How does a brand truly impact the lives of consumers? What’s really behind these GREAT brands that create ongoing feelings of positivity and continuous brand loyalty because those consumers feel truly rewarded when they keep coming back again and again? Sure, these brands are memorable; they’re unique; they tell an interesting story—but they have something else that makes consumers care.
Of course your brand must have meaning to your target audience, so your brand evokes emotion and truly resonates with those potential customers. Your imagery must lend itself to ideal interpretation. Your brand must speak to your target audience.
So the question is this: what makes a brand truly meaningful?
Collective Well-Being
According to global advertising, marketing and media group Havas Media, Meaningful Brands “systematically improve our personal and collective well-being.” Their experience shows that the way businesses create and relay value is just as important as the products and services they offer. Consumers are socially-minded and interconnected with their environments and their world, and therefore interested in companies that produce and offer real-world value to humanity as a whole.
Havas Media recently produced a Meaningful Brand study on 300 top-name brands, based on 50,000 surveys from consumers in 14 countries. I think these results speak for themselves: “We found that only 20% of brands have a notable positive impact on our sense of well-being and quality of life. Furthermore, for the second year running, we also found that most people would not care if 70% of brands ceased to exist.”
Consumers don’t care about 70%!? And that’s not 70% of all brands—that’s 70% of the TOP 300 brands. If you think consumers are saying “Who Cares?” about your brand, it’s time to reevaluate the way your business conveys value, and if you do so in a meaningful way.
The Top Three
The three top-performing brands in the Havas Media study were IKEA, Google, and Nestlé. How do these companies “systematically improve our personal and collective well-being”?
IKEA is all about sustainable energy and improving global well-being with responsible business practices and charitable initiatives—so they have collective well-being covered. The consumer’s sense of personal well-being comes from the low prices, great selection, and their fun and trendy products.
Google lives for exceptional user experience design and high-quality products and services, so yes, people feel great about using Google products, especially when so many of them are completely free. Consumers also feel good about Google’s mission “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” There’s a global good behind a dedication to cataloging information to boost global accessibility and fuel our minds the world over.
Nestlé provides the world with chocolate. Need I say more? Seriously though, many Nestlé products have a special place in our hearts far and wide. For me, baking Nestlé Toll House chocolate chip cookies always brings back warm homemade memories. On a global level, Nestlé’s entire brand vision is built around shared value, with an emphasis on water, nutrition, and rural development.
Find Your WHY
How do you move your brand from forgettable to meaningful? The answer is simple: find your WHY. Why do you do what you do? Who do you want to help? What’s your real passion? What are your values, your beliefs? How can you create a sense of both personal and global well-being with your brand?
When you convey value in a much broader sense, your brand becomes more meaningful to your potential customers and to your community. Don’t be afraid to tell the world WHY you do what you do. When you find your why, you discover your mission; you realize the value you must inject into your brand to boost your business and your brand into that meaningful realm global consumers so want to see and experience.
So find your why, boost your brand, and make it meaningful!
We would love to hear why your brand is meaningful…please share in the comments below.