A tool for strategy
A tool for innovation
Public opinion has entered a period of high resistance.
Governments, corporations and media have wasted their confidence capital. Citizens and consumers are jaded, they have developed skills for deciphering, comparing and checking in order to unmask falsehoods, spot inconsistencies and hunt out hidden agendas.
At the same time, traditional methods to fight this intensive distrust, for instance bringing in additional information, demonstrating good faith, strengthening lines of arguments, have become dulled. The more it is done, the higher the resistance.
To communicate and act effectively in the Paranoid Society, it is necessary to restructure practices around four levers:
Paranoid Society
In an increasingly complex, global and unstable environment, we feel the world eludes us.
Consequently, we express the need to regain control over our consumption, our immediate environment, our time, our health and even our digital data.
To fill this need, we favour brands and offers that give us back control on our lives.
Main levers to activate to give control back to customers
Paranoid Society
To survive and thrive in an environment that is more competitive and uncertain every day, we realize that we need to strengthen our links with others.
Developing relational skills has become a priority need in opinion.
To meet this need, companies and brands have to empathize, i.e.:
In this trend we describe the levers businesses can activate to implement their “empathetic strategy”.
Paranoid Society
Financialisation of the economy, standardization of products and consumption patterns, acceleration of technological change, distance from decision-making centers, reduced leeway for governments… all the consequences of globalization create a feeling of loss of meaning among citizens.
What is the meaning of my work, of my consumption ?
What do my country’s leaders and my company’s decisions mean?
For companies and brands, fiinding answers to these questions is a powerful way to increase audience commitment.
Because of its ability to connect the major components of a project or a brand with memorable emotions, the narrative is the best channel to express these responses.
Paranoid Society
In public opinion, the increasing feeling of vulnerability because of terrorism, pollution, natural disasters and insecurity creates a demand for greater protection.
However, traditional systems of protection appear more and more fallible: authorities are perceived as short-sighted, experts lie to us.
Companies can respond to this by extending their sphere of competence on protection issues.
In this trend, we review 6 approaches to integrate the need for hyper-protection in corporate communication marketing and strategies:
Paranoid Society
In a society requiring permanent control, individuals have a growing need for space and time for letting-go.
Many players such as television producers, new products creators, music industry workers meet this need which is threefold: small indulgences, being both adult and child (Kidult), finding time for cross generational family relationships.
To connect with their audiences with this in mind, companies will have to address the following questions :
Regaining control
Both in our private and professional lives, we feel a growing pressure to improve our performance.
Using the small steps strategy is much more effective than addressing pressure with pressure.
The brands we value most are those which support us and help us progress smoothly
In this trend, we explore and analyze company initiatives implemented to help their customers, but also their employees:
Regaining control
Nonstop information, advertising, emails, social networks, hyper choice… We are being bombarded with stimuli that keep us in a constant state of distraction. This situation alters our brain performance: our ability to concentrate wanes, we make more mistakes and multitasking exhausts us. Moreover it affects our social relationships. As we are unable to disconnect, we have started to resort to medication to restore our attention span.
As a result, attention has become an ultra-rare resource coveted by increasingly powerful predators (Facebook, Google, etc.).
With this in mind, companies and brands must implement two eco strategies:
Regaining control
In major groups, digital is at the heart of the strategy and transformation.
It is a major challenge in terms of investments, innovation, skills and culture.
The digital revolution operates quickly and requires a large-scale adaptation of organizations and individuals which build both enthusiasm and resistance.
We have identified three sources of “digital stress” essential to understand in order to succeed in digital transformation
Regaining control
The common idea is that having more choice means having more freedom, greater well-being and increased opportunities to assert our individuality. In practice, offers in oversupply and the power Internet gives through immediate access, exert growing pressure.
This pressure applies even before the choice as the multiple alternatives saturate our cognitive abilities and increase the risk of a bad decision. After the choice, eliminating so many other possibilities may generate regret, disappointment and frustration.
Regaining control
Frustration is growing in large parts of the population, especially among young people struggling to find permanent employment and generally feeling undervalued but also among middle-aged adults afraid of losing their jobs and often expressing disillusion. This frustration is amplified by the widely shared view that politicians are ineffective. Only relying on oneself can help improve the situation.
In light of this, digital technology is considered an ally that allows us to take control and ease our frustrations.
If I am denied a loan by my bank, I can use a crowdfunding platform to start my project. My budget is too tight to allow for my dream vacation? I can use BlaBlaCar and Airbnb. I feel like I’ve been swindled by a brand? I can put pressure on them via a social network.
In their digital strategy, companies have every interest in taking this compensatory dimension into account in developing apps that give their customers more consideration, more resources, and more decision-making power.
Regaining control
Year after year, women increase their position, influence, and economic role in society. Simultaneously key maternal behaviors and values such as attention, protection, and forward thinking are being increasingly valued among the public.
But there is also an increase in adverse attitudes: inappropriate statements by politicians, aggressive behavior in public places, health scandals, contesting abortion rights, wage inequality, and persistent social inequalities.
Faced with this situation, women raise their voices and stand for their “right” to lead both a professional and a family life.
To respond to this expectation, companies and brands must develop initiatives and messages that demonstrate their commitment:
Regaining control
Compared to topics such as lowering unemployment, fighting terrorism and poor security or even purchasing power, the environmental issue is not a major concern in public opinion. Jaded and suspicious about the environmental discourse in companies, people are developing a “green fatigue”, resulting in less day-to-day involvement.
However, they very much care about protecting their own health and that of their loved ones.
By connecting their messages about the environment with the topic of health, for instance drawing a connection between CO2 emissions and respiratory diseases, companies can greatly improve their chances of being heard and considered, both by their customers and by their employees.
Recreating links
In today’s Paranoid Society, opinion demand for greater transparency means ever greater pressure on public players and on companies.
At the same time, new technologies and social networks multiply the means and opportunities to capture and share confidential information.
For companies and brands, this need for transparency can be an opportunity to renew / strengthen relationships with their stakeholders.
Three levers can be activated to carry out the strategy of opening up:
Rediscovering meaning
We are mass consumers of narratives : think of TV series, film sagas, novels, lives recounted on social media and on vlogs, self-publications on Internet, fan fiction, video games in which we are the heroes, etc.
With this in mind, brands and companies use the superpowers of the narrative to communicate :
What happens in the brain when we hear stories? U. Hasson at TED2016
The NO COM scan
Rediscovering meaning
Globalization and the accelerated transformation of the economy create the need for landmarks giving meaning to our consumption.
To meet this need, brands communicate about their origin: who are we? where do we come from? what values have we stood for since our creation ?
Expressing the origin creates value for the brand and the consumer by establishing a link of trust through history and territory. It is also a powerful lever of differentiation and “premiumisation”.
Questions before creating the narrative of origin: