To “wear your brand” is a reflection of a consumer’s own self-perceived values. A behavior that Americans often do to position themselves in their world around them.
In 2017, Harley Davidson sold $282M in brand wear apparel to consumers who wanted to say “I’m rebel tough” to the world.
So if they’re not already wearing your stuff, then who is it that’s willing to wear your brand?
Millennials will.
Well, they will if your pet brand symbolized a “greater good.” This, my friends, is a massive brand differentiation opportunity in an industry filling itself with the undifferentiated.
There are 80 million millennials that have now become the largest demographic of pet parents in the history of the industry. Roughly 87% of these parents will strongly consider switching brands to one with a strong(er) cause, according to this survey from Cone. This means they value this cause more than your product’s promise in performance benefits.
It makes sense looking at the headlines today. There’s this incessant cacophony of stories about climate change impact, sadness around preventable diseases, economic inequality, social injustice running rampant, and the failure of banks, corporations and government flooding the news and social feeds at an ever-increasing rate. In fact, rage travels faster through social networks than joy and pride — which makes sense why the fastest traveling topic involves social problems.
So, how do you create this brand? How do you create a pet brand that stands for a greater good value that is more valuable to the consumer than the aggregate sum of a product’s benefits? How does your brand manifest itself as this symbol of a greater good in the minds of 80 million consumers in a way that emotionally resonates with their own personal values?
No doubt, pet brands have programs that contribute to the greater good. However, contributing to the greater good is really just becoming a prerequisite to being brand relevant today. This is very different from creating a brand to symbolize the greater good.
To Millennials and Gen Z consumers, to be good is hip. It is the NEW cool. Plain and simple, being a brand that really gives a shit is a very viable strategy to hone in on the minds of a consumer base with over $250B in annualized spending power—and growing.
Here is the 7-step strawman plan of how our agency creates brands that promise to optimize life in the minds of these consumers.
7 Tactical Steps
- Find Your Purpose.
- Build Your Tribe.
- Think Like Citizens, Not Consumers.
- Lead with Cool.
- Don’t Advertise Ever. Solve Problems.
- Make Citizens Our Media.
- Validate Proof with Transparent Clarity.
In sum, we transform brand advertising to create aspirational experiences and inspirational services that educate, proliferate and deliver your promise to your brand’s purpose. We do so with proven tactics that create a tribe of influencers to spread and share your brand in an emotionally rich and authentic way.