Three things every brand needs to be aware of

There is always so much noise surrounding the world of business. And especially recently, every clickbait headline is there to either tell you that all business owners are completely doomed, or they have the secret tool to save you.

I’ve done the service work and clicked into the majority of these articles, largely because I’ve been consistently bricking myself (the device, I am not sure if that is an official verb yet, but let’s make it one) from social media, and so can only turn to my Apple News app for distraction.

But once you sift through all that noise, there are three big themes which businesses actually need to be aware of. So let’s get into them.

1. You’re fighting against your customer’s life for attention.

This isn’t necessarily new news, but people are increasingly switching off from socials in an effort to be “analogue”, or they’re using bricks like me, or in some way trying to shut out all of the said noise.

Meaning you have to be more impactful than ever if you want people to recognise you.

A part of that is volume. People don’t want to research anymore. If a brand doesn’t instantly come to mind, we will use AI to search for a response to tell us who to go with. Or at the very least, to give us a summary of the top options we can choose between, rather than the good old-fashioned way of clicking through different website results from a range of different Google searches. Terrible news, really, for someone who classifies themselves as a website designer and SEO specialist, but I will save my thoughts on why this remains important for another day.

You need to be instantly coming to your customers’ minds, and staying front of mind does mean staying consistent. But of course, that is only relevant if it’s GOOD stuff you’re putting out.

You’re no longer fighting your competitors for attention. You’re fighting every single thing in a person’s life.

And that includes fighting with not getting to look at any ads or businesses at all! The dream!

An ad on the tube is competing with my phone, the noise of the tracks, taking a peek at the person’s paragraph text next to me (we’ve all done it), the person on a microphone rapping (or me desperately trying to avoid making eye contact with them). Me pausing and unpausing my audiobook as the noise is too loud. Oh, and all the other ads in various forms. In that 4-minute journey before I switch lines, the process repeats. It’s no wonder customers and brands alike are all exhausted.

I went to a workshop last week that noted that the average student now sees 6,000 digital ads a day. That’s just the digital ones, if they are able to peel their eyes away from their screens long enough to see even more ads on the billboards and signs on the streets they’re walking.

How are you competing that? What are you doing to capture attention?

You can no longer work to have a better marketing campaign than your competitor. You need a good enough marketing campaign to infiltrate your customers’ lives. And that’s why everyone is so obsessed with brand world-building, because in order to compete, you truly need to build a world.

Flashbacks to my old central London work commute. I was fighting for my life as adverts were fighting for my attention.

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2. Gen Z doesn’t have brand loyalty

Gen Z is as old as 29 (it’s me! I am a 29-year-old Gen Z!), and yet so often I hear businesses tell me Gen Z isn’t their target customer?

Unless you’re selling a product that’s very specifically for the older generation. A health tablet which only works if you’re 40 or over. You’re missing out on a huge potential audience. And even if you’re targeting over 40’s for a good reason, it’s not that long until Gen Z is in that market. You have to pay attention to all generations if you want any chance of ever winning them over.

But Gen Z is particularly interesting because they have some of the lowest brand loyalty stats we’ve ever seen.

77% of Gen Z adults are willing to try new brands (source). This is much higher than in all other age groups and shows that not only are Gen Z adults no longer committed to a specific brand, but they’re also willing to look for other options to find whatever they are searching for.

Contrary to the stats, I am loyal to Subway being my takeaway lunch of choice (a treat for busy preiods only…)

There are definite customer benefits to this. I’m hopeful that it will push legacy companies to be better at innovation and to focus on improving product quality, areas where we’ve all seen declines in recent years. But it’s naturally scary for brands that currently rely on a loyal customer base, knowing that may not be the case with new customers.

Gen Z has also been found to demand more of their products and services and to expect a higher level of quality than past generations (source). If brands do fail to provide the quality of product or service that this generation expects, they’ve got no issues with going somewhere new. Even more so if this is the “anti-corporate” choice, where they can showcase themselves going against the status quo, a move that’s becoming increasingly desirable.

And that is without mentioning the huge increase of choices out there that you’re competing with too!

If you don’t have a strategy for this Gen Z customer, then now is the time to start planning. Because where businesses may previously have gotten away with just ‘good-enough’ quality or positioning, that’s no longer going to cut it.

3. Your community will only be a success if it’s not about you.

Community is a real buzzword at the moment, and I don’t expect that to go anywhere. But there is such a disconnect between what businesses think community is and how customers actually feel when they’re in one.

Community isn’t just having high engagement with people who genuinely love your content. That’s a great place to be in, but they’d likely identify as fans of you, rather than being a part of what you’re building.

I am a fan of frozen yoghurt. I am not loyal to specifically Myka, nor would i ever class myself as part of the frozen yoghurt community.

Fans are keen on your content, they probably align with your perspective, and they’ll buy into what you sell or deliver. They may even recommend you to their friends

A community exists beyond the thing that brought them together. When introducing themselves, they may even refer to them as being part of that community. It’s a big part of their life and shapes how they see themselves and what they do. And even if the founding business or person behind the community disappeared, the community would live on.

For a community to be successful, it can’t be about you. It has to be almost a selfless endeavour, which is why so many businesses can’t do it successfully.

For example, I’m working with a self-build mortgage company at the moment, with the goal of setting up a community that would work independently of them. They can bring their clients into it, but then those same clients can almost manage it themselves. Being there to offer each other advice, to bond over their self-build journeys, and to support and celebrate each other. So people can identify as someone who has built their own home from scratch and connect with others who have been through a similar experience. Long term, it has nothing to do with the brand setting it up. But it has the potential to become a very beneficial community for the people involved.

So if you’re getting stuck in the noise of the business news, here are just three things to think about:

1. How are you winning your customers’ attention?

2. Why are you appealing to the Gen Z market, beyond relying on their loyalty?

3. What could you do to bring your customers together into a community that would continue functioning even after your involvement?

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