“Creativity is always rebellion”. Creativity must – by its very nature – look to break away from pre-existing patterns and pre-conceived notions in order to break the mould.
Words to live by, and words espoused by Weber Shandwick’s global chief creative officer Tom Beckman who – speaking at Frontify’s Paradigms brand experience summit in Lisbon last week – explained how marketers must adopt this viewpoint if they ever truly want to relate to their consumers.
In the modern era, ‘purpose’ has come to dominate how brands from every end of the spectrum operate.
When times are hard – it’s important to stand for something, for customers to see that you understand the predicament that the vast majority find themselves in.
Tone of voice has always been crucial in brands communications of course, but global economic pressures add a complex new layer to this. If, as a brand, you continue to act as if all is well, and that nothing has changed – customers will see through it, and likely stop listening to you altogether.
The birth of purpose
The global economic crisis of 2008-09 has left an indelible mark on the marketing industry that can still clearly be felt close to 15 years later. Consumer trust in brands fell to it lowest ebb in decades and marketers scrambled to regain it.
This is where brand ‘purpose’ comes into play – when the going gets tough, brands need to stand for something – or they risk appearing superfluous to the buying public.
“Purpose used to be a ‘nice to have’, now it’s a ‘must have’”, Beckman begins. “You can’t take it out of the equation.
“People ask themselves now is, what’s our licence to speak? What’s the reason to believe? Maybe in the early days, [purpose] was more of a claim that you’d make.
He stresses: “Now you really need to have a commitment, have a pledge, have a track record, you need a licence to speak, but also a reason to believe in what you’re actually doing.”
Brand purpose has now become so pivotal that it has evolved well beyond pure marketing and has come to define a brand’s identity, and to certain extent – it’s entire mode of operation.
Beckman calls this the ‘maturation’ of purpose, adding that in transcending marketing, it has now become part of the business model – and an essential part of it at that: “It’s not necessarily all about future proofing the planet or the community or whatever your focus is, it’s now more about how to future proof your own business.
“A recent study indicated that 40% of CMOs don’t think that their brand will be around in 10 years. That’s crazy, and so self-sustainability, or purpose has matured and been integrated much more in the business.”
Subscribe to Marketing Beat for free
Sign up here to get the latest marketing campaigns sent straight to your inbox each morning
Changing priorities
Pointing to the relentlessly pessimistic global economy that has festered since the Covid pandemic, Beckman notes one clear difference between now and 2008. The buying public’s anger had been concentrated squarely at the feet of the large corporations whose endless indulgence had caused the market to crash.
This time – the vapid, unnecessary cash-splashing of the super-rich is in their visor. When so much of the world is struggling, superfluous luxury becomes unseemly, and brands have certainly cottoned on.
For Beckman, the ‘game’ has become rigged – everything from career, to education and housing: “People out of necessity need to dream about new things. I don’t know what will be at the heart of that dream. I’m sure that it won’t be the middle-class dream that I grew up with.
“That dream doesn’t work for a majority of people now, so they’re opting out. The interesting question I think, and the question brands need to ask themselves now is: what will make people opt in to you?”
Whereas the 2008 credit crunch led to a global ‘trust crisis’ between consumers and brands, Beckman believes that we are now firmly in the midst of a ‘reputational crisis’ amplified by the growing gap between rich and poor.
“I would even call it a division crisis,” he says. “It was a one-two punch with the pandemic, widening the gaps and the divide in society. Then the recession hit, leaving people floored.
“It’s already the most powerful theme in pop culture without a doubt, and I’m sure that that will also be reflected in how we relate to ourselves, and to consumption and branding, just like it did during the last recession.”
Innovation breeds success
This fear of misunderstanding the prevalent public mood, of becoming a pariah of over-indulgence has led to an interesting cultural shift within global marketing and advertising.
Citing numerous examples of brands ‘stripping back’ so to speak, and squarely targeting middle or working-class customers (Burger King and Telfar Clemens) as an indication of the global cultural climate, Beckman continues: “In a world defined by division between the haves and the have nots, even the haves start looking at themselves as asking, is this who I am?
“Marketing and branding is so tightly connected to the idea of identity, you simply can’t take it out of the equation, and when [the recession] is the biggest thing on people’s minds, of course, it’s going to have an impact.”
“Creativity is always rebellion”, Beckman stated during his presentation, and certainly to truly achieve success, moulds must be broken. This is perhaps why traditional brands such as Burger King are taking an increasingly left-field approach, and it appears to be paying dividends.
“It’s funny how people in our industry always look for the big idea, right? When in fact, the big idea is always the easiest idea to come up with, it’s usually the elephant in the room, and addressing it makes it big,” Beckman explains.
“Rebellion is acting on the obvious, and what happens in recessions is people get very risk averse – when in fact, recessions are a very dynamic time, when it’s a good idea to make a move. Because people change during the recession, they’re changed their identity, how they relate to themselves, to brands to the world.”
So, how will brands react to this growing shift in public opinion and behaviour? Will they seek to adapt to it, and break new boundaries as Beckman advises – or will they stick with more of the same in the hopes or riding it out?
If time has taught us anything, it’s that the former is the likelier path to success – which is often anchored in innovation and risk taking.
As Beckman says: “The hard thing in our industry isn’t coming up with ideas, but getting people to commit to them.”
