Marketing with meaning: Creating brand connections

As a marketeer I have recently started to notice the increase in meaningful marketing and the extent to which brands are seeking to create meaningful experiences that consumers can connect with and move people emotionally. Thank goodness, a change has been in the air for a while, as people become increasingly fed up with marketing messages bombarding them and ‘polluting’ their environment. They are opting out and tuning out and looking for brands that can give them more meaningful experiences.

The interruptible model of marketing is becoming less and less efficient. And let’s be honest it’s a little exhausting for consumers and marketers. Some marketeers have been taking it to extreme by resorting to putting advertisements on sheep and airport runways!!

Enough is enough!! People are cutting back on traditional advertising, they are fed up and exhausted. As brands and marketeers we need to create something more meaningful that will achieve all purposes; meet a consumer need, be responsible to all stakeholders not just shareholders and seek to leave a legacy for generations to come.

Brands and marketers have the means and influence to develop meaningful communications or experiences and in doing so improve their bottom line, it’s a win, win.

According to marketingmag.com.au almost two thirds of Australians believe brands should play a role in improving our quality of living and well-being. But almost 70% of Australians feel brands are not working hard enough to contribute to improve our personal or collective well-being, or deliver improvements in the marketplace.

Hierarchy of meaningful marketing

Bob Gilbreath is the author of “The Next Evolution of Marketing” uses the hierarchy of meaningful marketing framework to help guide brand experiences and advertising appealing to consumers who want a more emotional connection with brands.

 

Just like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs the higher you go up the pyramid the higher the need it stratifies and the stronger the connection and impact you have.

  1. Connection marketing. This level of marketing corresponds to Maslow’s love/belonging category, providing benefits beyond the basics of information and relevance to include something that is of deeper importance in the consumer’s mind (social outlets and creative expression).
  2. Solution marketing. Like the lower levels of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, solution marketing covers basic household needs and benefits. For example, helpful offers, money savings and hard rewards for purchase.
  3. Achievement marketing. This corresponds to Maslow’s pinnacle of self-actualisation by allowing people to significantly improve their lives, realise a dream or positively change their community and their world.

Gilbreath offers the following four precepts about meaningful marketing:

  • Meaningful marketers never push. They invite prospective customers in by creating marketing that appeals to the higher unmet needs in their overall lives.
  • Meaningful marketers know that most of our basic needs are satisfied by the products and services we already buy. If you sell a commodity, the need and opportunities for you to create marketing whose meaning transcends your product are limitless.
  • Marketing itself must improve customers’ lives and accomplish something of intrinsic value, independent of the product or service it aims to sell, whether or not people actually ever purchase it.
  • More meaning = more money. (The longer equation is more meaning = more loyalty = higher prices = increased sales, but the net result is the same.)

As brands and agencies we should be working hard develop meaningful communications or experiences that fulfills people’s higher level needs not only because it has a positive impact on our consumers lives but it can help the planet and boost our bottom line.

By doing good and implementing meaningful marketing you can build loyal relationships with consumers who are looking to support brands that make them feel like they are contributing to a better world by making socially conscious purchase decisions. Once you have a loyal consumer base your bottom line will continue to reap the benefits.

Some great examples of meaningful marketing:

Haagandas honey bee ice cream: Promoting the health of Honey Bees. Since 2008, Häagen-Dazs® ice cream has teamed up with leading research facilities to donate more than $1,000,000 to honey bee research.

 

 

Tide Loads of Hope: Hurricane Katrina Relief

 

ANZ: Buy ready app, giving people access to house valuation data to assist them in making purchase designsdecisions.

NAB: New flagship store promoting connections and networking

Samsung: offering free charge points in airports.

Increasing your bottom line and change the world

By doing good and implementing meaningful marketing you can build loyal relationships with consumers who are looking to support brands that make them feel like they are contributing to a better world by making socially conscious purchase decisions. Once you have a loyal consumer base your bottom line will continue to reap the benefits.

Sometime it’s easy to become disillusioned as a marketer when we’re ‘selling’ people things they don’t really want and adding to the advertising clutter. But when we can work on a marketing campaign that is based on meaningful marketing, that creates engaging experiences with consumers and works to contribute to a better world well then we all feel better about what we’re doing.

Everyone is a winner!

Brands that connect with their target audiences on a deeper level building stronger customer loyalty, consumers win because brands actually make a positive impact on their lives and in some cases the planet and world we live in wins.  So next time you think about putting out the same old marketing campaign think again. What could you be doing to make a positive impact and really connect with your customers? What brand experience or gesture could you offer them? What are you doing to make the world a better palace?

Gemma Dittmar
Director of Brand Projects

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