Tholoana Qhobela, Chief Strategy Officer at Havas South Africa, gave a presentation on building a good relationship with your audience and detailed how brands can forge a meaningful relationship with their target audiences at the #ModernMarketingTrendCamp. This article highlights key takeaways from her presentation.
Qhobela mentioned that brands need to analyse the extent to which they can forge a meaningful relationship with their target audiences and that Prosumer Reports are near-future projections and analyses of consumers’ behaviour.
In order to build or be a meaningful brand, you need to understand your audience or face their wrath. Your audience creates content for you, it is no longer the other way around.
There are a lot of definitions for marketing, but essentially what to do we do? We talk to people, but we refer to them as targets and consumers, so we end up not really talking to people or really seeing them. We need to know who these people are. How do they think? Where do they live?
To become a meaningful brand, you need to have:
– Customer truth: Who are they? What are they up to? What do they enjoy?
– Category invention: Get rid of gender stereotypes as it boxes audience and might not reach the person who is most likely to buy your product or use your service.
– Cultural truth: Where are they based?
– Brand best self: Link everything else to the brand and what it really does.
