would benefit from guidance on better managing these changes and the communications tools needed to enhance your effectiveness in getting the word out, use the link below to ask questions and start an informal conversation. We’d love to help you sort out the right path, message and comms tools.

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Securing consumer relevance while mitigating sustainability outcome challenges…

You might agree, improved sustainability performance in our food system is challenging to achieve. Concurrently, staying ahead of shifting consumer sentiments is equally difficult. Both are essential to continued progress in transforming how food and beverage are created while driving appeal to those that will buy environmentally-responsible products.

Two new studies on the topic, one from Bain and the other from Sustainable Brands, show some alignment on key areas of consumer insight.

Here we will provide an update on consumer behaviors that impact the potential growth of business opportunities, while reflecting on the systemic challenges inherent in getting products optimized for the three criteria driving business growth:

Delicious. Healthy. Sustainable.

Both reports detail disconnects that stand in the way of progress to connect the dots between corporate sustainability efforts, product efficacy and results at the point of sale.

• Putting to rest the #1 myth about consumer sentiment: Sustainability activism and interest are not exclusively the province of politically left-leaning, progressive liberal mindsets espoused by a small fringe cohort of conscious consumption advocates. Rather, 72% of consumers across all age segments consider themselves to be sustainable, ethical consumers. Yet there remains distance between this self-assessment and their marketplace behaviors.

• Remarkably, the predominant interest in sustainable choice is important to Boomers as much as it is Gen Z.

• Gen Z consumers are not all activists and more than half of them are less likely to act on their preferences due to perceived barriers (cost, lack of choice).

• Among the barriers, is the inability to truly distinguish which products are sustainable vs. those that aren’t.

• Consumers universally remain skeptical of companies’ ability to deliver change and operate in the best interest of people and the planet ahead of profit. Brands need to address this.

• Younger cohorts feel more pressure to align with sustainable living, thus are more actively willing to switch brands from habitual choices when trying to execute of their priorities.

• Absence of choice: consumers believe there are not enough sustainable options across categories that matter to them, frustrating their desire to live more sustainably. This operates like a brake on behavior.

• Ironically, however, they think exercising their preference and choice for sustainable options while shopping is their primary path to being influential on creating a more sustainable lifestyle and environmentally healthy planet.

• Nearly half of consumers believe living sustainably is too expensive.

• Even so, consumers are willing to pay more for sustainably-made products.

• However, the acceptable sustainability upcharge is in the range of 12%, not the average 28% premium consumers frequently experience, especially in the U.S.

• Consumers want more information and believe companies must share specifics about what they are doing to address sustainability challenges in the products they provide.

• They also believe companies and brands are not doing enough to communicate their sustainability bona fides. This can be addressed via investment in education.

• While greenwashing – messages that get ahead of real, authentic performance – isn’t helping anyone secure trust and belief in the efficacy of what’s said and on offer.

Sustainable Brands’ survey of 23,000 consumers revealed this summary of how consumers shake out along the spectrum of “act now” to “don’t care”:

Activists:  17% – the situation is critical, and we must act now before it’s too late

Pragmatists: 28% – they are concerned, aware and watching yet actions are more limited

Conflicted: 19% –they care as well but pocketbook considerations remain the top priority

Busy bystander: 19% – also concerned but this is less important right now

Disengaged deniers: 17% – nope, just not buying into it.

For your next internal update report, here are some data points on where consumers (by generational segment) are relative to hot button topics.

Companies are not doing enough to address their sustainable performance:

Gen Z – 80%

Millennial – 77%

Gen X – 72%

Boomer – 69%

Will switch brands when presented with a more sustainable choice:

Gen Z – 75%

Millennial – 79%

Gen X – 70%

Boomer – 67%

Are willing to pay more for sustainable choice:

Gen Z – 72%

Millennial – 69%

Gen X – 60%

Boomer – 56%

In answering where they go to secure reliable information on which to base their decisions, consumers cited these sources in descending order of priority in their behavior:

1. Product packaging and label communication
2. Reading reviews
3. Looking at company websites and social channels
4. Asking friends and family
5. Checking out third-party certifications
6. Checking for information at retail stores

All of these behaviors and preferences, however, spin on the head of actual performance by brands to create authentically more sustainable products that also meet considerations on taste and price point.

• What we can tell from the consumer data is confirmation of a cultural shift that will become one of the biggest levers of competitive marketplace advantage in the years ahead. This means the current predominance of silos separating sustainability leadership from marketing strategy must collapse.

That said, the thorniest of all issues brands will confront on the path to more sustainable outcomes and performance are efforts to address the current System 3 mitigation crisis that dogs the industry. Why is this so important? Because of the role the supply chain and all its complexity plays to reduce carbon emissions – far more important than any other area of sustainable standard and policy.

This chart from Bain reveals the significance:

Where does all of this lead?

The time to act is now. Separation and elevation for environmentally-relevant brands and businesses will continue to grow. It’s power as a regulator of market share growth and brand differentiation will only increase.

Here’s how Bain characterizes the challenge:

“Incumbent consumer goods companies will continue to cede growth to insurgents that are doing a better job of serving consumers’ rising demands for healthier (and more sustainable) food. Companies across the food chain will find themselves losing out amid the scarce supply of limited raw materials that meet environmental standards. They’re already lagging in the war for top talent. A telling fact: No agribusiness or food producer was named in the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For list in 2023.”

“By our analysis, food companies that seize the initiative can benefit from a potential 15% five-year revenue uplift compared with a 43% revenue decline for companies that fall behind based on a scenario of increasingly aggressive regulation.”

Companies can begin this journey into the future by asking and answering a series of fundamental questions.

1. How are we contributing—both positively and negatively—to the health and environmental footprint of the food system?
2. How might environmental, health, consumer, technology, and regulatory dynamics/developments affect the food industry over the next 10 years?
3. What will the agri-food company of the future—and our company—need to look like in 10 years?
4. How do we scale our regenerative agriculture and portfolio reinvention priorities?
5. How can we better mobilize our entire organization?

At Emergent we see sustainability performance and leadership as a decisive move for business growth and brand purpose leadership. As you consider the facts arrayed here, if you have questions in your mind about sustainability readiness and best practices, use this link to start an informal conversation about your concerns.

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Now more than ever, brand storytelling is the link to engagement

It is our mission at Emergent to continuously study the evolving dynamics of influence on the consumer journey to purchase. No surprise, we are doing business in revolutionary times. To wit, advances in AI technology will permanently alter the future of brand communication and how consumers operate when buying. Meantime, another behavior shift has arrived ahead of the trust challenges AI will inevitably create. Below we bring you the details.

Since the dawn of modern retail shopping, people have invariably looked for guidance from trusted sources as they seek to make what they believe to be less risky purchase decisions (people always work to avoid a bad decision/experience).

Below are two more recent areas of influence on consumer behavior. Then ahead we see a third pathway that is currently dialing up.

1. 10 years ago, we started looking to credible third parties

We trusted those perceived to be credentialed experts from academic, scientific and reputational influence backgrounds who brought their educated assessment of what constitutes the state of the art in any given category.

2. Five years ago, this evolved to a focus on belief in peers

With digital apps came crowd sourcing and social community “proof” at our fingertips. We experience this through sites such as Facebook, Yelp, TripAdvisors, Goodreads, TikTok, LinkedIn and Instagram that aggregate the views and experiences of our peers. We trust fellow citizens to verify and validate the assertions and claims made by brands.

3. Next, public trust failures have led consumers to turn inward for guidance

We are on the cusp of another evolution in buying behavior. People are looking inside themselves – relying on their intuition, inner wisdom and ‘gut feel’ about brands and businesses. This felt-to-be-true knowledge springs from an implicit understanding that originates in the subconscious. In essence, consumers land on a sense of what feels right to them. They trust these feelings to provide guidance and confidence for their decisions. Pundits in the brand strategy world are referring to this new school of thinking as Noetic Intelligence.

What does this mean for brands when consumers turn to intuition for trusted guidance? Your response should be to refocus on what people are feeling in the presence of your brand. Translating that into best practices means dialing up stories that amplify values, beliefs, deeper meaning and emotion to hit the right subliminal chords.

Storytelling is the most potent, engaging, strategically-differentiating form of communication available to businesses and brands.

By definition, this is a unique and more emotive approach focused on a different and more lifestyle relevant set of topics than pushing product features, benefits or reciting factoids and reports to support a new technology or innovation achievement. Specifically:

• What is your brand higher purpose?
• What do you believe in?
• What is your opinion on substantive issues impacting the world around us?
• How are you enabling a path for consumers to act upon their beliefs and values?
• What lies within the heart and soul of your brand’s value system?

Stories help people get involved with your brand and don’t present themselves like overt selling. Instead, storytelling cultivates interest and engagement, fueled by an increasingly easy ability to publish and distribute through social channels and other content platforms as narratives, videos and podcasts.

Stories can help build an emotional connection between brands and users, by enabling the humanization of brand conversations. This is how you secure rapt consumer attention.

• When I started in this business, we often bemoaned the challenges of controlling messages and lamented that our outreach existed only within media platforms owned and managed by third parties. Today brands can operate independently as publishers AND media channels. Yet some brands are hesitant to fully leverage this incredible controlled messaging capability to greatest effect.

All too often, brands remain tethered to product presentations rather than the context and belief afforded by stories. A pet food brand can self-promote its ingredient quality, nutritional philosophy, commitment to ethical sourcing and the like. Or the brand can bring forward stories of transformational change and impact their diets have on beloved pets whose lives were improved through better nutrition and the wellbeing that bestows. This blends with and imprints the positive lifestyle associations people desire with their furry family members.

Which is more compelling? The story of how a pet’s life has transformed from consuming a new diet. Or waxing on about nutritional panel ingredient integrity and high sourcing standards? It’s going to be the first approach every time. Human beings love stories. So why don’t we see more of it more often in marketing?

During the persuasion era of brand marketing, interruption-style media was deployed to circulate product feature communication constructed around entertainment or humor to bait the attention of its intended audience. Some of this marketing manipulation thinking still lingers today, despite our knowing consumers have the ability to avoid nearly all of it.

The story telling era has emerged to replace interruption and manipulation

Some of best examples of powerful storytelling can be found in books and movies that deftly use conflict, tension, struggle, and lead character redemption, ultimately leading to a favorable outcome as a blueprint for successful engagement. Yet many brands struggle with storytelling because it’s not a direct product hard sell. As if hard selling will continue as a bankable path to consumer engagement anyway?

Brand storytelling is at its most dynamic state when integrating:

Culture –

Culture governs shifts in preference, social relevance, priorities, meaning and even language. It is influential to behavior and so should be respected as a conditioning and context agent for brand stories.

Psychology –

Neuroscience proves how we work incessantly to avoid perceived risks. Our subconscious is the ruler over decisions and actions and so we use archetype development to help inform the tone, manner and character of brand messaging that resonates.

Emotion –

Humans are feeling creatures who think. We are not analytical, fact-driven decision-making machines. Emotion sits at the front door of how we behave and influences our opinions and judgments. It is fundamental to our actions and the decisions we make. It’s the emotional grist which makes the communication memorable by the way.

Today this approach manifests in a refined set of outbound tools including:

Content streams

Social communities

Installations and pop-ups

Real world and retail experiences

If you want to know more, ask questions or discuss Noetic Intelligence and its application to your business, use this link and let’s talk.

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Don’t play in someone else’s sandbox

What we’re about to discuss here is vital to brand marketing best practices and sustainable business results.

Most of the time brands and businesses focus their marketing on being better than X. When you are better than X your brand identity is linked to a competing brand. This is a trap. Being better is actually worse. Being different is better than better. Why? Because superior products often lose to brands that dare to be different.

When better silently runs the show, your storytelling is always focused on features and benefits. Some may even strive to be the best – which is really “better” dressed in a suit. Example of a “better” expression: “more” is a slippery slope to feature selling. More control. More perks. More of magic ingredient X. You’ll find hidden under every feature benefit message there is a “better” snare.

• It’s a misguided, if all too common, principle that inevitably focuses the conversation on competitive benchmarks and comparisons. It is an endless cycle that leaves real consumer traction and engagement unattended – because the story always makes the brand the hero and not the consumer.

Better brands are never about product features and benefits, and consumers no longer buy them anyway. That’s table stakes. Instead, people are attracted to deeper meaning, aligned values, higher purpose and are magnetically drawn to different. Your brand should offer a point of view, express opinions and bring a vision of the future.

Rule number one: in compelling brand storytelling the consumer must always be the hero of your narrative. Your brand should avoid competing with the consumer for the hero role. Every consumer, every day wakes up believing they are the hero of their life journey. Your brand’s proper messaging role is as coach, guide and empathetic enabler of their journey.

Stronger brands always focus on being unique, not better

Strategic brands say and do things differently

They hew a unique tone

They often carve a controversial path

They see the future through a different lens

They operate with a belief system

The belief is the benefit

Great brands are always founded on beliefs

You may think that users care about better. However, you just haven’t given them something greater to believe in. Shifting the story spotlight takes the glow off of your competitor – who incidentally really doesn’t matter to your future prospects and growth.

It isn’t easy to be different. It takes incredible discipline and the support of your leadership team not to fall back into feature/benefit selling. Strategic strength springs from a well-defined understanding of who you are as a brand and company, and what you want to become over time.

Following the path to different

Here are some examples of how you can embrace different in your strategic game plan.

1. Create a new category

Historically and traditionally skincare and make-up brands conveyed that beauty is always applied. It exists on the exterior as an aspirational expression of status seeking and attraction. More enlightened brands have arrived to flip the script by attaching a broader vision of what beauty is and how it manifests. Instead, real beauty comes from within.

Beauty evolves as a coalescing of better health, fitness, spiritual growth and is inclusive of different body types, ages and lifestyles. The brand voice morphs to focus on wellbeing, happiness and growth rather than the singular application of a product. This different view authors a unique voice that carries added relevance and value to its audience of believers in a more validating life view.

Category creation is the ultimate move to inject different into brand strategy and positioning.

2. Move from product utility to lifestyle association

All too often product communication is devoted to specific technologies, formulation superiority and benefits of same. The product and brand are always the authoritative voice. Instead, moving to a lifestyle brand strategy enables personal authority. Great lifestyle brands insert themselves into important moments and experiences sought after by users. These are often situations and memories that echo the brand’s deep belief system – it’s “why” rather than what or how.

Yeti is an iconic example of a brand enrobing itself in a cloak of lifestyle experiences that celebrate outdoor adventures and enable the freedom of the soul in nature. Yeti is not selling coolers and tumblers. It’s singular devotion to breathing life into the emotional experiences of lifestyle association endears itself to its audience of evangelists and ambassadors. Yeti’s deeper meaning separates and elevates it from other brands who offer similar products.

3. Change the story focus

Most brands talk up themselves incessantly. It’s always about who we are and what we do. There is self-reverence and promotion. All about me. Instead of revealing yourself to the customer, how about revealing the customer to themselves. Stop expressing who you are and start talking about the customer – their aspirations, interests and needs.

Most hotel brands focus on their properties to extol design, amenities, services, architecture and location. Here are our features. Frankly the entire conversation is nearly generic brand to brand and separated mostly by price class.

Along comes Airbnb to completely violate the rules and tropes of travel brand communication. Rather than say look at who we are, they flip the lens around to say I see who you are. It comes from a different view of what travel is and how it can be experienced. Belong Anywhere is a unique concept that makes the customer and user experience paramount. The brand becomes an enabler of a unique experience – a coach and guide on a different and more human way to experience travel and destinations.

4. Change the reality

Disruption can be a useful tool when it reorients what people take for granted. The goal is to help people find and accept a new reality. Everything we thought we knew about __________ is wrong. This is how to do it (understand it) right.

The emergence of sustainability strategies and a new understanding of the role our food system plays in climate change is a reality-changing condition. Most people don’t think of food as a contributor to global warming. A brand that steps fully into conscious consumption and the commitment to improving sustainability bona fides creates a game changing story for consumers – and potentially a transformational view of how food should be created.

Similarly, what we think we know about health, wellness and aging is ripe for a makeover. Creating a new reality is a road to difference, uniqueness and sought-after guidance. The new paradigm of belief positions your brand as arbiter of a new way of thinking, doing and believing.

Different is the Holy Grail, let’s look for it!

It is time to back away from being better or best to refocus your marketing and messaging energy on radical differentiation. Best practices in this area inevitably leads to refinement of brand belief systems and adding deeper meaning to who and what you are as a brand and business. Collectively, if you can do it and stick to it, your brand will benefit from a new era of transcendence and value to users who come to you for better and more lasting reasons than a product feature.

If this discussion stirs some thinking and questions in your mind, and you’d like to get those ideas on the table to ponder with some like-minded thinkers, let us know. We’d love to think with you about how this thinking can be applied to your brand and business. Here’s a link to start an informal conversation.

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