When content is factored to purpose, participation and populism, it can truly raise a brand to play its A-game. Let’s see how.
Content: an opportunity to establish relevance and articulate brand purpose
Every brand strives to establish its relevance in a cluttered market and mind space. And relevance comes from the purpose of a brand: the reason why it exists and the larger idea of a brand’s value to society. A well defined and articulated brand purpose is the reason why people buy into a brand before buying what it actually sells.
Content provides a great opportunity to express the brand’s personality and its true character which is often limited in conventional forms of communication that are restricted by space and second, age. And thus the true nature of content in this context is that it gives something relevant to people rather than simply asking them for something.
It is not a missed opportunity to ‘sell’, but rather it is a bigger opportunity to ‘tell’ about the brand. This builds affinity and connection which ultimately helps in letting people discover the products and services of a company, in a human context. This is the power of storytelling, the oldest and most potent communication and connection tool ever known to the human race.
A fine example to illustrate this point is the storytelling approach by Purina, a pet food brand that sets its purpose within the unbreakable bond between a person and a pet. It took to long form storytelling combining it with strong, funny stories around human and pet companionship.
This approach was true to the brand purpose, intrinsic to what it sells and delivered a positive impact on the business.
Content, armed with the power of storytelling, establishes relevance and articulates brand purpose.
Content: an opportunity for conversation and participation
Content talks to people, not consumers. This is a significant difference. Consuming is just one small aspect of human behaviour and does not provide a meaningful perspective on motivations and barriers that actually define people. Consumers can only transact with a brand but people participate in the brand’s journey.
From a content point of view, it is imperative therefore to have a good understanding of what defines and drives people to get them to participate in the conversation. But a common pitfall in aiming for participation is when brands try piggybacking on passion points. Let’s say that the audience we are interested in is passionate about sports, music and adventure (these are the usual suspects!) and suppose as a brand we are not connected to any of these genres by purpose or by product. Why should people or why would people then engage with us? Brands miss out when people don’t participate.
Now take the case of Red Bull. Primarily an energy drink with a proposition that it ‘gives you wings’, the brand plays hard in the extreme sports action space. It is consistent with its purpose of ‘putting energy into everything people do’ and thus opens a big credible space across various extreme sports and action genres. Whether they are making a ‘Stratos Jump’ happen or scorching the turf in racing events, the brand stays true to itself and people are queuing up to be part of it.
The brand’s centre of gravity should be around the point where its purpose and people’s passion points meet. This intersection point creates participation and value.
Content: an opportunity for consistent engagement and populism
While the purpose of content is not hard selling, it surely needs to influence measurable, positive outcomes for the brand and its business. This happens when content helps the brand play to its potential.
This is not about viral videos, occasional home runs or unrealistic plans of engaging people every day or hour on social media.
Snickers with its proposition You are not you when you are hungry, not only consistently created enjoyable communication, it also created great content using influencers and passion points very neatly. As a result, it became a people’s idea, generating conversations and finding a place in popular culture. A structured strategic approach that is built around the brand’s purpose and people participation will enable content to deliver brand populism. With a little care, it is possible to steer clear of the ‘content-ious’ issue of content and unleash its true potential and power for brands.
The author is EVP, integrated strategy planning, Leo Burnett