How purposeful is “purposeful”, post pandemic?

Blog Jemma Toynebee-Smith – Client Consultant

I watched a typically brilliant Mark Ritson speaker session for the WFA recently. In it, Mark talks about the role of marketers in the growth of their brands, and importantly how unimportant those brands are in the eyes of the consumer.

This is true. If you weren’t in marketing – would you pay attention to brands? Could you instantaneously provide your top 10 “creatively brilliant” ads without a second thought? The answer as we all know, is no. My mum tells me often that advertising doesn’t work on her. She doesn’t give a hoot about what TV/press or other ads she might have seen – she buys what’s available to her and at an attractive price at the time of her purchase. Well if that were so, why does she have a cupboard full of branded items and not the “everyday basic” range? And why is she able to tell me why she bought each item when it doesn’t come down to availability and price?

‘does it give back to the community?’

Well, it’s generally because of the brands purpose. She likes to buy things that make her feel good. So, the brands purpose needs to align with her own. She is a proud homemaker to my dad, so wants to give him nutritious, tasty meals, with food grown and produced in the UK. She has a strong ethical opinion, so likes to buy things that align with that – ‘recyclable?’ check. ‘Gives back to the community?’ check. So you see, her own purpose drives what she buys – which means she needs to know what each brands purpose is. And there gives way to 2 challenges. Having a brand purpose and clearly communicating it in a way that consumers understand it; and it needing to pass the three C’s test to be authentic.

Did the pandemic change how purposeful a brand needs to be? Everything I read now relates to a “pre pandemic” and a “post pandemic” period of time. Like the pandemic didn’t actually do much other than exist. Exist is about the best way to describe my experience of the pandemic. But it did alter my perceptions of both myself and the world around me. There are elements of my life that I now consider to be far more important than they were “pre pandemic” (taking care of my mental health, putting my phone down to spend quality time with my kids, being outside, hugging everyone!) and lots of things that are now far less important (generally materialistic things… arguing about silly things, worrying about the weather…) and that reduction in material importance seems to be playing out all around me.

break out

What shift will we see after lockdown ends in terms of brand communication? We know that the “we feel your lockdown pain” messaging got so overwhelming at one point, it was hard to remember who had or hadn’t advertised! Now is not the time to break out the “Freedom” by Wham! song – now is the time to break out a defined, relevant long-term brand purpose that reflects the pandemic change. To be successful at that, you need to listen to consumers. Not your mum.

To really understand consumers, the context, the depth of emotions, thoughts and beliefs is crucial. At DVJ we are the world’s best at listening to consumers.…. Come and have a chat with us if you’d like to know what consumers are saying about your category – and you’ll probably end up with a brand strategy that knocks the socks off your competitors!