If Your Brand Disappeared, Would Anyone Give A Damn?

According to Havas’ 2019 Meaningful Brands report the answer for most brands is NO. In fact, based on the report’s findings more than ¾ of all brands could disappear and no one would care. If you’re a marketer this fact should scare the hell out of you!

The Meaningful Brands report shows that most consumers are significantly underwhelmed by today’s brands and that marketers need to do a much better job of making emotional connections. What’s interesting is that brand campaigns today are far more “emotional” than they have ever been yet, in most cases, they fail to connect with the customer they are trying to serve. This doesn’t just show up in advertising but in the content these brands create. Consumers expect brands to deliver relevant, personalized content and many brands deliver, yet the opportunity to build brand loyalty is still being missed.

The pattern is familiar, create a campaign or content and put it out there. When it doesn’t resonate, go back to step one and create a new campaign or new content and try again. This cycle repeats itself over and over again frequently without positively increasing the perception of the brand with consumers.

No market is immune.

Over the years, evaluating dozens of brands that weren't reaching their potential, this problem and pattern shows up over and over again. The question I ask is ‘why aren’t brands able to diagnose and fix this on their own?’ The answer is that most diagnose the problem as a tactical one – ‘the creative isn’t interesting or clever or funny enough’ or ‘the story isn’t clear or emotional’ and so the solution must also be tactical.

Because the problem gets diagnosed as a tactical one, the assumption is that the positioning and strategy are correct. Few marketing teams back up far enough and reconsider the strategic components of their brand. Yet, when we’ve done these evaluations the primary culprit is frequently a positioning that is overly general.

Great positioning starts with a richly defined target. One so clear you feel as though you’ve known them for years. Like an old friend that you could talk with for hours on end. The deeper and richer your target the better your team can develop the creative campaigns that touch them and the content they feel is personal … in part because it does, and it is.

So, if you’re not creating the impact with your customers you think you should be, look beyond the tactics and challenge yourself to determine if your brand’s positioning is as clear and richly defined as it could be. And, if you’re not sure, shoot me an email … we may be able to help.