16th of May 2018

Published by Business Insider See original article

Brands can help bring a divided nation together – here’s how

Pepsi’s 2017 ad with Kendall Jenner was a misfire. But other brands have done better speaking to public issues. 

  • Brands are becoming involved in the culture war, whether they want to or not.
  • Brand marketers face a dilemma: Americans want brands to address issues and demonstrate values, but not get too political.
  • Suresh Nair of Grey Group, a global marketing agency, discusses how brands can navigate those challenges.

America seems more divided than ever. As a brand marketer, I have to ask myself: Will we ever come together? And can brands help?

The answer in both cases is a qualified yes.

Brands are increasingly entering the debate whether they want to or not. This presents challenges for brand marketers, but also opportunities for the country, because brands that want to be successful have little choice but to serve as unifying forces.

Conventional wisdom says that the more precise the target, the more effective your marketing efforts will be, but Prof. Byron Sharp shows in his book “How Brands Grow” that the key to brand growth is to appeal to more people and drive penetration, not to target niche segments. Companies need unified audiences to grow their businesses. For brand marketers and advertising agencies, the job is to bring people together.

So even as political, racial, economic, religious and gender lines place us firmly on one side of great divides, we need to help brands improve their efforts at connecting with large audiences by presenting the companies’ products and beliefs in meaningful ways that resonate with a broad and united group of people.

Read the full article on Business Insider.

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