New world order for brand building

By Robert Wheatley

We really appreciate and enjoy reading Patrick Scanlon’s think pieces and articles. His latest published in AdAge entitled ‘Winning in the Pick Economy’ charts the changes in dynamics between marketer and consumer in an age of the latter’s over-arching control.

Says Scanlon: “In today’s world, media are fragmented, markets are fragmented. Skews of race, sexual orientation, work life, digital experience, marriage and child status, plus other sociological forces crosscut markets even further. We have micro-trends, micro-markets and micro-meals. Only in rare cases can products, like oil and toilet paper, claim to be (both) ubiquitous and necessary. These days’ consumers choose from miles of aisles of cars, clothing, electronic equipment, food, beverages and other staples. To push is dangerous. To pull is difficult. We are engaged in a revolutionary new marketing model not driven by manufacturers or their marketing partners.”

Consumers rule. They can be picky. And their job is to pick between a myriad of quite similar choices. While marketers work overtime to try to divine the mystical formula that spells success in getting shoppers to “pick me.”

And this challenge exists in an environment where many forms of outbound communication is seen increasingly as a repugnant invasion and tuned out. In the old world marketers felt they could mandate the picking through artful message delivery, pushed at prospects through a broad array of mass communication platforms. Not so anymore.

The theory behind “pick” is at once illuminating about the mindset required for successful engagement. Now more than ever relevance defines the pick quotient. Understanding the unique characteristics of these micro-markets and their inhabitants is really about the right path to understanding relevance. And subsequently looking for a strategic mission a brand can own to align itself with a consumer’s interests and passions. In this way brands become facilitators of experiences that can help build a bond between both parties.

I am truly amazed at how many brands do not fully grasp the idea and spirit of reciprocity. They continue to believe they can simply control outcomes by buying media. Not that easy anymore. These days we must work overtime to earn the right to a relationship based on our actions and tangible efforts to be relevant within the consumer’s lifestyle.

Additionally, pickiness is never far away — and therein lays a significant challenge for brands that really isn’t about the communications strategy. Consider these words: Wow. Delight. Amaze. Sameness grips so many product categories as recipes, formulas, technology is often matched toe-to-toe between competitors and benefits show an alarming level of duplication. And, by the way, being “20% better” is not really a measure of differentiation.

How does a product then stand out? Aesthetics play an increasingly important role. Design, package, name, color and other physical attributes beyond the guts of the thing can help brands stand out. And standing out (wow factor) is part of the recipe for burnishing the “pick me” quotient.

That said, the consumer’s take on brand value is often a package of things beyond the product itself: how the brand makes them feel, what their interaction with the brand is like in its channel of distribution, how the brand is regarded in social media and the locations where it plays (or doesn’t in many cases as brands still labor to understand how these new media arenas fit in). This makes the value proposition all the more complicated and necessary to understand in its details. We outlined steps to understanding the value proposition in a previous post.