Traditionally ad and marketing companies are retained to create positive images and messages that are then pasted over the top of whatever product a company is trying to sell. That is known as branding. A favorable representation, a facade, an illusion, a feeling….. call it what you will, it has very little to do with a company and, often, only a tentative relationship with a product. It has nothing to do with operational and organizational development of the business whatsoever so there is no need for it to be complete, accurate or even true. Imagine talking the same approach towards your accounting functions. Actually don’t imagine it. There are lots of great examples of financial branding, the best of which is Enron. The question isn’t why branding has become so much less effective in recent years, but why it lasted as long as it did?
People Don’t Change!
No they don’t, but the circumstances in which they continue to behave with total predictability do. There are social and cultural changes underway that are changing consumer behavior and undermining the power of the brand. The first of these is the psyche of the American consumer. Dating back to the birth of true consumerism in the 50’s, the public has been generally trusting of big companies and willing to believe the representations that they make about their products and themselves. Well let’s just think of that as the age of corporate unaccountability. Not all companies behaved irresponsibly but, if financially motivated to do so, they did and with impunity. Also, when those same companies represented job security, decent pay for hard work, a health safety net and a solid pension, nobody asked too many questions.
I won't run down the list of events that have been exposed and have eroded this sense of confidence, but multiple, high profile scandals have reinforced the notion that corporations are in business to benefit a very small number of wealthy stakeholders at the expense of employees and the general public. People have stopped trusting business and this is bad news for branding.
may I bring you the INTERNET. Reasonably skeptical consumers can gather information about a company that would, previously, not been of interest or even available. How do you treat your employees…. BIFF! What’s your safety record like…..BANG!. What’s your record on waste disposal and child labor…..WHAK! Executive pay scales, pending litigation, fair trade, sustainability…….. Ouch! That hurts and that’s before you even get into peer generated product reviews and social networking.
And One More Thing....
I am starting to feel like a bully but there really is one more thing. There is a significant shift in the values and preferences of today’s consumers, and these are being expressed in the choices they are making. Emerging values center on a bunch of intangible qualities like awareness, independence, individualism and sustainability. How the hell do you brand to those people. They actually pride themselves on being brand resistant. That’s called “awareness” and it's a problem. Where are all those nice people who just wanted to look rich and have stuff get bigger? The point is that things are changing. Not all over the country and not at warp speed but a new generation of values coming down the pike. It’s not a trend or a fad and its not going away because it's being driven by very real economic and social considerations like the cost of gas and the fact that Del Mar is falling into the ocean. This shift is going to continue until it represents the dominant cultural code that drives behavior across our whole lives. That is huge.
There is an answer – of course there is and I am going to call it
Conscious Consumer Engagement...... It's the next big thing, Seriously!
Tune in to Getting the Message – Part II for more on that.
