Global Trends in Brand Communication: Authenticity is King
Global Trends in Brand Communication: Authenticity is King
Authenticity is a vital concept for brands to understand, but one that is increasingly complex to defineThe days when corporations could focus on providing good products at good prices and expect the marketplace to respond favorably are fading fast. Increasingly, these aspects are taken for granted and consumers are asking hard questions, such as: ‘What issues do you care about? More than caring, what do you actually do about these issues? How do you treat your workforce? What is your ESG (environmental, social and governance) policy? How diverse is your workforce and how inclusive are your working practices?’ and expecting robust answers. Increasingly, the answers to these questions will drive marketplace success. |
 | Authenticity is an important, but increasingly complex, concept in the competitive, fast-changing global marketplace of 2022. It is also one that interacts with many of the other trends on our list. Successful brands need to blend elements of localness, naturalness, heritage, trust, empathy, consistency and purpose at the same time as offering good products at the right prices. |
With modern customers increasingly adept at spotting fakery and insincerity, it is about more than simply shoehorning a topical cause into one’s latest marketing campaign. Customers expect brands to pick issues that matter. They expect them to choose issues and support them. They expect this support to be about more than mere words; it should include actions, in the form of financial support, events and spokespersons. They want brands to choose the right issues – issues that mean most to their audience, and issues that have a natural, rather than a forced, association with the brand. This discerning attitude to the activities of brands extends to channel choices too. With more people now familiar with online shopping, expectations are high and tolerance for missteps is low. Most people will only shop online while it offers genuine advantages of time and/or money, or ideally both. |
Generally, people in Asia, the Middle East and Africa place the highest value on brand image |
Our report tells a story from the topline data. For technical details, please see the full methodology. For a deeper dive into demographic differences, regional analysis and sector- or market-specific insights please contact us for a custom analysis of this incredibly rich data source.
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