Navigating Consumer Fear and Uncertainty

Brands can offer reassurance and a safety net...

Your goal always is to create contagious marketing that attracts new advocates to your brand. Yet forces are at work today to disrupt and sideline your efforts. The evolving events now impacting consumer attitudes are also serving up an unprecedented opportunity to persuasively land your brand’s relevance and resonance. Simply stated, people truly need your help. Here’s our download on the circumstances impacting their mindset.

The situation: upheaval creates uneasiness and behavior change

We’re witnessing acceleration of culture-infused changes and challenges at unprecedented velocity. What’s going on: have you noticed that lately every day begins with a new collection of disconcerting headlines, stories and feeds driven by transformative societal news (DEI, ICE raids, etc.), inflation creep, climate wrought devastation and trade war threat ping-pong. These conditions are unfurling hard and fast. Consequently, your marketing needs to unfold at the speed of culture shift. Think of it as moving from zero to 60 mph in 2.5 seconds.?

Emergent dived in to examine the situation more fully. No surprise we uncovered data-backed evidence of consumer uneasiness and fear about what lies ahead. As you can imagine, these uncomfortable conditions will influence consumer purchase behavior (hold back, trade down). You can choose to ignore it or dive in and surf the wave of uncertainty to enhance your relationships with consumers during their time of need.

The role of change in securing audience traction

The human brain is hard wired to respond to change. When our neural networks detect change, the entire system lights up. People pay attention. They are abruptly shaken out of the doldrums and actively pay attention -- and that situation is happening right now. This awakening is inadvertently aided by rampant category sameness, product similarity and legacy marketing approaches that often lack the kind of emotional gravitas that breaks through to magnetize engagement. Consumers are scanning the horizon for better guidance. Who will help them and earn their trust??

We’ve got their attention – what’s next?

Simply stated, change can open the door to relationship opportunity. We are facing an existential ‘change’ challenge today because consumers are reeling from an over-dose of anxiety about their wellbeing, security and economic stability. This percolates into a pervasive sense of anxiety about what the future has in store. These events present your brand with an opportunity to step in and address their discomfort with creative, inspiring solutions.

• Of note, at the end of this article we provide a downloadable summary digest on what is behind the anxiety overload and how best to respond.

What do consumers want in the midst of this ongoing existential disruption?

• Empathy
• Brand recognition of their concerns and alignment with their needs
• Guidance and coaching
• Evidence of your brand’s purpose, mission and community

Consumers desperately seek certainty, confidence, trust, belief and a roadmap to navigate the uneasiness they are feeling. This is raw emotion on a larger stage.

Will you embrace them?

Provide reassurance and solidarity?

Be transparent about impacts?

Bring community and deeper meaning?

Demonstrate your values and beliefs?

Change shakes up the attention quotient, so now is the time to double down on your brand’s deeper meaning and belief system. You’ve been gifted with a moment, a reason and rationale to fully humanize your brand voice. If you elevate the thinking here to consider the brand “world” and experience you are curating for your users, you can absolutely work to resolve their prevailing sense of restlessness and anxiety.

No need to chase them around the room seeking their attention

Think of this in the context of how best to serve your audience and help them experience a sense of wonder about the possibilities in their own lives. Start by moving beyond self-promotion of product feature stories to create content that’s conversational, unmissable and newsworthy.

Consider co-opting the presence of “change” to offer up your own adjustments in:

Where you tell your stories – explore new channels

How you tell your stories – deploy long-form narrative coaching and lifestyle guidance

Who tells the story – use outside experts and creators

It bears repeating that brand stories must pass the consumer’s truth-o-meter before they’ll get shared, thus why “who” tells the story can be important. Recent report data charts the value of influencers in this role. We see creators and influencers interchangeably.

• 7 in 10 consumers follow creators
• 80% take action from the influence of creator content, including –
• 55% visit company web sites
• 42% recommend the brand to others
• 43% make a purchase from influencer recommendations
• Creator content is 2.6X more influential in driving purchases than traditional ads

Expropriating change to shape the impact of culture shift

How to be awe-inspiring: Mastercard, already well-known for activating unique culinary experiences that reinforce its “priceless” brand position, is now pushing deeper into the music zeitgeist through a tie-in with Lady Gaga. The brand is presenting a “priceless” opportunity to win an appearance in her music video that will debut with the release of her new “Abracadabra” album. The integration of music and dance via TikTok and Instagram submissions asks consumers to recreate their own versions of Abacadabra dance moves.

Don’t have Mastercard’s deep pockets? Consider the vast community of citizen creators, artists and amateur musicians who would jump at the chance to showcase their talents on a larger stage.

These kinds of activations -- experiencing art and music in surprising locations -- matter more and more because traditional systems of brand outreach are losing their cachet and impact in a marketing environment that is increasingly post SEO, ad free and funnel agnostic.

Help vs. hype

Ultimately people will benefit from your guidance and help to enable their lifestyle passions. In doing so you earn a position of trust. There are lots of ways to execute this more effectively, just remember the importance of emotion in your outreach strategies -- given its neural connection to activating consumer actions and decisions.

• The moment is upon us. Change is occurring. Anxiety is real. Uncertainty is impacting consumer behavior. You can help. Let’s go.

If this article has you thinking about how to answer the impact of this on your audience, select the link below to ask questions. Use the tab underneath to view or download our summary brief on the current sources and solutions to consumer anxiety.

?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.

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