Brand Communication Across Channels

What do you see when you look at the landscape today? You’ve got so many different channels. Consumer behavior is changing rapidly. What are the biggest challenges for brands, like Coca-Cola and the CPG companies, to really stay on top of those different moving channels and behaviors? Is there a certain way that you would look to integrate your message and communication, across all channels, internally?

You want to integrate. You’re going to confuse consumers, if you do not. If your messages are not consistent, across channels, you will definitely confuse consumers. Your consumers, hopefully, are omni-channel, multi-channel consumers, who are playing across a range of channels. Remember that whole idea of consistency. As soon as you are inconsistent, as a brand, you start to lose meaning. It’s like relationships. As soon as my boyfriend, girlfriend, spouse, becomes super erratic and inconsistent, I lose ability to understand who they are and that becomes a problem. The same is true in brands. Yes, you’re going to want to use many channels; you’re going to want to have messages that can integrate across those channels, but you don’t have to use every channel, every time.

And you have to change your messaging, across the channel?

You should. Listen, if the message needs to be told in long form and you have 10 seconds – we now know the power of six seconds in some of your mobile devices and things – you would definitely would want to adjust your message to be appropriate for that channel. But it should still be pointing back to the same story.

I think one point you made earlier, which was very interesting was that it has to be empathy, at the core.

It does. Again, the social consciousness thing with Covid is really going to show us that gone are the days for shallowness. Maybe I’m saying that because we’re sitting here at the height of this moment. There will be room for shallowness, but I hope we’re going to be put to the test a little bit more, on that. Empathy, putting ourselves in other’s shoes, and thinking about what people need, in the moment. By the way, there’s nothing wrong with, sometimes, I just need some surprise and delight. But that’s empathy too; just knowing what people need.