Driving Motion in a Low Engagement World

Take a moment to think about all the products and brands you use on a daily basis but never really think about. Toothpaste, deodorant, shower products, cereals, air fresheners...I’m sure the list goes on.

Now, thinking of this list of products, how many of these brands or products do you buy repeatedly without purchase or consideration? Probably quite a few.

It is an interesting aspect of consumer behaviour and product consumption. Those products that serve our most functional and rational needs are those we probably think less about when compared to those brands and products that we use to meet an emotional need (clothes, cars, electronic devices). Yet we probably purchase products with a higher emotional attachment far less often.

So what does this mean for those brands I asked you to think of at the start of this post? If you continually buy these brands without thought or consideration how can they push their narrative forward? How do they create the motion needed to deliver a positive impact on their brand, story and position in the marketplace?

According to our Brands in Motion study half or more of the consumers we talked to place a balance on their expectation for a company to deliver highly effective, high-functional benefit products and services and also take a stand on issues that are important to their customers. We’re not asking for much are we?

Furthermore, when looking more broadly at how sectors performed in our Brands in Motion study, the health and wellness category (which you could argue many low engagement products sit beneath) scored low on both rational and emotional parameters – meaning this category has been classed as a ‘survivor’. These brands have either just pulled through something big or are on the precipice of needing to. They need to get laser focused on how to turn motion into an advantage for them – be ready to move fast to reach people on a rational and emotional level to move their brand to a leading spot in the industry. If they don’t, they risk becoming irrelevant.

However, for low engagement brands, this is where the bigger communication challenge lies. If you are a brand that operates in the functional space, how do you bridge your narrative to a space that allows you to talk with greater purpose and meaning? Can a toothpaste brand talk about social issues in a meaningful and believable way? Can a deodorant brand do social good in a way that is not based on convincing you that using their product will help you attract the opposite sex (I am looking at you Lynx)?

The truth is that low engagement brands will never be the best storytellers. But that’s ok. Not everyone brand has to be. However, in these instances, brands just need to be good at finding the right kind of stories and storytellers that already exist. There is just as much merit in being a facilitator of amazing stories as there is in creating these stories. It’s how Tampax can talk of female empowerment – not through the product but through the ambassadors they choose and the stories they tell. It’s how Dove can talk about body image or Nestle about nutrition and healthy eating.

Of course in a low engagement category world where product features are still an important purchase factor a brand should never give up on its product story. However, brands need to better define the right time and place to tell these stories and as last year’s Stories in Motion research revealed, if the customer isn’t on the journey to purchase it is never the right time. For some brands, the story may be obvious but for others it may be a little harder. However, if you dig deep enough under the skin of your brand you should be able to define what value you bring. Once achieved, you can then look to the outside world and find those individuals and storytellers who can help bring that value to life in a far more engaging and emotionally rich way.