An overview of the findings of the latest research on Reinvigorating Brand Loyalty Through Trust, Purpose & Values.
The past 12 months has radically disrupted consumer lifestyles and markets. People have been forced to contend with mental and physical health crises, racial injustice, economic disparity, supply chain disruption and more. In light of these major events, the traditional rulebook for engaging audiences needs to be thrown out. Companies must take a nuanced look at what is most important to their customers and evaluate that alongside their core values to ensure alignment. From there, organizations can decide how and where they can meaningfully take part in the conversation.
In the midst of a rapidly changing culture and economy, brands must work harder to truly resonate with their customers. More than ever, consumers expect brands to understand their desires and needs and respond with empathy and authenticity.
“2020 was a tipping point for stakeholder capitalism” states a study conducted by Vrity and Toluna, December, 2020. “Consumers were watching as brands responded (or lacked response) to the pandemic and social justice movements. You’ve heard of the Attention Economy and the Sharing Economy, 2021 will usher in the era of The Values Economy, where brand values matter to the consumer just as much as price, product, and promotion.”
To shine on a light on how consumer expectations are driving brands to pursue purpose-led agendas and increasingly adopt a people over profit mindset, PSFK co-created our latest report, Reinvigorating Brand Loyalty Through Trust, Purpose & Values, in partnership with Toluna, the real-time consumer insights company. Click on the report link to explore the trends defining progressive innovation and discover how successful brands are taking part in the nine trends powering this strategic approach.
The New Brand Initiative: Amplifying the Voices of the Unheard
Committing to a more inclusive reality, businesses are launching initiatives and platforms for a diverse range of consumers to share their experiences, ideas and needs when it comes to representation and creating equitable experiences across retail and beyond. By encouraging a greater range of perspectives to be shared, businesses have the opportunity to then apply these insights to their own internal processes, practices, and future initiatives, and better engage and connect with today’s consumers.
As part of its $25 million commitment to diversity and inclusion, beauty chain Ulta has created a multi-part initiative to achieve equality throughout its organization. In addition to store updates and employee training, $20 million of that pledge will be invested in media platforms including its own, Muse, to engage, connect with and feature LatinX, Black and other underserved communities and their stories. Additionally, the company plans to double the number of Black-owned brands within its assortment by the end of 2021, is dedicating $4 million to provide them with marketing support, and will work directly with the founders to help grow their brands.
Resource Launchpad: When Big Brands Help Their Customers Achieve
Consumers are motivated by their passions and commitments, as they’ve come to highly prioritize what is important to them. From how they keep fit, to the way that they spend (and save), to honing their crafts, individuals today relentlessly pursue their creative and entrepreneurial passions. As they seek out new sources of financial and educational support, brands have a unique opportunity to step in and provide the tools and expertise to support these endeavors. By providing their customers with the resources to achieve their goals, rather than simply marketing to them, brands can build meaningful and lasting relationships.
Addressing social impact and its own role in creating a more equitable retail experience is a priority for home improvement retailer Lowe’s. To discover and ultimately amplify the reach of entrepreneurs from a diverse range of backgrounds, the retailer has launched the series Making It With Lowe’s, where small businesses will be able to pitch their products for the chance to be featured on Lowe’s.com or in-store and receive marketing support and mentoring services. In addition to its accelerator program, Lowe’s plans to feature more than 400 products from entrepreneurs in its stores or on its website, and has donated $30 million in grants for minority-owned businesses.
How Companies Are Helping Consumers Establish Digital Literacy
An increasingly digital-first world has created new challenges — personal privacy concerns, misinformation, proper behaviors, community engagement, etc. — for audiences of all ages. To interact responsibly and thrive within these online environments and platforms, people need an entirely new set set of skills and code of conduct. To help consumers navigate these ever changing rules, companies are developing interactive guides and educational resources.
Partnering with educational think tank DQ Institute, Lego has created an online quiz for children to empower them to be good digital citizens, and develop their own online empathy skills. Within the quiz, kids follow Lego character Captain Safety through a series of scenarios meant to help them understand how online bullying and misinformation spread works. Players are rewarded for standing up to “meanies’’ with the game or for comforting a Lego character that has been harassed online. Players are also asked to think about a time they may have been a bully, and are provided with prompts on how to apologize when that occurs. At the end of the quiz, each player is revealed to be one of four Lego heros they’re most like, Sir Hug-A-Lot, AeroVision, Butterclops, or Admiral High Five.
How Brands & Retailers Are Offering New Suites of Mental Health Support Tools and Services
An extended period of social distancing and lack of interaction is taking a toll on consumers and their mental health. To provide consumers with support, brands are partnering with health professionals and platforms, and using their own social channels, apps, and websites to connect consumers with the guidance and resources they may need.
Popular supermarket chain Whole Foods is partnering with wellness and meditation app Headspace to offer consumers access to cross-platform mental health support and tools. Through the partnership, visitors to the Whole Foods Instagram page can access a IGTV series deemed “Food for Mood,” where experts demonstrate recipes that feature spring-centric foods while explaining the ways to “mindfully connect” with foods as well as the importance of making time for self-care — specifically how to tap into mood states like joy, energy, focus, and relaxation. The initiative additionally includes an offering of three meditations that explore mindfulness in everyday occasions like shopping, cooking and eating as well as free one-month trial of Headspace Plus.
Facilitating Connection Online: How Brands & Retailers Are Bringing Consumers Together
Innovating within socially-distanced guidelines, brands and retailers are creating shared experiences by leveraging their products, resources and communities to safely connect consumers with one another. Through remote events and virtual platforms, brands are ensuring consumer interaction remains possible, while generating brand affinity and creating additional points of positive engagement.
After finding that in the UK alone, an average of 200,000 seniors will go a week without talking to another person, Xbox developed Xbox: Beyond Generations to help younger and older generations connect through live gaming. To participate, gamers with a spare Xbox console and controller download a reboxing kit that guides users through resetting and packaging their Xbox, and includes setup direction for the older relative meant to receive the console as well. Once the Xbox arrives, the reboxing kit’s directions makes it easy for the intended relative to quickly set up and log online to interact and play along with their family member.
‘Travel Mentally,’ When Escapes From Reality Get Branded
With consumers’ day-to-day lives largely relegated to the home, activities like travel, spa and salon visits and public events have been put on pause. To help consumers take time for themselves, even if just from home, brands and retailers are redeploying their resources and designing branded kits to fulfill new consumer needs centered around novelty, exploration and self-care. Having prioritized wellness and new forms of ‘escape’ during this extended period at home, consumers are likely to carry these new habits into the future.
Mars Wrigley-owned brand Starburst designed an at-home self-care kit to coincide with National Self-Care day on July 24th. The box’s theme was designed around the brand’s best-selling flavor, Pink, and included a gratitude journal, a succulent, a yoga towel, a jade roller, sleep mask, all in shades of pink, as well as Pink Starbursts.
Localizing Impact — How Brands Are Putting Their Best Foot Forward Within Their Communities
Consumers are refocusing on their local communities and economies, looking for ways to support both small businesses and individuals. Established companies and emerging platforms are helping consumers convert this growing passion into action by offering access to programs, initiatives and tools that allow consumers to connect and participate in incremental actions that have broader impact within their communities.
With restaurants operating at diminished capacity throughout France, the country’s farmers have been left with a surplus of crops. To help account for lost sales, Burger King in France has purchased an additional 200,000 kg or 440,925 lbs of potatoes to hand out to their drive-thru customers. Each customer is able to receive a 1kg bag of raw potatoes, and can try out any of the three different recipes Burger King is sharing on its website to go along with the give-away.
Fan Ownership: Bringing Consumers Into the Discussion
Consumers feel a sense of ownership over their favored brands and want to contribute their own ideas and feedback for collaborative products and services that better meet their needs. Brands have the opportunity to both make consumers feel included in the creation of new products, as well as assess the current consumer landscape, by actively pursuing and updating their own consumer data and resulting insights. To do so, companies are creating online platforms where like-minded consumers can gather, exchange ideas, and offer opinions, as a way to contribute to the brands’ success.
To develop its shopping app, Nothing But Gold, sportswear brand Nike is tapping its community of Gen Z girls to help determine everything from UX within the app to product selection, curation and design. Still in private beta, Nike superfans are able to DM the brand on Instagram and describe what makes them “Nothing but Gold” for a chance to inform how the sport, style and self-care focused app can best serve its intended audience.
Sustainable Lifecycle: How New Purpose-led, Consumer-backed Initiatives Help Brands And Their Customers Protect the Environment
As the conversation around sustainability, eco-conscious practices and climate continues to grow in importance, leading brands and retailers are considering the post-purchase impact of their products. By building circularity into the full product lifecycle, from design and delivery to post-purchase and end-use, companies are reducing waste, while encouraging consumers to continuously interact with their brand.
To address the growing e-waste crisis, computer electronics company Dell is rethinking its product lifecycles to move from linear to circular. Along with a prototype laptop that can be disassembled within two minutes, the company is also exploring how to extend the lifespan of each of their products by incorporating AI and machine learning into the product to make energy efficiency changes over time, and being able to update software through the cloud. Currently, Dell is incorporating recyclable materials into its products, including carbon fiber from the aerospace industry and plastics that would otherwise end up in oceans and landfills, while also testing e-recycling and device rental programs.
Within a values-driven economy, brand purpose provides an opportunity to meaningfully impact consumers on a personal, community, environmental and global scale. By calling out a mission and allocating resources against promoting positive societal change, organizations can innovate against these progressive agendas to create ongoing value and even establish a new competitive advantage. To learn more about how your company can strengthen your relationship with your customers and take part in this ongoing change, check out the PSFK and Toluna report Reinvigorating Brand Loyalty Through Trust, Purpose & Values.
