Utilitarianism surrounds communications conducted from the lens of a brand itself. Be it whether to drive conversions or optimise every single penny of a campaign; brand communications surround itself with reflective thinking. Yet, as the world revolves away into being more and more competitive with the dynamics of shortening attention spans and diversifying channels across mediums of communication, brands are more driven towards short-termism, with instantaneous fulfilment being the major objective being incorporated into the mix.
Utilitarianism basically requires marketers to concentrate on providing buyers with the resources they require and want as being integrated within primary offerings, USPs and pain points integrated into integral narratives. That may appear straightforward, but the issue lies in the fact that it goes against the way several conservative traditionalist marketers are naturally programmed. At times, it is more important to cook up a narrative which connects to address the substantial pain point instead of just come, see, buy and come again. Even though the conservative traditionalist mindset chooses the latter with a touch of modernist utilitarianism, it fails to deliver long-term value in terms of customer adoption and retention.
Utilitarian Marketing happens to be an elaborating buzzword which caters to the gap in content narratives between communicating with standardised one-way messages and perceptive, loyalty-generating strategies. Instead of relentlessly pondering on crafting messages to convey, messages should be crafted to drive.
A few considerations in such a measure happen to be:
Need Fulfillment
Pain points are never-ending. The loopholes within what a customer actually wants to solve need to be addressed through communications centred on building intangible equity by making the customer feel that the brand actually cares.
As a result, communication itself proves to be meaningful to the customer and subconsciously attracts a sense of relativity, which further elaborates inwards as the customer moves closer to the brand’s offering through its product or service.
Let’s not deviate from the core brand philosophy
Being built on years of relentless integrative commitment, a brand presents itself with full determination as it is unveiled and takes several twists and turns to land into extending life cycles as soon as it hits maturity. It consequently builds several perceptions. However, a primary value is always instilled, nurtured and communicated. In order to truly be a utilitarian brand, the primary philosophy should not be deviated away from so as to be the same problem-solver for the customers.
Change is an inevitable dynamic. Especially the modern status quo lies within the exposition of modernism. However, as a brand adopts change with heed to the quantifiable dynamics surrounding it, the roots should not. Instead, it should be an adoption of distinct channels and mediums for delivery.
Building loyalty with sales
What is the fuel to a business if it is not steady sales? However, modern communications are more aligned with sales only and not loyalty in general. In order to sustain a brand’s narrative and communication reception across audiences, it is essentially important to focus on strategies to build regenerative loyalty. Only that is when a brand can become an heirloom and not just a one-time wind.
The modern customer tends to be stubborn due to the several behavioural insights derived from demographic orientation. Since most of the customers within the modern funnel tend to identify as “innovators” and “thinkers” in terms of primary motivation, it is a fruitful endeavour to be striving towards the development of loyalty so as to ensure an elongated lifetime value.
Long-term against instant ROI
At times, a return is more than just a number; it is an emotion, an insight, a derived story and even a sense of connection. Would we ever be able to quantify those? As such, instead of running in the circle of getting instantaneous financial rewards, if a brand is generating enough to sustain itself while being within the hearts of customers, the focus should be magnified on the narrative itself while calculative looking at the bigger picture to build, sustain and be altruistically profitable.
Yet again, from a rather financial point of view, a brand should focus on financial sustainability in alignment with the thought of long term by meticulous planning and risk mitigation from external shocks.
In the war of communications within our oh-so-little attention spans, let us choose to focus more on building a relationship with the customer via communication instead of just a crafty call to action. As a result of this, customers would genuinely feel connected, empowered and reached out to by their favourite brands and its offerings. The value chains that would consequently spring would propel itself towards being sustainable for periods to come.
Author-Mohaimenul Solaiman Nicholas
