Recently, I had the pleasure of speaking on this topic to a room full of retailers. No doubt there was more than a little curiosity, thanks to the larger than life exploits of our fictional colleague Don Draper on AMC’s “Mad Men,” or how about Mel Gibson’s mind-reading creative director in “What Women Want.”
There’s an interesting polarization going on right now in terms of brand size.
We talk a lot in the brand world about brand strategy, brand vision, brand planning and brand imaging. But in all of this discussion we are missing the critical component of customer context. To best understand we must ask this simple question and be prepared to answer it:
As humans, we are the product of thousands of years of tribalism. In the workplace, school or wherever, we coalesce around shared needs, desires and points-of-view. We form tribes. Tribes illuminate one thing above all else; you’re either in or you’re out. Some brands key in on this basic behavioral instinct to build their advantage.
The latest wave of the Kantar Millward brown’s AdReaction study shows that Gen X, Y and Z are sick of advertising; 85% of them avoid ads and 34% of them use ad blockers.
