From ‘Targeting’ To Traveling Together

Invite your conscious audiences so you can #TravelTogether

The most loved brands have cultures, systems and platforms that consistently allow their audiences to be an intimate part of the brand.

May be their leaderships are intuitively aware of this truth or it was a deliberate strategy in masterful tribe-building. But it is undeniable that these brands have assiduously cultivated audience love by making them part of the brand’s journey. 

This approach is imperative for purpose-led brands. For conscious audiences seek and reward brands that have actionable and tangible ways to be a part of the brand’s purpose journey.

Leadership teams must realize that pretty much all ‘causes’ are works in progress. We are at the ’baby steps’ stage of solving the world’s challenges.

From Climate change to fair trade to zero waste to body positivity and pretty much everything in between, we are just getting started. Some of these will take decades to be realized. Some sooner. 

So when a brand takes up a cause and seeks attention from conscious audiences, it is critical that it clearly demonstrates that it is in it for real and for the long-haul. To be taken seriously by it’s most valuable audiences.

This calls for an evolutionary shift in marketing think.

Several brands have already shown the way for the rest of us. Patagonia, Ben and Jerry’s are but a couple of examples of putting money where the brand’s voice is. 

This evolution in marketing think starts with moving away for running just ‘campaigns’ that ‘targets’ people to building audience journeys that are inviting and inclusive. 

Personally, I have always felt irked by the excessive use of term ‘targeting’ when it comes to marketing / media engagements. Every time I used that word, all I could visualize was a dart board against someone’s back. It has a very ‘going to war like’ energy to it.

Contrast that with a more audience-collaborative opportunities like the ones created by conscious fashion brand @prana or carbon-neutral @wind.mobility. 

Team @prana sharing it’s measurable impact

@wind.mobility involving their customers to be their experiential ambassadors

Each one weaves the customer experience of the brand-purpose as an integral part of the brand experience. Stories that invite the audiences to travel together towards a more conscious future is central to their growth story.

‘Campaign thinking' by nature is time-boxed and ‘Targeting’ by virtue is ‘one-sided’.

Collaborative narratives across touch points that allow for audiences to be a part of the brand experience is where the magic of building a truly sustainable ‘sustainable’ brand lies.

You don’t have to take my word for it.

Just listen to this truth telling by Kimberly Paige, the CMO of BET during a recent AdAge virtual town hall. Sharing her views around ‘Multicultural Marketing’, she emphasized her truths…

“You will never hear me as a marketer talk about ‘Targeting’. I never say..’who are we targeting?’. That is a term that I think is predatory in nature and if you think about it, when you are being ‘targeted’ by someone, you are really in someone’s crosshairs. Right? Who want’s to be in that situation?”  

It is better you listen to this and other gems of wisdom from her own voice. 20 minutes of truth telling to set your marketing team in motion. 

As you start your week and close out the year, the question to ask really is:

How can we invite our audiences into our brand story?

And one last thing.

After listening to her voice out what was my ‘secret’ truth about ‘targeting’, I truly felt seen + right + aligned with what I am doing here through resonant.

Have a wonderful ‘week before Christmas week’!. Till next time.

Ram

Stories Sell

Thanksgiving & Cyber Monday is now behind us. 

We are now officially in the #Holiday2020 shopping season.

Despite the challenging circumstances, the pandemic has only accelerated the collective quantum jump into Social+Ecommerce-First brand experiences that drive brand experiences and sales. 

Which only means only that those brands with a good story game are going to come out as winners. Especially if you are one with a conscious story to tell. 

And then there are brands that still rely on Email to drive awareness and engagement. As a medium of driving brand engagement and excitement during the holidays, Email is simply not exciting and engaging enough.

No one really ‘loves’ emails from brands. No one opens up their inboxes with the expectant feeling of ‘How is my favorite brand going to enrich, empower and entertain me through my inbox’. No one is looking for stories on an email.

If there is one tweet that shows how old school emails have become, one only has to notice the tweet from @MKBHD.

I rest my case. 

Conscious Audiences are much more @MKBHD than our aunts on Facebook. 

I am sure we all love to connect with our aunts. But that’s just holiday hygiene. 

For those brands that are looking to build a powerful tribes, it is imperative to build a mean story telling machine.

By ‘mean’, I mean ‘efficient’ and ‘effective’ and ‘aligned’.

When everyone has sales and discounts. The ones that have a better, more resonant stories to tell wins not just the sales game but more importantly the attention of the audiences that we work so hard to earn.

It’s better to get your story game on.

Conscious Audiences are waiting.

#GreenFriday

Happy Thanksgiving and welcome to Resonant.

Lots to be grateful for indeed. Being healthy and safe in a good start. But what is even more gratifying today is the earnest opportunity to bring deeper alignment into the work I am passionate about. Resonance-centric, Conscious Marketing.

Cultivating resonance with audiences as a key impetus for brand growth has always been a central part of brands; marketing objectives.

While a few brands are masterful at this, most struggle with it and are stuck in the never ending reach-reaction loop. This, despite having both intentions and credentials that hold water.

I believe 2020 is a threshold altering year for brands and marketing in general. The tsunami of conscious consumption is finally here to stay. 

From Fashion to Travel to Automotive to Payment Platforms, the entire gamut of what is the modern commerce is now firmly in the #Conscious commerce universe. 

A recent Accenture study confirmed this increasingly rapid and forceful shift towards purpose-centeredness. Over 66% of consumers care about a brand’s ethics and supply chain.

Mondelez announced that it is actively pivoting globally towards a human-centric brand engagement it calls ‘humaning’.

While there has been some scathing rebukes and callings out to such overt moves by brands, the shift by and large is a good thing for audiences. It is them, the values-first audiences that are driving this shift.

Ultimately, audiences now get to enjoy the benefits of brand efficacy while being pandered with all things relatively good for them and the world.

As I write this on Thanksgiving day, tomorrow’s Black Friday will be the very beginning of many more Green Fridays to come. 

Sustainable is the new black. Frankly everything is and will be. 

Which means only one thing. When everyone is #Sustainable, Sustainability as a marketing differentiator becomes a moot point to spend your money on very soon.

Audiences are now empowered with the not just informal information such as influencer-led reviews but also formal apps like Good on you that rate fashion brands on sustainability.

Where does your fashion brand stand?

Such filters will soon cover all verticals. Whether through the court of instagram opinion or through formalized filters such as ‘Good on you’, the brand + marketing mantra of the 2020s is ‘Conscious or bust’.

Conscious audiences are not monoliths.

They may vary from staunch conscious warriors to incidental ‘conscious-choice’ makers across the entire value pyramid. What unites them all is their values-centricity.

This calls for brands to shift from a primarily reach-centric model of audience experiences towards a primarily resonance-centric model.

Bringing together the power of data and tech to discern the right signals so that experiences and stories can be crafted that iteratively lift this values-resonance is the road that we are embarking on.

By being fully focused on this evolving audience and helping brands build deeper, more resonant connections with them, resonant intends to be the conscious medium through which magic happens.

Welcome aboard and have a wonderful holiday season.