Filed Under: Beliefs-Based Branding
Soon, people will be making decisions. The decisions will be about what work they choose to do, what schools they will send their children back to, what places they want to eat at and shop at and gather at.
They will be deciding how to re-engage with the world.
Will they be re-engaging with you and your brand?
The decision-making filter that existed before the pandemic, which would have been used to help people make these significant decisions, has completely changed.
What we valued before (staying busy, being in close proximity, being removed from our families) has inextricably shifted.
As a brand, it would serve you well to consider how, if, and in what ways people might want to continue engaging with your brand. Those people may be your employees, your investors, your clients or your prospects.
Here is what we believe people will show back up for.
Being treated like a human. This has been a crisis of humanity. It is through coordinated, kind and intelligent human ingenuity that it will come to a conclusion. In the time and space we’ve been given, we are connecting back to our own humanity. This will increase the level of expectation of human-first treatment your audience wants and needs.
Leaders and brands they trust. People will remember how leaders and brands treated others during the pandemic. Leaders don’t have to be perfect, but this is where goodness and transparency come into play. Those memories will guide their behavior, investment of time, money and energy post-pandemic.
Ideas and offerings that don’t compromise the soul. In the BC era, humans jumped through a lot of justification hoops. They would sit in traffic, neglect relationships, work long hours, purchase coping mechanisms – all to make life work. In this emerging era, the new majority are the people that won’t compromise or justify for the sake of perceived stability. They will not accept “that’s just the way things are.”
Business should not exist for profit alone. This pandemic reinforced that truth by shining a spotlight on all of the leaders, brands and businesses that don’t think that way and who took action to put people before profits. Post-pandemic consumers will be looking for opportunities to use their influence with the businesses and brands that get that.
Products and services that protect simplicity. Simplicity is the next wave of innovation. People will say “show me how to keep the best parts of this new life.” They will gravitate towards products that help them reconcile their material, familial and spiritual needs. We won’t have much tolerance for things that are complex or that don’t work well. There are too many other options that do work well and are simple. As a brand, investing energy into simplifying all aspects of your internal and external brand experience will increase your value.
In these returnings, there’s not much room for bullshit, or ethical compromises, or inflexible or controlling bosses, or demanding marketing pitches.
Brand has a distinct role in the returning. It is senior leaders and marketing leaders who set the tone for humanistic business practices. They determine the experience of those who touch the brand. They decide if people are more essential than systems. They choose the language a brand uses to communicate internally and externally.
In this respect, branding is an essential. Without a brand, what are people returning to?
If it’s just a place to work or a place to buy something, that is no longer enough.
WE BELIEVE BEING ALWAYS COMES BEFORE DOING. ARE YOU THE HEAD OF MARKETING FOR YOUR BRAND OR YOUR ORGANIZATION? A SENTIENT BEING WHO IS ALSO THE TOWN CRIER FOR YOUR BRAND?
We invite you to join our free, private community Being Marketers. Inside of Being Marketers you will find a space to help you harmonize between your marketing work and your soul. You’ll have access to full videos from our Being Marketers webcasts, customized content and tools and be the first to learn about our upcoming webcasts, private events and offerings.
