cultural value - esomar...cultural . value. world around them. contents #01 consumption is no longer...

CULTURAL VALUE

www.added-value.com

WHY BRANDS MUST EMBRACE THE WAY WE LIVE NOW TO DELIVER GROWTH

To find out how Creating Cultural Value can help with these questions and more, contact:

www.added-value.com | [email protected]

KANTAR ADDED VALUE

CULTURAL

VALUE

WORLD AROUND THEM

CONTENTS

#01 CONSUMPTION IS NO LONGER KING

#02 THE CUSTOMER IS IN CONTROL

#03 MAKING A CONNECTION

#04 SETTING THE AGENDA

#05 EMPOWERING YOUR AUDIENCE

#06 CREATING A COMMUNITY

#07 THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING HUMAN

#08 THE QUICK AND THE DEAD

#09 STAYING ON THE RADAR

#10 DELIVERING CULTURAL VALUE

In the new emerging era of “peak stuff”, people define themselves not by what they buy, but what they think.

We’re still spending money - if anything we are spending more - but ideas have become more important than things.

To prosper, brands need to win over the hearts and minds of their audience, to champion something people care about, and to recognise not only that the world is changing but that they can be instrumental in making that change.

In other words, they need to deliver CULTURAL VALUE.

Brands like Lush, Barclays and Starbucks have embraced this change. They have moved beyond their products and services to adopt a standpoint or attitude

that reflects the concerns and desires of their consumers.

Lush established itself as a leading ethical and environmental champion, Barclays helped its customers get to grips with the digital future, and Starbucks looked to reinvent the concept of community.

By doing so, their relationship with their audience moved beyond the point of sale to a shared set of beliefs and goals, a deeper bond than is ever likely to be attained by traditional advertising, or simple branded content.

The brand by itself is not enough anymore. A more profound connection is required, in which brands shift from focusing on a share of the market to securing a SHARE OF LIFE.

In the words of Syl Saller, global

marketing lead for beverage giant Diageo: “People don’t care about brands, so why not champion something they DO care about?”

Kantar Added Value talked in-depth to 30 iconic brand leaders in the UK, US and Europe and more than 100 key contacts worldwide as part of a wide-ranging study into the future of brands in this rapidly changing landscape.

They told us that a presence in the cultural landscape was crucial to their business, with more than 80% identifying connecting with culture as key to future growth.

Brands have to be more VIBRANT, more DISTINCT, and more HUMAN. Not just a brand, then, but a way of life. And a way of making life better.

CREATING CULTURAL VALUE KANTAR ADDED VALUE

#01

CONSUMPTIONIn a world of “peak stuff”, people define themselves not by what they buy but what they do.

The desire for status has not gone away, but we “keep up with the Joneses” (or the Kardashians, if you prefer) through experiences, stories and moments we can share, on social media and elsewhere.

A study by the Office for National Statistics showed that the amount of material goods people own in the UK has been shrinking since 2001.

The urge to spend has by no means disappeared. But rather than buying things, we are buying into things. We are defined by what we think, the passions we have, the causes we champion, and the communities we are a part of.

Brands need to understand how to tap into this new way of thinking, and offer people something beyond just a core product or service.

The idea of good corporate responsibility is not a new one. But the concept of creating cultural value goes beyond this, a world in which brands are transformed from ‘good citizens’ to ‘willing partners’ entrenched in the community and culture of their audience.

The challenge for brands is to CREATE MEANING for people, beyond categories, beyond goods, beyond services … beyond the brand.

^ On average people used 15 tonnes of material in 2001 compared to just over 10 tonnes in 2013UK OFFICE FOR NATIONAL STATISTICS

“I think there’s a feeling amongst certain parts of society that we’ve … reached peak stuff. The idea that you need to acquire more and more things is slightly discredited.”D&AD PANEL

“We’re moving to a world that’s post customer centric, we’ve moved beyond that now to a world that is people-centric, thinking about people’s lives beyond the consumption of our product, think about them beyond being customers. In particular to a world where content trumps advertising so great content has to be culturally relevant”NINA BIBBY, O2


#02

CONTROL

It’s an old adage that the customer is always right. Now the customer is in control as well.

In the digital era people are no longer passive consumers believing everything they are told. They have become active participants with a voice on social media with the ability to block advertising they don’t want to see - the so-called “adblockalypse”.

It has been estimated that a third of all web users in the UK and US will use adblocking software by the end of 2017.

At the same time consumers have begun to take control of the marketplace with user-generated solutions such as Blurb and Shopify, bypassing traditional channels to make stuff and sell it themselves.

As a result, brands have to fundamentally change the way they interact with consumers. It’s not a transaction anymore, it’s a conversation.

The old school language of marketing has become redundant. In a fragmented world, brands have to earn the right to be noticed.

“Consumers have control of everything.”MATT BRUHN, DIAGEO

“The language of marketing is outdated - it assumes we’re in a brand-centric world, that they speak and we listen. Largely the reverse is true, people are in control, brands have to be useful and relevant – reinvention is needed.” PAUL COWPER, KANTAR ADDED VALUE


#03

CONNECTION

Gone are the days when all a brand had to do was launch a new advertising campaign or a product that was ever so slightly better than the last one (“One more blade on your razor!” “Washes your clothes even whiter than white!”).

The sheer number of products competing for people’s attention means it is very difficult for one to stand out from all the others.

To succeed brands must work to deliver CULTURAL VALUE to their consumers.

They need to create a purpose and identity for the brand that will have broader cultural meaning for their target audience.

It is not culture in the sense of art galleries or museums, and it has nothing to do with corporate culture or multiculturalism. It is culture in its widest sense - the fabric of society, the world around us - LIFE, and everything in it.

To create cultural value, brands have to fight for something their audience believes in, make their customers feel better about themselves, improve the day to day reality of their lives and help bring them closer to their hopes and dreams.

Don’t just sell to your audience - CONNECT with them.

“Because the marketplace is so hugely commoditised, it’s so crowded and cluttered … the difference between products and services now is fractional. You’ve got to earn the right to get people’s attention.” D&AD PANEL

“To engage our customers we need to think about how to be relevant in their lives, which means therefore tapping into culture.”NINA BIBBY, O2

“Brands need to recognise that they need to work harder to get inside people’s hearts and minds

… It’s not what I can buy from you, it’s what I can achieve with you... can you help me get to a better place or to an easier place?” D&AD PANEL

“Unless you add value to the network you are in then you don’t have the right to exist.”MARKETING LEADER, INNOVATION


#04

AGENDA

Setting an agenda for change is seen by some as the sole preserve of political parties or pressure groups. Yet to survive, brands need to step up to the plate to campaign for and champion what they believe in.

If a brand is to grab people’s attention beyond its products and services - if it is to have a “share of life” and not just a share of the market - then it has to have a purpose.

High street cosmetics retailer Lush did this by embracing ethical production and packaging, and making the fight against animal testing one of the most readily identifiable aspects of its brand.

Lush created cultural value by championing a key concern among its target audience. It backed up its words with actions by funding alternatives to animal testing and a shop window display in which people were subjected to “experiments”.

Such potentially polarising action could be seen as jeopardising business success, but Lush has more than doubled its sales in the last five years.

“Standing up and standing out” was one of three challenges identified by brand leaders and CEOs in the Kantar Added Value research. More than half of brand leaders saw it as

a big challenge, but only a quarter thought they had achieved it.

Brands need a distinctive voice and a strong point of view, with an aim that is both achievable and delivers something meaningful and valuable to the people they serve.

Like Lush, US outdoor clothing manufacturer Patagonia built its business by encouraging people to consider the effect of consumerism on the environment.

It asked people to re-use, recycle and repair their belongings and purchase only what they need. Its most famous advert told consumers “Don’t buy this jacket”, cleverly tapping into the growing cultural movement towards anti-consumerism.

The company has subsequently sold a lot of jackets and enjoyed double digit growth last year.

The late Steve Jobs once said that Apple attracted a “different type of person … someone who really wants to make a little dent in the universe”.

By making their own “little dent” in the lives of the people who use them, a brand can elevate itself beyond its products and the sector it operates in. People want businesses to be about more than making money.

“Brand purpose is having a clear role in improving people’s lives.” MATT BRUHN, DIAGEO

“It’s increasingly important to individuals to understand what they are buying into and the greater good any brand or business is contributing to. It’s becoming fundamental to the decision making process on the part of consumers, both in what they are buying but also the brands they want to identify with and advocate for and remain loyal to.” ALEX DIMIZIANI, AIRBNB

“You have to be for something, to address a challenge. It’s okay to make people feel like they are choosing sides. Brands that don’t have a heart, cultural connections and a cause will disappear.” MARKETING LEADER, FMCG


#05

EMPOWERING

It is one of the most effective ways of making a connection with your audience - empowering people to do amazing things.

Barclays carved out its own cultural role by helping customers to embrace the digital age.

Part of the banking giant’s aim is to “help people to achieve their ambitions in the right way” so Barclays adopted an agenda for change around “leaving no-one behind”.

Its campaign included Code Playground to get children involved in computer programming, “Digital Eagles” enabling older people to interact with the internet, and its Life Skills programme for young people.

It is not only Barclays that has done this. Microsoft’s mission was once about selling - it famously pledged to put a computer on every desk - and now it has shifted to something more nuanced.

From children learning to code on Minecraft to holographic computing on the International Space Station and its tie-up with Damon Albarn’s Gorillaz, Microsoft set out its cultural stall as an enabler.

Microsoft, Barclays and other brands such as Red Bull and O2 have taken on the role of “firestarter”, encouraging people to get involved and create things for themselves.

Central to any successful campaign is identifying a cause that matters deeply to your customers and backing up words with actions.

A brand’s cultural purpose has to guide everything it does. And it has to come from the heart - randomly choosing something cool and trendy just to get noticed will soon be found out.

“We didn’t want to just add our logo, we wanted to bring [something] to the experience … If brands are to engage in culture it has to be authentic and add something to the overall experience. We see ourselves as an ingredient brand.” PAUL DAVIES, MICROSOFT

“Finding a role that really connects with the communities we operate in and our colleagues, something which is believable, credible and core to what we do, but connected, is really important to us.”TIM HULBERT, BARCLAYS


#06

COMMUNITY

Community spirit can sound like a thing of the past. Everyone lives in their own private world and people don’t look out for their neighbours as they once did.

But Starbucks recognised that people still want to belong to a “community”. But rather than a physical location, it is made up of disparate places that feel genuinely welcoming.

Building on its motto of “serving one cup, to one neighbour at a time”, Starbucks created cultural value by developing its own unique community - albeit one for its 20,000 stores around the world.

It developed a place and an attitude to foster the heart of this community, from writing customers’ names on cups to noticeboards that advertise everything from small businesses to local campaigns. It is the neighbourhood there once was.

Staff are encouraged to “bring society into the centre of Starbucks” and it looks to create unique moments that customers can share and look forward to, from pumpkin spice lattes to festive frappuccinos.

Such is their belief in the importance of people and community that Starbucks spends only two per cent of its marketing budget on advertising its brand, stores or product.

Craft beer specialist Brewdog has also looked to foster a sense of community and belonging, albeit in a rather different way.

The brewery’s philosophy has been to “shorten the distance as much as possible between ourselves and the people who enjoy our beers” with nearly 50,000 customers who are also stakeholders (or “equity punks”) in its business.

“Brands need to stand for more than the product or service that they deliver … All of the effort that goes into a cup of coffee is distilled in the barista who serves the customer. They are the ultimate touchpoint.” IAN CRANNA, STARBUCKS

“It is a shift [to] doing stuff that is useful and meaningful for the people they serve, as opposed to selling stuff that they’ve been making and doing. Companies are doing well by doing good.” D&AD PANEL


#07

BEING HUMAN

In an ever-more crowded marketplace, brands must look to be meaningful, relevant, and authentic. In other words, just a little bit more human.

“Being more human” was another of the key challenges identified in the Kantar Added Value research. Half of brand leaders saw it as a big challenge but only a third thought that they had succeeded.

It is also another way in which brands can create cultural value, as evidenced by online rental phenomenon, Airbnb.

Launched in 2008, the room-letting website is all about belonging. But by its own admission, it failed to fully capture this in the way it represented itself to the world.

It looked to change this by taking its cue from millennials’ desire to avoid being seen as a tourist while travelling.

It both identified this trend and encouraged it, using marketing campaigns to differentiate between destinations seen through a typical tourist view, and by people using Airbnb.

It also ‘humanised’ its brand experience by putting faces on the homes it makes available for rent, and by telling the stories of its Airbnb hosts.

In the process it created a community of users - both renters and letters - and generated cultural value around the concept of the ‘anti-tourist traveller’.

Sports clothing manufacturer Under Armour also gave its brand a human face by illustrating the dedication and hard graft of celebrity athletes and sportswomen, highlighting the challenges each had overcome.

Under Armour’s mission to “empower athletes everywhere” looked to subvert the traditionally male dominated sports narrative with female athletes who achieved their goals in the face of society’s prejudices.

Key to Under Armour’s campaign was that it let the athletes do the talking. Brands can talk about themselves all they like, but it doesn’t mean anyone’s listening.

“Our big challenge is engaging with audiences authentically in a way that adds value to the overall experience.”

PAUL DAVIES, MICROSOFT

“It’s not enough to push things, you need to engage people … Measuring engagement is not enough, you need to measure the quality of that engagement.” MARKETING LEADER, INNOVATION

“We talk about brands in a one-dimensional way. We’re not thinking about the fact that consumers need to invite us into their lives.” MARKETING LEADER, FMCG


#08

QUICKDEAD

One thing everyone is agreed on is that the world is moving faster, and brands have to adapt to keep pace with this ever-changing world.

Responding to change in a “fast, nimble and flexible way” was the challenge most commonly identified by the brands in our quantitative survey. It was also described as the task they have responded least well to.

The speed of change can be alarming - competitors come from nowhere and so can opportunities. Start-ups are agile and big brands traditionally can’t compete with their ability to try and fail.

Connecting with culture was seen as the key to meeting this challenge, helping brands to identify both threats and new openings.

In so-called “hyper real” time, brands need to move with the speed of an entrepreneur, not just quickly but across all platforms. To do this they have to slash away at internal red tape and free up their teams to create content fast and without fear of failure.

US sports performance company Gatorade is one of the leaders in this field.

It established a “mission control” centre to keep a watching brief on social media, part of a strategy which was “less about reacting to the market, more about reacting to the locker rooms”, according to its general manager, Brett O’Brien.

Its audience-inspired innovations and attempt to “move as fast as athletes [to] stay ahead of the curve” has helped it command more than 70% of the sports drinks market. “[We can’t] compare with start-

ups’ ability to try and fail.” MARKETING LEADER, PHARMACEUTICAL

“I think big brands and businesses are too afraid. I think so many brands, they’re just too scared by all this red tape.” ZOE, DRESS LIKE A MUM

“Sometimes brands are too analytical. They need to decide something and then do it. The 18 month cycle from insight to action is bullshit.” MARKETING LEADER, INNOVATION

V


#09

STAYINGIf a brand is to put cultural value at the heart of what it does then it has to stay alert to what is going on in the outside world.

This has consequences both for the way the company operates and the people it employs.

Brands require what we call a “cultural radar”, a lens through which they view what is happening in cities around the world, a live feed generating ongoing feedback on brand activations, social media conversations, happenings and events.

It’s not just about trends, it’sabout understanding the cultural conversat-ions or potential cultural movements or themes - in the moment - that resonate with its audience, enabling the brand to respond, contribute or enable as appropriate.

To do this brands need to hire people who are naturally curious and who have their finger on the cultural button. By doing this, brands bring the outside world in; they don’t just observe the cultural conversation, they become part of it.

None of these ambitions - making a connection, setting the agenda - will happen unless the whole business is behind it.

Everyone needs to know what the brand is trying to achieve and they need to give their people the freedom to experiment without fear, and be restless in pursuit of the next big thing.

“Our people are so expertly screened and only get through if they’re naturally collaborative and genuinely curious and interested in the world. Culture has to be part of the day job.” MARKETING LEADER, TECHNOLOGY

“We hire good, bright people who are engaged in popular culture, curious people who all make it their business to be up to speed on culture.” MARKETING LEADER, TELEVISION

“Hire people who feel it, who care and are passionate, have a heart and soul, and want to make a difference… Employ people who live the culture.” MATT BRUHN, DIAGEO

“To inspire customers you’ve got to inspire colleagues. They’ve got to embrace and live what you’re trying to do otherwise it won’t happen. Similarly if you have lots of partners, you all have to be very joined up and really committed to the same thing.” NINA BIBBY, O2


#10

CULTURAL VALUE

Just as the way we consume things is changing, so must the way we market them.

It’s not enough anymore to cling to the conventions of the old world, to shout louder or to try to push more brand-centric content.

Instead brands must learn to enable and facilitate, to embrace aspects of the outside world that resonate most with their audience and that chime with their own brand values.

By doing so they will forge a deeper connection with the people they serve, which in turn will drive business success.

Prioritising cultural value will have a profound effect on the way brands operate - what they do, who they partner with, and how they innovate.

In Kantar Added Value’s research, nearly two-thirds of people believed their brand’s cultural role should be at the heart of its future activities.

It is a brand’s capacity to deliver cultural value that will earn it the right to claim a share of people’s lives and give it the best chance to uncover hitherto untapped opportunities for growth.

The challenge for brands is to identify what cultural role is right for them, and how to deliver it.

To find out how Creating Cultural Value can help with these questions and more, contact:www.added-value.com [email protected]

DO YOU MAKE LIFE EASIER, BETTER OR MORE INTERESTING FOR THE PEOPLE YOU SERVE?

DO YOU DELIVER VALUE ABOVE AND BEYOND YOUR PRODUCTS AND SERVICES?

DO YOU USE THE RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES YOU ALREADY HAVE TO DELIVER THIS?

DO YOU SHAPE CULTURE, OR MOVE IT FORWARD IN SOME WAY?

cultural value - esomar...cultural . value. world around them. contents #01 consumption is no longer...

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