ADAPT OR DIE Surviving in the ever-changing brand landscape.(4)

HUMAN EXPERIENCE Advertising’s new medium, engaging consumers.(12)

DESIGN THINKING Fundamentals for social marketing.(22)

THINKING | ISSUE FOUR

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4 STRATEGY | thinking4 STRATEGY | thinking 5

The brand landscape is constantly changing and to survive, brands must adapt. Darwin was on to something when he observed: “In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.”

Back in the good old days of marketing, when meetings started with the clink of a whisky decanter, brands were built by selling the functional attributes of the product. It was the post-war era of the rising middle class and the new platform of television advertising was the main way to reach customers. During this time, the role of “Creative Director” was invented and his job (it was almost always a “him”) was to come up with new and interesting ways to tell the con-suming public about how great the product was. The term Unique Selling Proposition was the key buzzword.

“ In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.”

Adaptor die

ADAPT OR DIE

Adapt or die

6 STRATEGY | thinking 7ADAPT OR DIE

In the 1980s, the marketing world evolved. Unique Selling Proposition was replaced by Emotional Selling Proposition and the phrase “brand positioning” gave rise to the idea that a brand could stake its claim on emotional territory. It was no longer enough to sell the functional attributes of a brand. You had to sell something more. Coca-Cola used to sell a sugary brown drink with fizz. Now, it would sell good times, friend-ship and summer. Walter Landor once said: “Products are made in the factory but brands are created in the mind,” and it was this idea that rose into prominence in this era.

Marketers began to try to understand more about consumer wants and needs so that they could manipu-late emotions through marketing.

Now, brands must adapt again. The landscape has undergone another tectonic shift – from product to emotion and now to experience. Brands must define their Experiential Selling Proposition and they must do

it within an environment where consumers have unprec-edented choice and transparency in the marketplace. In the past two eras, the brand owners had an information advantage over consumers. But now the tide has turned. Consumers today are all-knowing and all-powerful and this means that brands must manage a complex system of value that requires them to understand how every action of the brand – from product to service to environmental impact to technology and marketing – come together to make up the experience.

The way a brand will adapt and survive in this new era is to innovate across its entire system in order to build a consistently valuable experience for its customers. With more and more choice in the marketplace and fewer ways to differentiate products, experience has become the key differentiator. To a consumer, each individual interaction with a brand is what builds the experience. If a brand defines itself as cheeky and playful, it must design cheeky, playful products and employ cheeky, playful staff and put out cheeky, playful messages. To survive, it must walk the talk like never before.

There are new rules. And there are new tools. But in the end, the successful brand of today’s era will be built on trust, which will be earned (not bought) from their consumers on a daily basis. Brands that ignore this new landscape will have to hope they can compete on price. There will always be a place for low-end, low-value prod-ucts but there is only one differentiating factor in that game – and only one way to win: the lowest price.

Who owns your brand? Ten years ago, companies controlled brand relationships. Today, consumers do. If they create it, they own it. This power shift has been driven largely by technology, and the ability of people from all around the globe to share their experiences online. We are raising the most connected generation of consumers ever. To create a brand with value today, companies must compel these consumers to have a stake in the business – to buy in with a certain amount of emotional ownership. This is a special bond between brand and customer that makes the customer feel like they are a part of the business. It’s customer loyalty on steroids – more like customer partnership.

Their sales will not be bought. They will be earned. And like any good relationship, the bond will be built on experiences.

» The way a brand will adapt and survive in this new era is to innovate across its entire system in order to build a consistently valuable experience for its customers.

1. People are lazy and have short attention spans. Keep it simple. You need to be different to get their attention.

2. People are social. We look to others to influence our deci-sions. People want to belong. They want to find meaning.

3. People want instant gratification.

4. People crave information. Learning makes people feel good and having choices makes people feel in control.

5. Most mental processing occurs unconsciously. The emotional brain has a huge impact on our decisions and is influenced by images and stories.

Understanding user experienceExperience defines our world. It’s like the ancient story of the king who brought an elephant to a group of blind men. He said feel this animal and describe it to me. “It’s like a pillar,” says the man who felt the leg. “It’s like a rope,” says the man who felt the tail. “It’s like a pipe,” says the man who felt the tusk. “You are all correct,” says the king. “And you are all wrong.”

In our modern age of marketing, experience is king. Crafting experiences starts from a consumer’s point of view. Here are some common truths about the human experience.

Adapt or die

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