Cultural Change on the Horizon — Get Ready
Adjustments needed to brand marketing operating systems
The importance of brand building and investment is coming full circle to the top of the priority board — resetting the era of preoccupation with performance marketing. This is due in no small way to the impact of culture change and the role your brand should play to enable and guide consumers through the challenging conditions engulfing them.
In the last five years we’ve witnessed the significant and accelerating impact of culture shift on consumer behavior. We study this continually at Emergent because culture informs us about the state of the world we (and consumers) live in, what we need to pay attention to and why.
It matters to building brand strength, to communications effectiveness and to the outcomes of your marketing investments in 2024. Cultural insight here is integral to both communicating and activating your brand ethos, belief systems and identity.
Bear in mind: people are not merely consumers or users — everyone is a cultural player. Of note, marketing strategies at their finest can help transform a non-culture-connected product into a cultural icon and in doing so dramatically enhance its relevance and resonance. Important because culture directly influences consumer behaviors, preferences, interests, priorities and lifestyle choices so it should be continuously factored into your planning and thinking.
Thus, why keeping track of evolutionary changes is a constant, iterative process
Your brand is part of cultural phenomena and fed by it just as you may be aware that brand meaning is connected to making your products more aspirational. Because purchases are largely symbolic exercises — flags and statements of what we value and who we are — we need to look at evolving culture conditions with a critical eye to stay ahead of surging change.
Here comes a big one and there’s more work to be done to fully unearth the implications…
What happens to people in the aftermath of a sustained period of chaos? What are the implications to behavior when the pace of change has so accelerated that the fabric of history (our past experience), what we understand and connections to what we’ve known and believed become frayed and tenuous?
· Relationship to what we think we know becomes harder to access.
· Moreover, the future is less and less certain.
· This helps explain why people are experiencing extended periods of stress.
Further, the degree of rapid change is deepening across the social, political and environmental spectrum and amplified by developments in technology (AI) that comes to us embedded with trust questions.
All of this collectively is extending the frequency of upheaval in people’s lives.
Brand building in the present
With fractures in accessing past experience to help inform our decisions and a future that is in a constant state of flux, consumers are left to focus on the present — today — what’s going on around us now. In that environment, how do consumers navigate risk, chaos and uncertainty?
From a marketing perspective, this immediately creates a premium around the concept of community. Our ability to form relationships with those around us who have shared interests and lifestyle priorities. Your brand can help answer this condition with greater investments in social community building and activation of shared experiences.
· People want to belong.
· They want to share opinions, concerns and experiences.
· People find comfort in alignment with others who share interests and our journey.
· Communities can be a source of personal meaning and purpose.
When everything else swirls about us in a chaotic way, communities are an anchor in the storm of uncertainty. This requires thinking more fully and creatively about ways to activate and encourage participation in a community your brand creates.
Know thy customer
1. What are the needs, wants, desires, concerns and aspirations of your core customers?
2. How can you become a better guide, coach and enabler of their journey in the here and now?
3. What sources of education and information can you offer to enhance their knowledge and wellbeing?
This deficit condition of continuous chaos and disconnection gives agency and priority to community building not only as a source of social proof and brand relevance, but also an anchor of meaning for people who increasingly gravitate to interaction with like-minded souls.
What an incredible opportunity to be of value — to bring your users closer at a time when they need it most! Community building immediately establishes itself as a strategic asset. It draws on skills sets in earned media and owned content to supply the grist for robust community engagement.
Anchors for community building
Consider the important outlets for creativity, entertainment, personal growth, nurturing self-esteem and investing in lifestyle priorities.
Culinary experience and creativity in the kitchen
Pet lifestyle
Sports and gaming
Self Care
Fashion
Music
Home decorating
Travel
Fitness and health
Parenting
Your brand’s voice and support in this environment could not be more important to answering the impact of stress. For their part, people will turn to each other for inspiration and purpose at a time when other options are not meeting their needs. Simply — meet their needs.
If this discussion creates some concerns about best practices for community building strategies, use the link below and let’s talk about it.
Looking for more food for thought? Subscribe to the Emerging Trends Report. Bob Wheatley is the CEO of Chicago-based Emergent, The Healthy Living Agency. 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. Emergent helps brands erase ineffective self-promotion and replace it with clarity, honesty and deeper meaning in their customer relationships and communication. For more information, contact Bob@Emergent-Comm.com and follow on Twitter @BobWheatley.
