Brands, marketers and corporations used to control the majority of the consumption cycle. The customer journey was generally linear, and while curveballs arose, they were occasional challenges rather than ongoing and expected shifts in consumer thinking and behavior. We no longer live in that world. Consumers are continuously seizing away control from the brands that used to dictate their consumption habits. PSFK predicts that the year 2020 will “serve as a preview to not just the fully empowered consumer but the prospect of ‘people as business platforms.’” They reached out to some of today’s industry leaders to discuss the future consumer and how brands and marketers can prepare for what’s to come.
In part 3 of their editorial roundtable on the future consumer, Cofounder and Executive Creative Director, Aaron Harvey, answers the following: Once brands, retailers and organizations have become platforms for guidance and encouragement, what will become the rules of operation for them then? What does a business model or a mission statement look like for brands, retailers and organizations in a future where retail (and seemingly every power structure) has been retold?
“As a brand, the non-negotiable part of your strategy is your purpose.”
Today’s consumer mandates that you have an authentic purpose that you can genuinely own. Without this, it’s impossible to create meaningful content let alone an inspired product roadmap. As a result, many brands selling commodity products are left scrambling to define a meaningful position in the marketplace—and one that consumers are willing to stand behind.
This trend applies to digital-first brands, too. At Interbrand’s Best Global Brands, eBay spoke about the importance of defining a purpose-driven tagline: Find Your Perfect. The tagline inspires this data-driven brand to look at digital metrics in new and purposeful ways. Going beyond landing page optimization, and shifting toward launching meaningful brand extensions that serve its mission to help its consumers find their perfect.”