Looking back to go forward: marketing’s digital evolution

And along came purpose

"The cultural branding model argues that for brands to fulfill the promise of the connected age, they need to take inspiration from the likes of Nike, Budweiser and VW who at their best delivered not entertainment, but myths their customers could use to build their identities."

A third evolution since the late noughties and the mainstreaming of social media has involved 'purpose branding', a brand's attempt to connect with consumers through values it shares with them.

One of the highest profile examples of purpose branding was Pepsi’s 2010 Refresh Project which attempted to capture the spirit of the Obama election and tap into the widespread altruistic values of the new generation. The initiative proved good for short term PR, but not for long-term brand building. While it achieved most of its social media goals (giving away lots of money tends to drive people to participate), it didn’t make people think of Pepsi any differently. It showed that Pepsi didn’t genuinely understand the tensions facing the generation, the new ideas they were organising around, or offer them a new way to express themselves.

To do this would be 'cultural branding', which offers a far better way for brands to perform in the digital age. Developed by Douglas Holt, the cultural branding model argues that for brands to fulfill the promise of the connected age, they need to take inspiration from the likes of Nike, Budweiser, and VW who at their best delivered not entertainment, but myths their customers could use to build their identities.

Brands win if they play a useful role in crowd culture

Why does this work well in the digital age? Because, enabled by the internet, people are organising in ‘crowd cultures’ around new and interesting ideologies: subcultures that brands have a role in helping diffuse for the mainstream.

Underarmour has had significant digital marketing success by understanding an ideology of overcoming societal barriers through sheer willpower and creating branded content aimed directly at the online crowd cultures that live with it. The same strategy was originally used by Nike in the 70’s and 90’s. The only difference is that by using crowd culture, Underarmour have been able to direct spend originally set aside for paid TV space into truly understanding the subculture and ideology.

More listening, less talking

You have to ask whether some of the taken-for-granted mantras of the digital age are actually wrong. Take join the conversation’, for example. Underarmour didn’t join a conversation. It led it by taking a latent idea to the mainstream. To join the conversation, you could cynically say, is to reflect popular opinion. But like politicians, brands are far more authentic when they bring new ideas to the public consciousness. To do so brands have to be culturally relevant as well as creative.

For this, brands would do well to use more of their digital investment to understand online crowd cultures as well as the opportunity for their brand to champion their ideology. Rather than spending their energy trying to get noticed in the digital pool, spend some time understanding the people who are in it. More listening to people and less talking at them would go a long way. In the end, this is the real revolution required in marketing.