By Hook Or By Crook, By Christine Harb
After some of the most disruptive years in decades, there is no doubt that 2023 will be a pivotal year. The turmoil brought by the pandemic aftermath, the economic uncertainty brought by the race between inflation and central bank’s rate raises, and the geopolitical tensions in Europe, the Middle-East, and Asia, will make it a year markedly different from previous years. The marketing industry can and should be at the heart of this pivot.
Every crisis is an opportunity to reset priorities, especially at a time where consumers are crying out for authenticity, transparency and openness from the brands they interact with, expecting more meaningful experiences. To respond to this thirst, companies will need to step outside their comfort zone and explore new ways of going about their business and their brand building.
#1 Consumer well-being: While employee well-being is trending, organizations are omitting consumers from their equation. Your brand’s health is directly impacted by consumer perception of how your brand, products or services contribute to their well-being. All around the world, consumers are re-inventing how they approach wellness-related decisions and need to know that the purchases and choices they are making are positively impacting their lives.
#2 Design immersive customer experiences: Consumers are hungry for new things. They want to discover new products, expand their range, explore new ways of communicating, traveling or connecting. This is where brands should step in and create a 360 experience to build engaging and meaningful connections with their consumers.
To truly immerse your customers and allow them to experience your brand differently, consider a mix of various technologies like augmented reality, virtual reality, computer vision, and artificial intelligence. Make sure to also use your geography by incorporating your brand in three ways:
- Use of Emotional Experiences: Emotion is a strong influential factor in modern consumer’s purchasing decisions. Embrace meaningful storytelling across channels and platforms, surprise and delight your audience by showing them you know them and care about them and show up authentically and consistently.
- Use of Virtual Spaces: Immersive experience makes a customer step into an augmented universe where imagination comes to life and where there’s space for limitless creativity. The metaverse is a new frontier for everyone. Yet, you should ensure you balance your investment in that space without losing sight of your short and medium term goals
- Use of physical spaces: While the world has now moved to a new dimension, offices, retail spaces and face to face events are back and on the rise – physical spaces are still very powerful to bring your brand to life.
#3 Be an agent of change:
- Expand Inclusivity & Diversity: DEI is not an objective that solely sits with HR but one that is very much driven by marketing too as it fosters trust and goodwill among your audience. As the consumer population diversifies, it’s essential for brands to authentically reflect a range of experiences, background and thoughts within their messaging if they expect to effectively connect with future customers. It’s also imperative to play an active role as a brand and drive real societal impact.
- Drive sustainable development: Sustainable companies are those that create value for customers through socially, environmentally, and ethically responsible actions. Problems like climate change and global warming have grown from niche to mainstream concerns. Some companies have taken the time to incorporate sustainable products and services and this will continue to grow in 2023. While prioritizing our planet is trending globally, sustainable development should become a lifestyle for all companies and should be incorporated in the company’s foundational priorities.
#4 The Technology imperative hits its moment of truth: Change is the only constant in a world where privacy concerns are on the rise and where the cookieless world is around the corner. Adapt to a walled garden world and prioritize investments in media, technology and data capabilities. Technology will be playing a major role in 2023 with marketeers using it to create more innovative and engaging campaigns. The use of new technologies such as AR, VR, AI but also the immersion in Web 3.0 could be used to elevate brand experiences and connect with consumers in new and interesting ways.
# 5 Dare to be unconventional yet remain true to your brand values: We are living in a generation when the customer is extremely aware and where ad fatigue has been increasing over the years. The marketeers’ time and cost investments are not always delivering a positive ROI partially because eight out of ten people, according to a recent Kantar survey, consider that ads are annoying. This is even more valid amongst the affluent young people who are willing to pay to avoid ads. Marketeers can shift this trend in 2023 by being more daring in their creative expression, by not shying away from using new mediums and solutions to drive greater engagement and by doubling down their efforts on content marketing to close the loop and build real, meaningful and long lasting connections with their customers.
With 20+ years of experience under her belt, Christine is an executive in the strategy & business innovation, marketing and people development fields. She has held different regional and global roles at Meta/Facebook, Red Bull, Nike and Visa where she got to shape brand strategies, drive operational efficiencies, rollout innovative products and solutions and foster digital transformations across Europe, Middle East and Africa. She holds an MBA from IE Business School, a Masters in Marketing from Panthéon-Sorbonne Paris I and is a regular speaker and judge at major events.
Christine believes in the power of brands to serve people while being a force for good through community impact, diversity and inclusion and environmental sustainability. She’s an active advocate of diverse workplaces, an advisor and a co-active coach looking to make a difference in the community by lifting people up and enabling them to live a more focused and fulfilled life that is aligned with their values.