Genuine Brand Purpose Aligns with Consumer Emotional Needs

Identifying and leveraging the emotional content of brands is our core competency here. What we’ve learned during our 17 years of business is that personal brand experience is the prime mover of the emotions. Consumers under hypnosis can recall their individual experiences and we listen for the ‘through lines,’ the common themes that unite to form brand meaning.

            We map the brand narrative and the consumer narrative. Where there is alignment, the path forward seems to rise before us. Where there is divergence, we need the emotional equivalent of geo-locators to help us on the journey. But always, experience is north on the compass.

·      Sugared cereals are a mark of independence and autonomy at age seven. Your mother has always told you no, but then there’s a sleepover at a friend’s house and whoosh! Your BFF’s mother allows her kids to eat Trix. Wha-hoo! You strike the bell of independence and there’s no unringing it. What role does advertising play in helping the mother through your transformation?

·      Salty potato chips are your ‘drunk uncle’ during the Super Bowl, but Pringles are the personal, private snack you have in your room, because the lid is resealable and your fingers aren’t greasy when it’s time to work the keyboard. Where should Pringles really be stocked in the store and with which brands does it genuinely compete?

            Our case studies are filled with endless insights and implications. Yet, we’ve never seen any brand experience as strongly felt or memorably expressed as those that take us “out of life as we know it.” We’re working a great deal in the world of brand purpose, mapping where it collides with consumer altruism. The key thus far is in immersion in an alternative reality: Not my life as I live it, but my life lived for a moment out of context.

            One implication is that purpose led brands must meet consumers more than half way in reaching a better vision of themselves, the meaning of their lives and the role brand partners can play in a consumer society.

            We’ve got a great “Lunch and Learn” presentation. When your brand is ready, we will come.

Kate