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It’s popular to talk of deepening consumers’ relationships with a brand. But most consumers just aren’t that into brands. Marketing guru Martin Weigel argues that savvy marketers will realize they can best boost sales by extending their brand’s reach—making more consumers more aware of the brand—rather than by building loyal fans.
What’s driving this forecast…
- Everything you know about brands is wrong. Weigel points out that most brand consumers are light users, not fans.
- Consumers long for quiet. After years of being pummeled by brand messages, consumers are opting for simpler brand engagement.
- Pragmatic Millennials. Some studies suggest that Millennials take a pragmatic approach to brands—or that they are not brand-loyal at all.
- Generics rising. Post-recession consumers know that generics can offer both quality and savings.
What this means for companies…
- Personalization even more important. In this future, brand engagement won’t go away entirely but will skew toward greater consumer control over what their products and services look like and do.
- Purpose of social media. The best use of social media channels may be to spread the word about the brand via engaging content, rather than to build deep relationships with frequent users.
- Wide and often. Communication strategy needs to maximize the number of consumers reached and the frequency of interaction.
- Multiply touch points. Fragmenting media channels and preferences mean that reaching many consumers will require many channels.
- Loyalty programs. If most consumers are light users, loyalty programs should reward light and first-time users.
For more on the future of brands and branding, see our report The Future of Brands 2030.