Brand Management

Very often marketers are called upon by clients or fellow business stakeholders to solve complex issues or chart new paths with new products or markets. In these cases there is a natural tendency to immediately immerse oneself into the numbers and assorted details pertaining to the objective, as if the answer is hiding in plain sight on column G, row four of the spreadsheet in front of you. The numbers and analysis when determining a new strategy are important, but that’s only part of the picture. They don’t mean anything without the context that the Big Picture brings.

It doesn’t take an election year to focus on the fact that you have to stand for something. In the U.S. nothing stiffens the resolve of a Democrat than a Republican telling them they are wrong. And vice versa. The hypothetical line is drawn and you must choose one side or the other.

Consumers have grown to distrust curated media and traditional marketing. They want to make their own decisions based on raw footage, real-time updates, and unfiltered livestreams. They don’t want the polished media release, the staged press conference and the practiced responses.

The underlying driver of trends and consumer behaviors has been ongoing and strengthening tension between individuality and inclusion.

The consumer journey continues to evolve as consumers create—and demand—a more flexible and episodic relationship with the marketplace. Whereas traditional engagement was based on consistency and sustained interaction, engagement now comes in torrents that stop as quickly as they start. The shift to this new nature of relationship, what we call Torrential Engagement, is driven by two key elements: time and intensity.