by Rob Bridges, Chief Creative Officer & Co-Founder of Mad Genius
The Good Ol’ Days
Everything we know about branding, we learned from Baby Boomers. Their attitudes and perceptions were shaped from the unfettered optimism in the dawning days of television. Their buying impulses were honed through the escalating ad budgets of the ’70s. And their emotional drivers were triggered in the unbridled avarice of the ’80s. They informed all of the immutable laws of advertising.
The Immutable Laws of Advertising
Indeed, some of my favorite practices for brand building still hail from this heyday of old school advertising mastery:
- Key Messaging – What is your brand’s undeniable truth?
- Positioning – Why should I choose your brand over someone else’s?
- Creating a Value Judgment – Is your brand experience worth what I paid for it?
If you could address these core tenants, then you were well on your way to building a strong brand in the minds of Baby Boomers everywhere.
Generational Shifts
The problem now is that the Carol and Mike Bradys of the world are in their retirement years. Their house and cars are paid off. They’re not in school. For their revolving household purchases, they’ve long since made up their minds which brands get their polyester the brightest, their perms the bounciest, and their smiles the whitest.
What was once the largest consumer buying index is waning. And with it, the so-called immutable laws of advertising.
Here and Now
The new consumer buying index (Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z) responds differently to advertising stimulus. Why? Consider that these generations of consumers grew up with access to all of the world’s accumulated knowledge at their fingertips. OK, so they use this incredible access to watch cat videos and rage debate with complete strangers. But they also fact-find, read product reviews, discover trends, compare and most importantly: seek opinions. The blind taste tests of yesteryear lose their ability to impact credibility after reading hundreds (or maybe thousands) of negative rants on Twitter.
It means that to tap into the hearts, minds, and wallets of Selena and Justin, there’s a new core tenant to successful brand building: Smuggling – How can I sneak my brand into your life?
You can’t communicate to today’s audience through one-way channels any longer. You have to engage in conversations. You have to be transparent. You have to be topical. And you have to stand for something other than your own financial position.
Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z consumers have an infinite capacity to filter information. For them, truth is more important than credibility. Or rather, it’s the foundational support for building credibility. As consumers they are high-maintenance, skeptical, and demand constant engagement for loyalty retention. If you don’t, it’s not that your brand isn’t considered… it’s that your brand doesn’t exist.
The Long Game
You don’t control your brand any longer. In fact, you never really controlled it to begin with. The truth is that your brand exists only in the minds of your customers. Whatever they believe you to be, is exactly what you are. Everything else is simply marketing.
Prior to the days of cute kitty videos dominating consumer consciousness, it was a lot easier to influence perception. With enough budget, advertisers could command awareness. Water cooler conversations were guaranteed following a high-profile campaign launch. Cue the SNL parody of Spuds MacKenzie.
Today, there are countless conversations between millions of people going on every day about your brand. Are you participating in the conversation? Are you building influence? Are you cause activating? Are you generating momentum? Is your brand relevant to their life? If not, then it will become increasingly harder for you to reach new customers and open up new market share in the future.
One last thing before I let you go… Carol and Mike just joined Instagram and are looking at TikTok.
If your brand is struggling to move out of the Brady’s sunken living room and into the devices of discerning, young consumers, drop Mad Genius a line.