By Robert Wheatley

Generational shift ushers in new era

With uncertain market conditions, upheaval in traditional communications channels and consumer behavior in a constant state of flux, it simply doesn’t pay to assume what you did this year and the “rules” that governed your strategic thinking, should remain unchanged in the year ahead.

Continued expansion of niche markets and the evolution of sub-segments of consumer “tribes” will remain as a constant. The product development world still favors mass customization and segmentation in nearly every category. Consumers also show an unrelenting desire to congregate socially in communities of shared interest.

That said there are over-arching trends that should be considered as we look towards communicating effectively in 2009. Roy Williams had an insightful post in November at his Monday Morning Memo blog that built off a book titled Generations, published in 2003. The book chronicles a curious behavior in Western society the authors assert is as predictable as the sunrise and set: a generational pendulum swing that moves back and forth between an Idealist mindset and a Civic perspective.

Baby boomers (I am one of them) may have been one of the most obvious examples of this collective attitude shift when, in 1963 a new era of Idealism was introduced. Says Williams – “By the end of 2008 there won’t be a Baby Boomer left in America. The last reluctant holdout will finally admit that Woodstock is over, Kennedy is dead and the Idealism of the 60’s was a wistful dream.” Williams makes the case the final move to the other side of the pendulum swing, — to a Civic point of view — will be complete at the end of this year.

This new global mindset should be factored into communications and selling strategy in the year ahead. Here in summary are several of Williams’ recommendations:

Efficiency is the new service

With busy lifestyles getting busier and communications technology allowing for instant access to information on what products to buy and where, consumers will be looking for a combination of quality, price and quickness. In this scenario, efficiency in customer interaction wins out over high touch, relationship selling.

Authenticity reigns supreme

Today’s consumer comes equipped with the most highly refined bullshit detector ever devised. It is sensitive, accurate and always on. So in today’s era of “conversational” marketing and consumer control if you don’t or won’t admit a mistake or misstep, they may not believe the other things you have to say. Keep it real!!

Horizontal connectedness

Gone now are the days of defined and categorized vertical social worlds. Labels like white collar, blue collar are not salient. The new American dream isn’t about pulling ahead of others, it’s about being a productive team member. Winning is less important than belonging.

The new mass media is… word of mouth

Technology is empowering. It is also unforgiving in its ability to facilitate radical change. Now we have instant access to everything. Viral marketing was not created by an agency. It is an outgrowth of a horizontally connected world where people share their discoveries, and work to help each other avoid mistakes.

Stop boasting

Talk is cheap. And as we’ve said repeatedly in this blog, actions speak louder than words. Telling people what you believe is not the same as showing them. What are the “proofs of claim” in your communications? How can consumers experience these things for themselves? Messaging about how great you are is less compelling.

So here’s the call to action for 2009: what higher strategic purpose can your brand align itself with that transcends the obvious “I’m trying to make a sale here” interaction with consumers? How can you be more genuine, authentic, credible with consumers who expect brands they prefer to be a reflection of their own needs and passions?

Says Williams – “In the words of Bill Bernbach, I’ve got a great gimmick. Let’s tell the truth.”

By Robert Wheatley

It Feels Right to Trade Down?

In a November story by Ellen Byron the Wall Street Journal tracks what they characterize as the triumph of frugality over brand loyalty. And there’s plenty of evidence that indeed consumers are swapping out popular brands for equivalent private labels. The Journal profiled a recent Mintel survey of 3,000 consumers that found 40 percent of household shoppers saying they’ve started to purchase store brands, “because they’re cheaper.” Mintel indicated on average store brands cost about 46 percent less than their national brand brethren.

And not just among middle income households: Information Resources’ “Shopper In Crisis” report determined households with incomes above $100,000 are not immune: 41 percent are cutting back on their spending for non-essential groceries and nearly a third saying they’re buying more private label products while foregoing some of their “favorite” brands. According to Nielsen Co. store brand sales of soap and bath products are up 23 percent and skin care items rose 16 percent through early September.

Habit on Hold

Habit has been a mainstay defense for brands in this era of over-choice and too many products chasing pocketbooks. Consumers have shown a remarkable ability to resist change once a brand is selected and, assuming it meets the buyer’s expectations for performance, the relationship can go on undisturbed for many years (assuming nothing dramatic comes along to dilute and marginalize the brand’s value proposition). We simply don’t want to invest the brain time to assess if a replacement is warranted. Yet the economy has quite clearly ridden roughshod over entrenched habit

The Mental Economy

Certainly there are real and justified fears over job losses, credit squeeze, the drop in home values and the tanking of retirement and 401k accounts. Regardless of how close these events get to individuals in various walks of life, what is becoming patently clear is the power and pervasiveness of uneasiness and fear that is impacting behavior in remarkable ways. We are collectively on notice that all is not well in the economy and we have internalized this point of view. The lack of confidence is now showing up in purchase decisions — even among those who can continue to afford more expensive options. We are emotional creatures and our emotions, at the core of brand selection decisions, are now telling us to stop, reassess and cut down. We feel better through frugal acts.

The Branded Pathway Ahead…

Here are some observations about the way forward.

Can your brand align itself with the consumer’s overwhelming desire for home, family and social interaction that acts as a buffer to the uneasiness around us?

Can your brand acquire a mission or purpose that transcends the functional conversation and creates new meaning and depth in your relationship with consumers?

The action is increasingly at the store shelf. What can you do to better tell your story at retail?

Have you given your brand a “compelling value proposition” review to determine if the functional, financial, intangible and emotional values are strong enough to keep your best users in the fold?

Can you segment your product portfolio to cover the price pressures coming from retailer’s increased emphasis and investment in their store brand programs? Are you in a position to help them with their private label needs?

Are you participating in social media platforms where you can a) start a two-way conversation with your consumers and b) listen to them about their needs and concerns?

For that matter talking “at” consumers is dead or dying. How can you build a better relationship based on authenticity, honesty and reciprocity?

What do you think the solutions look like?

By Robert Wheatley

Insight Not Demographics Drives Communication

One of our favorite blog sites, WonderBranding: Marketing to Women has a remarkably insightful post about how culture and behavior drivers can impact purchase decisions for female consumers. The analogy is embedded in what’s termed a “neighborhood concept” - the metaphor related to cultural cues or “microcosms” that distinguish and separate the flavor, ambiance and point of view of one neighborhood to another.

Her thesis: energy source + time horizon = purchasing process. The four neighborhoods are characterized in the graphic below:

In the end her point is this: sources of a woman’s energy (internal vs. external) have an effect on how decisions are made as well as her personal time horizons, described as “in the moment” or legacy related, meaning more “other” focused than “me.” One size indeed does not fit all nor one communications strategy.

Much of the time we’re looking at female or male consumers for that matter from a demographic angle. Yet insight like this can be tremendously important to helping us dial in communications that will resonate because the messaging is honed more closely to the targets needs and behaviors.

What do you think?

By Robert Wheatley

The only path to growth in a commoditized world

Tuesday night Barack Obama demonstrated one of the most powerful principles of branding in the new age of saturation: be different. His campaign focus was appropriately simple, defining and memorable - Change We Need. The relevance of it was persuasive not because of its logic and argument but because of its superb reflection of a basic truth. The electorate already believed change is vital and necessary. Obama owns change as a position. Its relevance worked to help marginalize John McCain, who had trouble defining his candidacy beyond his obvious experience and track record.

The fundamental driver of business success today…

We live in an age where technical prowess is fleeting. Where specsmanship has limited currency due to technology’s ability to closely match the formulas and features of one product vs. the other. Excellence is table stakes. So is extraordinary service. Value is important now more than ever but alone it is also a commodity.

Physical distinctions between brands get thin. Therefore habit increasingly plays a role in year-on-year business performance because consumers show a remarkable resistance to apply any brain time to re-think purchase direction if a product fulfills its primary mission. From brand to brand, category-to-category we can dissect products and businesses to reveal a remarkable level of sameness. One airline to another. One pasta sauce to another. One detergent to another. And so on.
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By Robert Wheatley

Powerful tools to build brand value and relevance

Today the Wall Street Journal features a story about a new ad campaign from General Mills for their iconic Pillsbury brand. You can watch below.

What’s obvious to the viewer: this spot is less ad-like and more about story telling. The approach is appropriate in an environment where consumers remain skeptical and disinterested in overt pitches and interruptive selling. This spot is anything but.
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By Robert Wheatley

Fractured trust upends power of communications

Perhaps at no other time in the history of modern marketing have we been faced with such an incredible accumulation of contiguous scandals, recalls, startling revelations, bankruptcies, forced marriages, mistruths, half-truths, malfeasance, behavioral inconsistencies and general evidence of bad business behavior.

From miscreant members of the Clergy to chemical leaching plastic water bottles, lead-covered toys, and fallen sports legends, consumers have been bombarded with evidence that leaders, corporations, brands, institutions and communications cannot be trusted. People are learning rapidly that corporate messaging is suspect at best as buoyant reports of happy trails ahead may be masking an impending fall from grace. We discover even the most storied of conservative business icons in banking and insurance can fall under the spell of temptation to play fast and loose. Awesome out-sized basketfuls of assets are gambled away through investments in flimsy financial products constructed on a floor of actuarial quicksand.
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Used to be awareness and implied endorsement

By Robert Wheatley

In the good old days, PR was too-often viewed within the brand marketing mix as a below-the-line bit part player that delivered relatively inexpensive audience impressions with a lovely parting gift: implied endorsement of an outside and respected third party – the editorial media.

While “earned media placement” as its called continues to be a centerpiece of client expectations from their agencies and PR staffs, the substantive contribution of PR has transitioned. Today it is most certainly an above the line strategic leader and thus is integral to generating brand growth and new product trial.

Why? The consumer mindset has changed. Dramatically. How they make buying decisions has changed. Emotionally. How, when and where they consume media has shifted. Radically. It is no longer possible to force and dictate consumer behavior through sheer tonnage in conventional ad media spending.

The incredible volume of new products (over-choice) chasing consumers in ever more narrow and specialized categories, combined with the awesome number of media and mediums (inundation) clamoring for everyone’s attention, has precipitated a near total shut-down of what was once thought to be rational buying behavior. Consumers no longer simply absorb and act on the facts arrayed near them through marketing campaigns, packaging, retail displays and other touch points. Instead they go with their gut and perceptions.

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Brands must reassess the path to building belief…

By Robert Wheatley

United Airlines extols that It’s Time To Fly, while simultaneously revealing more fees to go alongside the other precipitous declines in service. Travel is already painful but never mind. Banks and financial service firms wax on about their forthright expertise and ask investors to place their faith in them. Right behind the message comes scandal, bankruptcy and accusations of malfeasance, which are flying in all directions.

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Can “Value Attribution” Confound Brand Communications?

Note: forgive the long post, but this stuff was too interesting not to pass along…

For the most part we operate as marketers and communicators day-in and day-out with a built in assumption that consumers listen to us, understand us and act accordingly. Of course, there’s ongoing debate about the real level of listening. Well, it also seems there’s the possibility that our messages are misconstrued or misunderstood or misinterpreted due to some funny ways humans operate to process information.

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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.”
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