Discover the New Recipe for Brand Communication

Blending consumer insight and strategy...

The majority of traditional brand-to-consumer outreach is likely to fall on deaf ears. Why is this happening? We explain below. Today our intention is to lay out a research-informed, more powerful and effective approach to brand communication.

Why this story matters greatly to your business outcomes

The success of strategies designed to deliver on brand growth objectives will be proportional to the effectiveness of your messaging and communication to all relevant stakeholders. Paradoxically, unlike any other time in the history of modern marketing, consumers exercise total control over the pathway and anatomy of brand-to-consumer engagement. Opting in or out at will.

• If consumers control the conversation, isn’t it incumbent on brands to dial in the relevance and resonance of communications intended to secure their attention and involvement? Yet the struggle for attention persists.

Outreach tactics that are not aligned with consumer behavior, yet remain in ample supply

Brand self-reverence and self-promotion

Transactional thinking and methodologies

Product feature and benefit selling

Talking “at” core audiences

Failing to authentically integrate brand mission, beliefs and values

Chasing consumers around the proverbial room with product feature narratives is a surefire recipe to trigger consumers to opt out. For the most part people know what you’re selling. The old model of repetition on top of repetition to finally crack the code of “awareness” can lead to a thorough disconnect. Once you lose trust its hard to recover it.

Attention is the most precious and elusive commodity brands seek

When your brand operates as a form of “AI” that anticipates consumer needs beyond the product you sell, you gain attention. What is it that poeple desire from the brands they care about? They want to know that you understand and care about them and their aspirations.

• You will be of value to them on their journey
• You will bring more to the party than reciting product benefit stats
• Your brand will function as a helpful coach, guide and enabler
• You will offer them a higher purpose -- something greater than themselves -- to believe in

Brands that truly succeed at this always aim higher. They understand that purpose and values create compelling emotional connections and better stories. This sits at font door of engagement and relationship rather than the transactional considerations. It sounds counterintuitive, but brand relationships that are built on admiration and trust will deliver the significant financial premiums you want.

If the default principle is always a belief you’re in business to sell them more stuff, that jagged point of view will inevitably filter down into outreach messaging and tactics. Replace this thinking with a concerted drive towards transcendence – the state of being admired – where consumers “join” your brand as community members, not merely buyers.

What do we know about people – all people – and their behaviors?

Humans are not analytical thinkers nor are they fact-based decision-making machines. People are emotional creatures. It’s always heart-over-head, thus why trust is such a critical component of successful communication. Decisions and actions are always based on how people feel about the brands they care about. All of the supporting tech data or formulation prowess and ingredient integrity comes into play post-purchase as rationalization for why a good decision was made.

Effective brand outreach is an eco-system

There are four components to building effective brand communication. Properly aligned and provisioned, these tools break down the barriers to engagement. This creates the foundation for a relationship that will stand the test of time while delivering a built-in receptive audience for trial of your innovations year to year.

1.???? Inspiration – creative, emotional

Inspire consumers by focusing on the lifestyle aspirations and desires most closely aligned to your category. Such as –

Culinary creativity

Celebrating the human/pet bond

Social interaction

Achievement and personal growth

Making the world a better place

2.???? Education – learning and skills

Bring outside respected authorities to impart knowledge and build competence through learning experiences. Such as –

Restaurant techniques and pairing wine with food

Pet behavior and training

Relationships and emotional intelligence

Career advancement and mentorship

Healthy living and fitness

3.???? Information – news

Keep your users informed of what’s going on behind the corporate curtain and your progress on issues you have a stake in. Such as --

Agriculture and R&D

Pet nutrition advancements

Employee growth and achievements

Sustainability best practices

Tackling societal issues (poverty, wellness, resource shortages)

4.???? Connection – conversation and sharing

Building an interactive community of like-minded people who can share experiences, knowledge, ideas and outcomes. Such as --?

Social channel enablement

User generated content

Family heroes and stories

Transformational experiences

Adventures and travel

Step one: message mapping to audience segments

This entire process starts with intentions and understanding of what you want your stakeholder audiences to know, feel and do. Customization and salience are critical so when designing outreach storytelling, a message map can offer the ideal starting point. That way you’re injecting relevance and resonance into the creative approach. The map also serves as a great planning tool to engage your team on various approaches to building stories and agreement on the path forward. The objective to align all touch points so stakeholder audiences are getting a consistent message no matter where they engage.

Rule number one: consumers come first

To the extent you have invested in consumer insight and understanding such that you know their hearts and minds, you have the basis for designing a more effective communications game plan. Their interests and needs comprise the nucleus. The tendency is for brands to focus on themselves, and this embeds communication with a disconnect.

• The consumer is always the hero of your story. This is how you prevent ‘deaf ears’ from occurring in your brand communication investments. Afterall they are in control of engagement.

If this conversation has you thinking about ways to improve your brand communication strategies and you’d like to explore fresh thinking on how to approach this, use the link blow to start an informal conversation. We’re here to help, guide, coach and then enable.

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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.

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