You don’t need to roll the dice on chasing attention…

The legendary Peter Drucker said, “business has only two functions, marketing and innovation, and everything else is just costs.” His bucket of cold-water reality statement is based on a profound understanding: even superior products can fail to gain traction in the marketplace, where strong brands built on a foundation of compelling strategic differentiation can beat everything else. However, perception doesn’t lead reality by very far, so the relative strength and power of the product innovation remains a critical component of sustainable business growth. Yet still his point well taken, but often missed.

• Thus why Emergent is a hybrid integration of brand strategy guidance and creative brand storytelling, because both must be in harmony for business results to manifest. A poorly positioned and undifferentiated brand does not improve when the media spotlight is turned on and amplifies those weaknesses.

• Our perspective and experience having launched hundreds of brands, new categories and products helps shorten the distance between investment and bankable results. Yet all too often, businesses get stuck in rinse and repeat performances that essentially handcuff the “marketing” outcomes to marching in step with prevailing category conditions (good or bad).

Far too many organizations view marketing as “the department down the hall,” and don’t give it the priority and resource allocation it so richly deserves. Perhaps this is a holdover of old business school traditions about the importance of finance and operations. Yet we have mountains of evidence that marketing/brand led businesses will outperform everything else. You can’t “balance sheet control” your way to marketplace success.

Equally important though not to conflate this perspective with big attention chasing ad campaigns and media spend overreach that depresses profits while serving up some marquis brand-ertainment. Pepsi just recently released a Gladiator-themed commercial to coincide with the return of football season, stuffed with A-list stars including Megan-thee-Stallion and Travis Kelce. It’s big budget blast used to chase awareness. Is this strategy at play? No, it’s tactics at play, albeit a well-financed and cinematic version. Of note, retailers may appreciate the spend regardless of whether or not the brand itself is sufficiently separated and elevated from all choices it competes with. However, most businesses will need to be more strategic to succeed.

The goal of sound strategy is differentiation. Said another way, an effort to gain monopoly-like status in a crowded field. Businesses faced with a lot of similar competition can struggle to deliver profits because` of market forces that inevitably push pricing towards the top of the competitive agenda.

A better path

Marketing in its purest form is always led by strategy, and optimal strategy is centered on how to separate and elevate a business from the competition, such that it creates its own distinct category by offering something consumers can only get from you.

Peter Theil in his excellent book, “Zero to One” helps us understand the relative power of successfully positioned brands in his description of challenges posed by sameness and similarity in a category. “In 2012, when the average airfare each way was $178, the airlines made only 37 cents per passenger trip. Compare them to Google, which creates less value but captures far more. Google brought in $50 billion in 2012 (versus $160 billion for the airlines), but it kept 21% of those revenues as profits—more than 100 times the airline industry’s profit margin that year. Google makes so much money that it’s now worth three times more than every U.S. airline combined. The airlines compete with each other, but Google stands alone.”

• Different business model you say, but the principle is clear: the more you seek to operate as a market of one and not many, the more control you have over your destiny.

The business end of marketing well played

Entirely too much emphasis is placed on expensive ad campaigns as a poster child of marketing best practices. The war is often won in the trenches and chasing high media investment awareness is an expensive, profit draining gambit many brands would be foolish to pursue.

Well-positioned brands that are imbued with deeper meaning and mission can attract legions of ambassadors, enthusiasts and believers who join the brand community and then turn around and talk about it. This is the 80/20 rule writ large (most of your sales and profits come from a smaller segment of devoted customers) and the most powerful and credible channel of communication because it is trusted and not dependent on mega-sized paid media spending.

Combine this with a solid retail marketing plan and you’ve got your hands on the levers of push and pull that can drive profitable results. Let’s take a closer look at example elements of strong retail support that can secure sales traction for a well-positioned brand.

Retailer support concepts

1. Strengthening retailer relationships

• Personalized engagement through dedicated account handlers to build stronger relationships and ensure retailers feel valued and supported.

• Ongoing communication to keep retail customers in the loop about new products, promotions, and company news using tools such as e-newsletters, webinars, and retailer townhalls with executive presentations.

2. Tailored marketing support

• Co-branded marketing materials, including in-store displays, brochures, and social media content.

• Localized marketing outreach designed for resonance with the specific demographics and preferences of a retailer’s customer base.

• Providing training on digital marketing techniques, such as social media marketing and online advertising, to help retailers more effectively reach a broader audience.

3. Comprehensive training

• Developing training programs for store sales staff, focused on your brand narrative and differentiated story. This can be delivered through online modules, in-person workshops and webinars.

• More targeted lifestyle education in meaningful areas like nutrition and wellness, helping store staff become trusted customer advisors — to enhance retailer reputation as knowledgeable and caring.

• Sales training to help staff improve their customer service and engagement skills.

4. Exclusive promotions and incentives

• Building exclusive promotions around special discounts, bundle offers, or limited-edition products to help drive traffic and sales.

• Retailer loyalty programs that reward partnership and performance, such as rebates, free product samples, or marketing support funds.

• Partnering with retailers on in-store events such as seminars, product demonstrations and experiences to engage customers and increase brand visibility.

5. Feedback and ongoing Improvement

• Creating retailer advisory councils to gather ongoing feedback and insights so you can better understand their needs and challenges.

• Conducting regular surveys and feedback sessions to monitor the effectiveness marketing activity and identify areas for improvement.

6. Leveraging community and cause campaigns

• Supporting local cause events and charities that retailers are already involved in to strengthen community ties and brand loyalty; or partner with retailers to build original cause marketing campaigns that resonate with their customer base.

Why does this matter?

Getting as close as possible to your customer at the point of decision is never a bad idea. The moment of truth at shelf can be significant as consumers navigate choice and think about their priorities and spend.

Yes, it’s an eco-system that helps people understand and “feel something” about your brand BEFORE they go to the store. However, what happens at retail should also be carefully designed and not left with other brands to usurp.

Integration of the two is your strongest play: a highly differentiated brand with a great story to tell, matched with strong retail partnerships and support to close the loop. In a way this explains why Emergent exists and what we aim to deliver. Separately, these tools don’t perform as well. Planned and integrated, it forms a strong cohesive foundation on which to build a lasting, profitable business.

Can you see it?

If this approach stimulates questions about how it can apply to your unique brand challenges, us the link below to ask questions and open a dialogue that should prove insightful and useful for your planning.

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.

Is it time for a re-stage?

In 2021 and ’22, nearly every month in the food and environmental trades there was another announcement of a Series “pick the letter” closing as hundreds of millions in capital raise flooded the “start-up” march to glory on the road to solve the future of food.

• The philosophical underpinnings of this wave of new brands and businesses was based on a profound new, powerful understanding that the food system as we know it is a significant actor in the carbon emission contributions to global warming from agricultural sources.

New technologies promising exact replicas (bioidentical) of animal-based proteins with no taste or eating experience sacrifice operated like magnets, drawing private equity and VC funding right and left as investors labored to spread their risk across a broad swath of promising players. Their hope to land on some commercialization and scaling magic that would amply reward investors who searched for the next Golden Goose headed for the animal-free protein hall of fame.

It often felt like a crusade to save humanity by remaking where food comes from in ways never before imagined. Meanwhile the nascent plant-based meat proteins marketplace was further along its journey and about to explode as Beyond Meat unveiled its now famous claim of “Plant-Based Meat for Meat Lovers” to lure in a non-vegan, larger audience of early adopters. It was an audacious claim of decadent hamburger eating experience but crafted from plants. The other not-so-recognize-able ingredients in this highly processed product would later surface critically as a drag on its healthier premise.

The plant-based protein hype machine in full throat fomented a wave of channel expansion into fast food, mass grocery retail. Of note the rapid moves into mass distribution may have been il-advised when the core audiences of these behemoth retail outlets were populated with consumers driven more so by pocketbook issues than the loftier cries to reduce carbon emissions from food creation.

• When certain consumer cohorts are less enamored with the environmental goals, they can be more sensitive to the price premium “ouch” and less tolerant of any sacrifices in taste or texture of a food you’ve been in love with for most of their lives. Impact of this on repeat purchase velocity, a prime indicator of stickiness in the core value proposition, became self-evident.

Know thy market?

In a crusade to rapidly change the world’s eating habits, over-reach ensued with large cap CPGs, QSR restaurant chains and other patrons of the mass market love jumping on the plant-based bandwagon to either launch a subpar knock-off product or grab a new menu board item to wave in front of consumers in the midst of a media storm that trumpeted the rise of plant-based solutions as ‘better for you’ – with a side order of less taxing to the environment.

All well and good and yes, the number of consumers who care about sustainability has been rising for years. Still important to consider the core user base for these premium food choices is found in higher income, higher education household zip codes where people are more intrinsically inclined to support the global warming story — while looking past the price premium and not-quite-the-same eating experience. Had the early category moves been more respectful of channel and audience selection, some of the inevitable over-the-cliff fiasco on sales volume draw down might have been avoided.

An eco-system of Confirmation Bias inhabitants drives the future-food ship

The near zero Federal funds rate pushed dollars on the hunt for an investment home in new directions. This coincided with a ramp up in media attention to global warming impacts, and the role agriculture plays in contributing emissions (especially from livestock). The emergence of various technologies like precision and biomass fermentation and cell-cultured protein creation swarmed the decks of a start-up tsunami fueled by ample funding to go around.

Stirring this pot is an eco-system of attorneys, bankers, VC’s, distributors, pundits and alt. protein convention companies all with a stake in the future food pie, helping promote expansion, while simultaneously encouraging new combatants to join the fray. One look at the aggregate logo farm on convention web sites of investors, suppliers, brands and supporting actors promised a form of ‘more is better’ while the line-up to secure capital infusions got longer.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are now somewhere in the range of 500,000 new startups every year, much of this an outcome of investment flow and the growing availability of contract manufacturing that lowers the capital cost bar of entry.

Kaboom!

Lots of noise, a friendly media spotlight, ambitious environmental virtue signaling that the future of food was about to flip — all fueled by escalating global emissions and rising temperatures moving at a record busting pace threatening to disrupt life as we know it, especially in the southern hemisphere.

Then poof!

Beyond Meat’s decision to access public markets with a stock offering also created a high level of scrutiny on performance reporting, with cracks in the veneer starting to show as questions swirled about ingredients, processing, taste, cost and whether or not these products were actually better for you. This analysis caught up alongside the erstwhile decisions to jump the new category development shark by entering broad market retail and QSR distribution (too) early. The false positive of rapid volume growth slammed up against a souring media climate and wave of consumers who had less at stake in the plant-based protein promise.

The shift in results met with a media whip that questioned, “is the plant-based meat party over?” The net effect of all this had a dampening impact on all corners of the emerging proteins marketplace, while inflation pushed the cost of money up. Investment slowed and suddenly the emerging brand players were confronted with decisions on mitigating cash burn. Horns pulled inward and the entire innovation train quickly slowed. The push towards market launches with it now moving at golf cart speeds, while the mechanics of survival of the fittest had its way.

Truth remains inescapable

• Has climate change stopped? No, it is accelerating.
• Has the repurposing of valued Amazon rainforest for raising livestock reversed? No, it is expanding.
• Has food somehow become less of a contributor to global warming? No, it continues.
• Has the promise of proteins made without an animal become less relevant? No, it is an important tech development that deserves to win.
• Is it conceivable the expanding demand for protein based on world population growth will outstrip the conventional supply system? Yes, we need better, more efficient way to make proteins to nourish a world with 10 billion souls by 2050.

The biggest barrier to successful commercialization of new food tech?

Most will argue it’s the lack of manufacturing infrastructure to make these fermentable proteins at scale to both lower prices to parity with legacy products while producing in sufficient volume to be a reliable, viable replacement. That’s a real challenge. One that desperately calls for government support to speed up the development of fermentation manufacturing capacity. Yet I would counter there’s ample proof that major shifts in technology that impact consumer behavior and perceptions can inadvertently form a stalwart block to change, if not addressed with skill and strategic consideration.

When the capital flow started to slow in emerging brand land, so did the efforts to effectively educate the world about the who, what, how and why of these new food solutions. You can’t just show up one day and say here’s meat and dairy made without an animal that’s not plant-based, but is exactly the same as the animal version only more sustainable.

First question: is that even possible?

Second: How did you do it?

Third: is it safe?

Fourth: will I like the taste?

Fifth: can I afford it?

Sixth: does this mean conventional meat and dairy goes away? What about farmers?

Complicated messages about things people aren’t familiar with runs a chance of falling flat right out of the gate. Perceived risk is a killer of innovations that don’t find early footing. People will not tolerate a substandard experience.

Time for a restage, restart, recommitment to authoring the future of food

The negative baggage trailing plant-based meat is unfortunate. It sent a chilling effect across the entire alt. protein investment landscape. The cooling became circular as shelf presence narrowed while people returned to their traditional food buying grocery list habits.

No, it’s not over by any means. But this whole future of food engine needs a restart. The fundamentals of why it must happen aren’t weaker. That said we’re talking about food here, and food is a uniquely emotional category. The bar for safety, health, taste, texture and cost is higher for anything people put in their bodies.

There needs to be a collective meeting of the minds on how to talk about and romance these new foods in a way that’s respectful of how people behave and make decisions. Too many brand cooks in the messaging kitchen and you have chaos on how the story is told. Organizations like the Precision Fermentation Alliance need proper funding and experienced marketing guidance on how to package and present the story (insight research) about a better way to make proteins, while managing consumer expectations and reservations. No, Founder intuition won’t solve this.

A word to the wise: adapt to changing food culture

Historically, America’s beginnings with a north European immigrant base led by England, Ireland and Germany brought generally brand cuisines to our shores that later collided with America’s industrial complex built on cheap, fast and efficient. What did we get? Fast food, TV dinners, microwaveable meals and industrialized processing. Now comes a sea change…

Live to eat vs. eat to live

A massive makeover in how we view food is in motion, and the emergence of foodie culture once reserved for high income households has democratized with the Food TV network, food trucks, chef driven fast casual, sensory appreciation, and a realization that food is integral to human bonding. Thus, why cuisine exploration, meal preparation, experiences has spawned an unprecedented interest in better ingredients, creativity, craftsmanship and slower paced meals. America’s preoccupation with capitalistic efficiency personified in McDonald’s is evolving with new culinary infusions:

France – croissant and coq au vin

Italy – pasta and prosciutto

Japan – sushi and ramen

Food is an adventure

When we move to the most significant change in where food comes from since agriculture was invented 10,000 years ago, the context we build around food experience walks alongside the important story of sustainability, carbon emissions, natural resource consumption, land use and better farming practices. Ultimately leading with the mouth and heart before head, it is incumbent on future food to embrace the moral static of the right way to live.

People need something to believe in and we can provide that by building a better food world with new rules. Changing behaviors will lead to changes in beliefs. To get to behaviors we would be well advised to cast a net in taste adventures and culinary creativity while being careful to navigate around any perception of mechanized, highly processed, industrial friendly efficiencies. Lean into science and you’ll lose people in a heartbeat. The questions we’ll be tasked to answer: will people rave about the new food products we create? And in doing so will it change their expectations about what’s possible.

You never get a second chance to make a first impression, so how it starts is meaningful. That said the time to start is NOW. Prepping the beachhead won’t happen overnight. Laying track now to get the world comfortable, even looking forward to what’s coming, is essential.

If this discussion got you thinking about the future of food, us the link below to ask questions. If a robust dialogue ensues, we will do a follow-up story.

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.

No need to focus on the bad poetry of a mission statement…

Every successful business begins with a story. Yet this critical narrative can get lost or sidelined on the path to maturity because organizations instead put too much energy into endlessly polishing their mission statement.

These statements are often generic assessments of aspirational perfumery and over-reach that does little to inform the organization’s decisions and strategies. Jet Blue famously declares their mission is to Inspire Humanity in the air and on the ground. Just how inspirational is it to be confronted with upcharges for the basics of carry-ons, seats and even pillows. Adidas hopefully states their mission is to be the best sports brand in the world. Which could easily be swapped out for furniture, fast food or fertilizer. Does this really help the organization make better strategic decisions? Not likely.

In devoting so much time and energy here, the organization is inadvertently robbed of a significant guidepost to help inform business decisions and successfully keep the organization dialed in the right direction — even through generational leadership changes. Origin stories propagate deep truths about what the business is on earth to accomplish.

Where you started charts the course for where you are going

Founder narratives explain how the company came into existence and hence are a treasure of information about the people involved and their journey to discovery.

• There’s often an ‘aha’ moment
• There are interesting characters in the storyline
• A setting to visualize
• A problem that needs solving
• And a moment of realization

Humans are hard-wired to respond to stories, especially ones featuring real people making real decisions with real stakes involved. The key ingredient in these narratives is an epiphany that caused the founder to redirect their life and pursue a higher purpose or goal.

This often gets buried as companies devote energy to mission statements they believe will better inform and guide the organization’s path over time.

Humanizing your company’s strategic direction

Your origin story is about a person or persons on a journey with an idea about how to change the world. Often there’s an experience or event along the way that serves as inspiration for starting the business. In many instances, it’s this experience that informs the shape of the brand that follows.

Air Protein and the future of food

Consider the story of former Emergent client Air Protein and how its founder decided to build the first carbon transformation-based alternative proteins company.

“More and more people are starting to consider the harsh reality of our food system as a global contributor to greenhouses gases (GHG) and climate change,” explains MIT physicist Dr. Lisa Dyson. “Our agricultural system produces more GHG than all of the fuel-burning sources of transportation combined. When you mix that with the finite limitations of available land and water resources for farms, ranches and fisheries, you know it’s going to be nearly impossible at some point to feed a rapidly growing global population.”

Dyson’s moonshot is a fascinating recipe of uniquely combining carbon dioxide, oxygen and nitrogen with water and nutrients, then adding common microbes in a fermentation process similar to making wine or cheese. The high protein flour outcome of this brewery-like approach is turned into authentic meat analogs by using pressure, temperature and natural flavors. Her sustainable “Air Protein Farm” operates more like a yogurt making facility than meat processor.

How did the future of food become her calling? What brought her to this transformational decision to start the Air Protein journey?

Climate change serves as a call to arms

Dr. Dyson came to New Orleans to help resolve the horrible devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina that claimed more than 1,800 lives and left $125 billion in property damage, much of it in New Orleans when the levies were overcome. Her experience there served as a Road to Damascus moment as she labored to help restore a city overcome by a natural disaster that many assigned to the accelerating menace of hostile weather patterns borne from climate change. Dyson vowed to make solving the rampant build-up of greenhouse gases (GHG) an avocation, which led to the genesis of a new company formed three years later.

“My experience in New Orleans was life-changing. I decided it was my calling to study how to sustainably feed people in the midst of climate change. During the years following, it became clear to me that our food system is a major culprit in this unfolding crisis. The world’s population is expected to reach 10 billion by 2050, how to feed everyone affordably is the big question we intend to answer,” she said.

Her story forms the foundation of why her company exists, its purpose and meaning, it’s goals and strategic direction. There is more energy and useful grist for navigating decisions in her genesis narrative than other messaging constructs.

Common among these stories is a need, a problem, an unresolved conflict and a person or persons who decide to do something about it.

• Howard Shultz’s experiences in Milan drinking up Italian coffee culture served as a guide for bringing the world a better cup of coffee.

• Jobs and Wozniak’s inspiration to democratize computers for ordinary people and become an enabler of communication and creativity that built the world’s most valuable company.

• Simple Mills, one of the most sustainability-forward food brands in the nation, began when its founder Katlin Smith saw deficits in her own diet and found relief in consuming whole foods. Her baked goods informed background led to realization the entire industry was lacking the kind of products that were good for you as well as good tasting. Today Simple Mills is one of the most successful bootstrap adventures in food brand building, informed by a unique belief system its founder installed on day one.

Emotion borne of conflict, need and inspiration

There are endless examples of how founders came to a place in their lives where business creation became the instrument to resolve a profound need. These stories are compelling because there is embedded emotion and deeper meaning that carries more persuasive horsepower than any technology leap or process innovation.

As we’ve conveyed here many times, the path to influence is paved with beliefs and values that invite consumers to join a movement as ambassadors — far more effective than the recitation of product feature/benefit details.

No need to focus on the competition

When you are preoccupied with competitors, there is temptation to define your organization in comparison. In doing so your brand is commodified and uniqueness diluted in the frame of working to be “better than” another business. This encourages comparisons which leads to price competition, plus any advantage claimed will be difficult to defend over time.

It’s a stronger strategic proposition to focus on your own story and reason for being that helps inject the brand with ownable uniqueness and differentiation. Moreover, the human experience in these stories is much more compelling and engaging than more transactional assessments like identifying whitespace opportunities to exploit. There’s no emotional equity there.

Can the origin narrative evolve?

Yes. Microsoft was at one time about putting a computer on every desk and in every home. That goal has been realized, and now their narrative has shifted to empowering individuals and organizations to achieve more. In sum these stories help anchor the business in a reason for being that has more going for it than technology achievements. Well-executed, they are memorable, repeatable and become part of the brand’s fabric and belief system, to be passed on by employees and stakeholders.

If this discussion has you thinking about your origin story, and how best to tell it, use the link below to open a conversation with a team of experts who can help you craft the most powerful approach to your company narrative.

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

Who is the hero of your brand story?

If you want to witness great storytelling designed with skill to be engaging, immersive and occasionally transformational, go to the movies. Yet 90 percent of the time, storytelling in the brand communication world fails to engage, move or influence its intended audience because construction of the outreach is upside down.

• There’s a simple formula in here to help improve the effectiveness of brand comms just about 100% of the time. It follows simple rules that great movie screenplays serve up with exceptional skill. But you don’t have to be a famous screenwriter to do this.

Granted words are meaningful and a deft hand at casting a narrative will matter in helping convey a message with stickiness and impact. That said the principles governing the ability to connect and engage are there for anyone to employ.

Here’s the fundamental insight that most brands fail to grasp:

• The hero of your story isn’t your brand or product.

• The hero is your customer — their wants, desires, aspirations, needs and concerns.

The role of your brand in powerful communication is a character that shows up often in the best movies: the guide, coach and enabler who supports the hero on their journey, and who selflessly helps the main character overcome adversity to improve and ultimately succeed.

The customer is James Bond and the brand is Q

The customer is Luke Skywalker and the brand is Yoda

The customer is Frodo and the brand is Gandolph

The customer is the hero of your story for the very simple reason that each and every day your user wakes up believing they are the hero of their own life journey. They have needs. They make mistakes. They suffer. They improve. They learn. They ultimately win. Their character coach in the form of Q or Yoda provides guidance and tools that help them prevail.

• When the brand is focused on self-promotion and talks endlessly about product features and benefits, the communication is automatically embedded with a disconnect. For the very reason the brand is now competing with the customer for the hero role.

What happens: the customer walks right on by, tuning out the story while continuing to look for the brand that will help guide, improve, enhance and enable their own growth and fulfillment. For many in brand marketing this will appear counter-intuitive because they’ve been trained to believe that marketing is about selling product features and benefits.

Moviemakers know the one thing, the great insight, that will powerfully engage audiences they want to attract. Here it is: the person viewing their story is a human being and not a fact-based, analytical decision making machine.

We humans are feeling creatures who think and not thinking creatures who feel. Moviegoers put themselves in the hero’s shoes. They identify with the struggle, the challenges, the setbacks and the desire to learn and improve. Over the course of the movie, the main character overcomes barriers and eventually wins. We drink in the thrill of the victory at the end, embracing the journey with all of its harrowing conflict, usually doled about by a recognizable villain. Meanwhile the Yoda character dispenses counsel to evolve and improve.

This is the core essence of impactful storytelling.

Here is the recipe in sum:

Stop talking about yourself.

Embrace the humanity in front of you.

Recognize the power of emotion.

Be the guide and enabler.

Focus your narrative on the customer as hero.

Their lives. Their needs. Their struggles. Their desires.

Show them the way.

Help them win.

Care about their success.

Your brand communication will move from flying over the top of acceptance and into the center of seen, heard and appreciated. Some brands do this better than others to be sure.

The Nike of 2012 got it right in their pool of stories entitled Find Your Greatness. The soulful vignettes recounted the stories of people who faced various obstacles and challenges in their lives, and how they overcame those limitations. Was the communication focused on shoes, designs, product features or trendy fashion? NO. The heroes were real people struggling to grow and improve.

Are you seeing it?

The heartwarming stories draw us in so We-Pay-Attention.

Most important it makes us feel something. In that moment, the brand is connecting with the heart and soul of its customer. Now we’re getting somewhere. Now we’re witnessing engagement and results. In the end, your brand’s deeper meaning, purpose and thus ability to secure a base of committed enthusiasts and believers — runs in correlation and proportion to your focus on them and their journey.

Boom!!

It’s how people feel in the presence of your brand that ultimately tips the scale on the path to purchase. All of the facts and rationale for your better mousetrap will come into play post-purchase to satisfy our reflexive need for confirmation — evidence we made the right decision.

If you apply these principles to your brand communication, it will be transformational on the path to engagement. Your litmus test? Who you invoke as the hero of your story, and how the brand is positioned as guide and coach. There it is. The secret sauce of being seen and heard. So stop selling and start communicating.

It will take discipline and commitment to break with the past and walk from the self-promotion paradigm. Just remember how movies occasionally rivet your attention for two hours. The writers know how to craft the journey so you get invested in the outcome. You just need to work on bringing out your inner Ridley Scott and Steven Spielberg.

Scene One, Take Two!!

If you think your brand might benefit from better, more relevant storytelling, use the link below to open an informal dialogue.

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

The updated formula for powerful brand communication

Today we nail, confirm, codify, canonize and draw the proverbial line in the sand, concerning what effective brand communication should focus on in recognition of vast consumer behavior changes. This article offers tangible direction about where to place your bets and how best to secure engagement with consumers that will lead to a lasting, trusted relationship.
 
So, what changed?
 
For 50 years (or more) brand communication was defined as the shiny amplifier in the marketing toolbox, a look-at-me cudgel for products determined to seek out attention. Marketing plans historically, traditionally, extolled the value of top-of-mind awareness-building as the best path downward from the lip of the ”purchase funnel”  — where awareness preceded everything else that could matter on the rocky road to a transaction.
 
The world, however, has shifted dramatically. The purchase funnel as we know it is no longer a relevant business recipe. As we flagged in an earlier post – today consumption is an infinite loop of inspiration, exploration, community participation and advocacy.

• Old brand world: defined by conventional paid media awareness (digital or analog)
• New brand world: defined by content, events, experiences, earned media and fandom

The new and improved role for brand comms

Much has been said about the decline of conventional, non-digital media as the sheer number of viable newspapers, magazines and radio stations has shrunk like conventional taxi service. A great deal of that subtraction due to the shift of media spending away from legacy media platforms. Why? Because consumers have left that building in droves. Digital media brands and platforms now proliferate as the vanguard of trend reporting and product assessment – and all of it online.

What has not declined and only advanced is the insatiable thirst for trusted guidance in a world rife with perceived uncertainty. Consumers universally hate risk (or the perception of it) and seek to avoid that experience. What people want more than ever is assurance of truth and credible corroboration of what brands claim and want them to believe. They also seek reliable coaching on their personal journey and support to determine what’s the best way to fulfill their hopes, wants and dreams.

Somehow this is lost on brands that continue to navigate the awareness pathway, thinking once consumers are aware of the brand’s better mouse trap of benefits, sales growth will inherently follow piggy-back style. However, consumers no longer play ball with that kind of marketing behavior. And they have other options.

Here’s the marketing challenge of the era: brand communication absent genuine, authentic strategy (pursuing differentiation, uniqueness, singularity rather than “better”) is largely a wasted effort (and spend). So too, is any product or service seeking attention ahead of real faith and belief. What’s missing for the consumer in that scenario? Trust. In its place, resides risk and plenty of it.

Our daily behaviors

Whether it’s apps like Instagram, Tik Tok or online news sites such as Fast Company, Thrillist and Axiom, we look to experience review and reportorial forms of content to help us sort the wheat from the chaff, the good from bad, the hot from not, the truth from fiction for what is important to us. We want assurance from a credible source to decide A vs. B. Is this an exercise in building awareness? No. It’s risk mitigation built on the back of a trusted source of guidance.

Doesn‘t it make sense then to shift the planning approach from aggregating eyeballs to winning hearts and earning trust? If so, how can we do that most effectively as stewards and builders of brand relationships and reputations?

What do all of these case study examples have in common?

Sara Lee – restoring brand relevance and growth.
Sargento – leaping ahead of the tyranny of a commodity category
Jamba Juice – restaging brand belief in the health and wellness era
First Alert – establishing a new category solely through editorial reporting
Champion Petfood – leveraging a unique brand strength for enhanced trust and reputation
Molson beer – restoring business credibility and brand resonance
Schuman Cheese – ending the era of category fraud and restoring trust and faith\

They all represent Emergent’s approach using an integration of client/agency collaboration, authentic sound strategy, consumer and trade insight, curated messaging, advocacy and trust tactics, credible voices, industry participation, focus in earned media and cross channel deployment creating a bandwagon effect (multiple sources that agree).

7-point recipe for effective brand communication

1. Foundational strategic work on brand purpose, mission, values, differentiation, archetype, language, consumer insight and foundational narrative precedes tactical considerations
2. Optimizing business behaviors, policies, plans and infrastructure to role model and enforce a culture of consumer centricity and brand reciprocity founded on improving consumers’ lives
3. Brand communication designed around consumer as hero of storytelling, with brand operating as coach, guide and enabler of the consumer’s journey.
4. Investment in building a community of advocates and trusted sources to verify and validate key messaging, build credibility and earn trust.
5. Steering clear of self-promotion, feature/benefit selling and other old school behaviors that make consumer relationships transactional and self-serving
6. Deep investment in earned media and integrated social community activations to influence consumer perceptions, build relationships, develop trust and affirm claims
7. Seamless integration of message and story from web site to social channels, outbound communication and branded content creation

The best work falls from partnership

Our experience with this approach signals evidence that when brands invest in their “why” over how and what they do to imbue their brand with deeper meaning founded on a relentless drive to help improve consumers’ lives, the business results follow.

When earning trust and working to mitigate risk is foundational in go-to-market behaviors, a new era of engagement and relevance is established because consumers elect to “join” the brand’s mission as advocates rather than mere users.

• We’ve seen this recipe pay dividends over and over because the brand and business’ heart are not only in the right place, the tools in the marketing toolkit have been optimized for relevance and meaning rather than chasing awareness.

The most powerful way to achieve these outcomes is through a true collaboration between brand and agency. Partnership vs. vendorship – are miles apart in outcome potential.

If this inspires questions and conversation about improving your marketing approach — Use this link to let us know if you would like to discuss further.

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

New direction on the evolving role of brand marketing

For the last 50 years CPG and retail brand building has been focused on chasing awareness. The theory that top-of-funnel recognition will lead to consideration, and if the brand is persuasive while spiraling further down the funnel, a consumer purchase will occur. Leave it to the impact of evolving culture and the presence of existential, environmental threats to shift behaviors and push the funnel off its pedestal. A distinctive new path to brand building has emerged and we will unpack it here. The good news: we are entering a period of unprecedented brand engagement, but the rules to success are decidedly different.

Remarkably the century old thinking that underpins the funnel was first developed in 1896 by E. St. Elmo Lewis, owner of a Philadelphia-based ad agency, who published the first theory on “consumer path to purchase” he called AIDA – short for Awareness, Interest, Desire and Action. By 1924 this concept had morphed into what we now refer to as the Purchase Funnel. Yes, there have been a few modifications along the way to accommodate digital and social media channels, but the basic view of awareness as the golden goal has traveled with the adjustments, until now.

The funnel is dead, long live the funnel…

The fundamental weaknesses of the funnel model have been exposed, as follows:

• It is grounded in transactional thinking that positions consumers as walking wallets
• It fails to address the dynamics of how real brand relationships are built
• Assumes that consumers will behave in a linear fashion on the road to purchase

It’s fair to say that the focus of brand marketing work and investment has leaned heavily on top of funnel activity, frustrated somewhat by the demise of mass media, the splintering of consumer attention across channels and their uncanny newfound ability to avoid it all. Of note, tactical sophistication here in digital media eyeball aggregation isn’t helped by inherent strategic weakness.

Here’s the truth as we now know it. Consumers – especially Gen Z and Millennials – no longer operate in linear fashion. For one, the purchase isn’t the end game, rather it is the starting point. Consumption is now an infinite loop of inspiration, exploration, community participation and advocacy.

• Old brand world: defined by conventional advertising, digital or analog
• New brand world: defined by content, events, experiences and fandom

What are you risking if you continue to be an awareness chaser?

Declining relevance: your brand and business are seen as exploitive, possibly manipulative and transactional.

Lacking authenticity: your brand expresses promotional hype over user help in a world now longing for trust and deeper meaning from the brands consumers care about.

Incidentally, this is why Emergent exists. We focus on new strategic approaches that are grounded in culture and the latest consumer insight. Today, when consumers buy a product, they are actually buying your story and not a stock keeping unit (sku).

Edelman Trust Barometer sheds light on the shift

Edelman’s latest trust report revealed a remarkable change in behavior that has significant implications to sound brand building strategy. People have a strong cognitive bias for post-purchase rationalization. In fact, we also know that 95% of the time, consumers are driven by their efforts to avoid making a bad decision, or to experience disappointment.

Edelman’s research confirms where the action is: 50% of consumers now conduct the vast majority of their brand research AFTER purchase and not before. What’s more, 78% are looking for credible proof and validation that they made the right decision. Turns out post purchase is when people are most open to brand engagement.

You might be wondering what’s behind this change…

1. The systematic dilution of trust and belief based in part on the absence of any prevailing brand value system, higher purpose or real, obvious evidence of same.
2. The precipitous rise of vulnerability, uneasiness over a perceived lack of personal control authored by political, social and environmental stresses. 
3. Too many brands think all they have to do is invoke the word trust in their marketing and they are automatically, well, trusted. Not so. Trust is earned not acquired. Always deeds more than words.

Right below the surface people look for safety and security in the midst of accelerating experiences sponsored by uncontrollable events around them. This manifests as a desire for deeper meaning, purpose and trust – now at an all-time premium. Call it heightened expectations for visible, demonstrable, easy-to-see brand values and a courageous point of view.

So how does it work now?

Consumer pre-purchase research leans into the influence of brand social communities where they uncover member reviews, experiences and hopefully advocacy. Thus, the strongest predictor of a thriving social strategy is the rate at which members connect with each other vs. the brand’s self-promoting posts. It just makes sense – people believe and respect the voices of their peers before they accept assertions claimed by brands.

Brand marketing is now about cultural influence

The great news – consumers in a post-purchase focused world are primed for engagement. No need to wrestle them to the ground with look-at-me overreach. Here’s directional advice on best practices.

1. Trust creation: you should be conveying and demonstrating your brand purpose, mission and identity beyond the product on offer. Brand actions, reinforced through communication and education, helps you earn trust. 
2. You’re working to confirm: competence, ethics, values and relevance to your consumer based on their identity and aspirations, which you endeavor to help enable.
3. You deploy: credible and trusted voices in the form of “people like me” (via User Generated Content), scientists and academic experts, brand tech experts and employees.

It’s exciting to know that following purchase 79% of consumers engage in branded content, will participate in brand activities and want to connect on your social platforms. Your brand marketing should be operating to help feed and encourage this behavior. Trusted brands are repurchased, they secure loyalty and encourage evangelism.

If you’re interested in exploring the implications and strategies of a post-funnel marketing environment, use the link below to ask questions. Discussion and exploration can be enlightening, and we would be honored to talk informally with you about this exciting topic.

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