While many of us are looking forward with a sense of hope to 2021, we are also aware that progress in so many areas of our lives still needs to be made. Now more than ever brands have an opportunity to play a role in driving our culture forward. Uniquely placed to influence how we see ourselves, brands are connecting with us through their beliefs and values, often acting boldly to bring their brand experience to us. As brands shape and change the lives we are living, activation rooted in Purpose, is more essential to a brand’s growth than ever before. If you are revisiting your positioning for 2021 to develop a strong basis to grow from, here are a couple of thoughts about how you might think about your brand for the world today:
Has your brand provided solutions for consumers that previously were unimagined or unknown to you? While your main brand benefit may be the same, perhaps there has been a shift in a new direction that can enhance the way you talk about your benefits in the future. For example, the personal care category is no longer just about keeping your teeth clean or skin healthy, it's also about helping provide a sense of normalcy to consumers who find daily habits reassuring. What solution is your brand providing today that it didn't before?
Has your brand developed new perspectives that take its beliefs and values one step further? If so, it's time to bring this new thinking full circle and integrate it into your brand’s positioning. For example, Ikea chose to celebrate life at home as a way to recognize the need for consumers to gain new and positive perspective about sheltering in place. Playing with your children, dancing to music or simply relaxing together as a family brings humanity to the lives of their consumers and turns home life into so much more than it was. How has the pandemic shifted your brand's perspective and the way it engages with the world?
Are you listening effectively to your consumer and hearing how your brand can play a role in today’s culture? It is well documented that brands that have “jumped on the band wagon" this past year in the hopes of gaining traction with their audience have failed to understand both themselves and their consumers. Key insights that will drive relevancy need to be anchored in your brand’s world. If that world has shifted, it’s time to reassess this too.
Looking forward to 2021 and beyond we can see that understanding why a brand exists and solidifying its Purpose will open doors to more meaningful connections in ways that we might not have thought possible. Now is the time to not only think about driving consumer love for your brand, but how your brands can contribute, be big-hearted and generous, not only in the way you express yourself but in your actions as well.
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