Brand Strategy In A Changing World
To say the world is having a moment is an understatement! We’[re in what I call a “Mass Liminal Period”, the old systems are still in play, but the ground underneath them is shifting. People are starting to develop new ways of meaning-making. The world of the past 80 or so years is no longer a means to navigate the future.
For brands, this means there are no best practices. No rules. Pretty much all the brand strategies in play today however, are built on traditionally stable environments: Porters Positioning, Ries and Trout’s category ownership, blue ocean strategies. We are no longer in a stable environment. The cultural substrate these all worked from no longer exists. And we have no idea where it’s going. It’s just too early.
This means some caution with your lagging data. The challenge is that data that’s three months old may not reflect shifts underway. Social listening and cultural intelligence (CQ) become vital best practices in a time when you need better sensing and faster adaptation.
Cultural maps are redrawing themselves as we move away from the traditional binaries our world has worked within for the past 80 or so years. So. What to do? Here’s what we’re finding:
Humans seek meaning and for 70+ years, we had meaning. Now that’s changing and people are making new meaning. So what’s an approach to take to mitigate risk and find opportunity?
Brand Best Practices in a Changing World
Positioning: Flag planting is risky today. Consider your options and build a portfolio of positions you “could” take. This is all about adaptability.
Read the Room: Social listening and cultural intelligence (CQ) are vital. Listen before you speak.
Experimentation: This is critical. You can’t afford not to. In these liminal times, small cultural experiments are the strategy.
Fluency in Meaning: The old way was consistency, now you gotta be fluent, speaking multiple cultural languages if you will. Being able to shift across cultural contexts while maintaining your brand’s coherence.
I think experimentation is critical. It’s also scary as all get out because it means risks. Which are a challenge for marketers already struggling to show their ROI. But that’s just not reality anymore. Marketing is about to go through an uncomfortable period in the coming years. And honestly, we’re probably looking at 10-15 years before we get to any sort of new baselines. It’s gonna get messy.
