This article first appeared in Advertising Week written by, Harry Wright, Strategy Director from our London studio.
There’s been a lot of chatter in the marketing world recently about the positive correlation between brands that take the time to truly understand their customers’ needs, desires and aspirations and business success. This could be because, as a study by McKinsey observed, brands deploying customer-centric strategies have been shown to achieve more than twice the revenue growth of their competitors, who choose alternative approaches. But, while many brands say that they know their customers inside out, and as well as they should, the key to driving meaningful engagement, trust and loyalty from those customers lies in finding and bridging the gap between ambition and opportunity.
With that in mind, it’s no longer enough for brands to content themselves with knowing that their target audience sits within a particular age bracket, or that they live in a certain location. You also haven’t unplugged from the matrix once you realise that your target audience has wider cultural interests than the ones your products are typically associated with. Instead, we need to go out into the world, to meet these diverse people where they are already, to get under the skin of their day-to-day lives, so we can better understand their ambitions.
Widely defined as a strong desire to achieve… something, the difficulty with ambitions is that they vary greatly from person to person. Some want the clout of a specific job title, others long to become an influencer or creator and some of us just want to feel the sense of belonging that comes from finding a community of like-minded people. But at their core, most ambitions are inherently driven by the desire for growth and personal progression. And this could be why the brands at the forefront of the transformation economy are winning the battle for consumers’ time and wallet.
According to Pine and Gilmore’s progression of economic value, the transformation economy is an evolution of the experience economy and it’s driven by an increasing consumer demand for personal development. By understanding the emotive commonalities behind their target audience’s ambitions, brands can begin to build experiences, both in the real world and online, that provide consumers with opportunities to access the inspiration, guidance and communities they need to get closer to achieving their goals.
Why? While ambitions and dreams are ten a penny, opportunity is incredibly hard to come by. We’re constantly juggling the responsibilities of work, relationships, social life, finances, health and life admin, meaning few of us ever have the time or the headspace to work towards the things we really want from life. And when we do get those fleeting moments of quiet, it can be hard to know where to begin or how to start. It’s overwhelming, to say the least. This is one of the reasons why TikTok took off. It’s a platform teeming with authentic and inspirational stories of perseverance from normal, everyday people who were not only able to build businesses, side hustles and interest-based platforms but who also want to share their experiences, their failures and their secrets to success. Above all else, it acts as a constant source of inspiration, guidance and community that helps people to get closer to achieving their ambitions. And this is an approach brands can adopt to drive unprecedented levels of engagement, trust and loyalty. Here’s how:
Engagement:
At its core, growth requires active participation. But the barrier for consumers isn’t necessarily the effort or time that they need to dedicate to their cause, it’s knowing how to channel their efforts in a way that will enable them to progress. By creating physical or digital brand experiences that provide them with an opportunity to learn how to take their first steps, through active participation, you remove that barrier and incentivise incredibly high levels of engagement.
Trust:
In creating these experiences, you’ll prove that you’ve taken the time to truly understand your audience’s ambitions, aspirations and desires, reinforcing the perception that your brand is an authentic champion of their own personal progression and positive change. Not only that but you’ll demonstrate that you’re not afraid to put their needs above your own business success, which will drive trust and, somewhat ironically, business success.
Loyalty:
If your experiences do genuinely provide consumers with opportunities to get closer to achieving their ambitions, they will see any interaction with your brand as time well invested rather than simply time well spent. They will feel as if they have received a return on the investment of their time and will keep coming back to your brand, so they can keep striving towards their ambitions and get an even bigger return. By continually offering them opportunities to grow, you’ll nurture their brand loyalty.
Most importantly, the key here isn’t to try and take ownership of your audience’s success. It’s to provide them with the encouragement, the tools and, most importantly, the opportunities they need to make the incremental changes that will help them to get closer to their ambitions. Show them the door and they will keep coming back to walk through it, time and time again.
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