“Stop Shouting At Consumers And Innovate”: Edelman’s Michelle Hutton

“Stop Shouting At Consumers And Innovate”: Edelman’s Michelle Hutton
B&T Magazine
By B&T Magazine
SHARE
THIS



Australians are the most difficult, cynical people on the planet and are sick of being dictated to by brands says Edelman’s global chair of consumer marketing, Michelle Hutton.

“People feel like brands are shouting at them,” Hutton told B&T, “and what came through strongly is that ‘new’ is just not good enough any more. We’re really letting down consumers, despite the fact businesses are innovating.”

Edelman recently released results from a study that was conducted in 10 countries over 70 months around consumer attitudes and concerns around brand innovation, the power of peer conversations to shape those attitudes, and the behaviours of successful brand innovators.

“What we found really interesting,” she added, “was that in Australia, 67 per cent of the people we spoke to said, ‘actually we’re actually really bored and frustrated and constantly being told to, upgrade, upgrade’. That 67 per cent of Australians was much higher than the global average.”

She then laughed, “and as an Australian I can say this, but Australians tend to be the most difficult and cynical people on the planet. They’re saying, ‘stop yelling and shouting at me about upgrading – you’ve really got to work harder to inspire me’.

“And, almost from a marketing and communication standpoint, ‘give me more of the emotional reasoning behind what you’re doing as a brand. Why innovating? Why is this innovation important? How is it going to make my mind better as opposed to telling me about the upgrade, and what is it’? We found that people really believe in the promise of innovation.”

Hutton said the findings show that confused consumers don’t know what to believe anymore, with two out of three saying brands aren’t communicating innovation efficiently.

And due to photo manipulation in ads and online, the overwhelming message from consumers is “is what we’re seeing real?”

However, it was discovered that brands win if they really power through peer conversation, so they carried out the study through the lens of disruptive innovators like Airbnb and Uber.

“We really wanted to delve into why is that those brands are being so successful in changing people’s behaviour around certain categories,” revealed Hutton. “Most importantly, how that brand overcome people’s concerns around privacy, security in particular. Because if you think about it, the data that people now make available freely offline to those brands is extraordinary.

“So we really delved into this whole peer to peer conversation piece. We’ve always known the importance of peer to peer innovation and conversation. Now through the lens of this innovational disruptive innovation, where we went and talked to people, they were saying ‘well, actually, I’m more trusting of what my peers are saying’. There’s a great quote that we got out of some qualitative work we did, which was, ‘other people’s experience is now my evidence’. That came through really, really, strong.”

Hutton claims the other thing that came through that came through around brand behaviour and gaining consumer trust was around making your mark and having a purpose.

“Consumers are saying, ‘we want to be inspired by innovation’,” she added. “They expect innovation to come from businesses today and, actually, expect businesses outside of technology and mobile. Have a purpose. They said, ‘reassure me about my societal concerns’.”

Hutton, who currently lives in London, said the brands at risk of tanking are those that don’t make their peer reviews readily available, refusing to share the good, the bad and the ugly.

“Consumers are sceptical about those brands,” she added. “If you think of, TripAdvisor, for example. The way that now properties, airlines, etc are quite openly transparent on that side about their reviews.

“If you think about those properties that respond to challenging or negative comments in a constructive way often are the ones that are viewed as having more authenticity, that are behaving in a conversation. They’re the brands that are being trusted more.”

Please login with linkedin to comment

Advertising Standards Bureau Comvita Queendland SapientNitro

Latest News

Shop! ANZ Calls On Industry To Participate In ANZ Shopper And Retail Marketing Industry Survey
  • Marketing

Shop! ANZ Calls On Industry To Participate In ANZ Shopper And Retail Marketing Industry Survey

Shop! ANZ is calling on shopper and retail marketing professionals from all retail related disciplines to participate in the first ANZ Shopper and Retail Marketing Industry Survey in four years. This important research provides a guide of where the retail marketing industry in Australia and New Zealand has come from and what is anticipated to […]

How To Align A Marketing Strategy With Customers’ Shifting Perspectives
  • Opinion

How To Align A Marketing Strategy With Customers’ Shifting Perspectives

In this guest post, Ania Kubiak (main photo), A/NZ country manager at Lucid, offers her tips on how to align your brand with customers’ fast-moving expectations… In today’s digital world, the speed at which consumers’ perspectives and opinions on political and social environments is changing faster than ever before. Consumers are inundated with new information […]

Opinion

by B&T Magazine

B&T Magazine
Woolies’ Retail Media Business Cartology Announces New Appointments
  • Advertising

Woolies’ Retail Media Business Cartology Announces New Appointments

Cartology, the retail media business of Woolworths Group, has further expanded its team with Martin Wood (pictured below) been promoted to head of strategic partnerships and Matt Gower (main photo) has joined the business as senior manager of research and insights. Wood will lead a new team dedicated to servicing the retail media business’s largest […]

Condé Nast Agree To Wage Raise After Two-Year Campaign By The New Yorker Union
  • Media

Condé Nast Agree To Wage Raise After Two-Year Campaign By The New Yorker Union

CondÉ Nast, the publisher of publications such as VOGUE, Vanity fair, Pitchfork and The New Yorker has agreed to raise the minimum wage for employees after a campaign by the New Yorker union. The union had previously organised a protest, which saw New Yorker staff demonstrating outside VOGUE editor-in-chief Anna Wintour’s home. Placards at the protest had […]

GoDaddy Wins Gold As Official Partner For Australian Olympic Team
  • Technology

GoDaddy Wins Gold As Official Partner For Australian Olympic Team

GoDaddy has announced it has been named as the official website builder partner of the Australian Olympic team for the Tokyo 2020 Games.  GoDaddy has a history of supporting entrepreneurs and small business owners in Australia. Many Australian Olympic athletes are small business owners themselves, running businesses and side hustle to help support the pursuit […]

Global Media Network MDC Partners Adds This Is Flow To Global Affiliate Program
  • Marketing

Global Media Network MDC Partners Adds This Is Flow To Global Affiliate Program

MDC Partners (NASDAQ: MDCA), the company that owns agencies including 72andSunny, Anomaly and Media Kitchen, has expanded its global footprint in a partnership with This Is Flow. The Australian based indie will become MDC’s affiliate media planning and buying agency across Australia and New Zealand and will help manage global clients and participate on global pitches etc. however This is Flow will still remain 100% independent.

Woman hand using mobile phone and laptop, Worldwide connection technology interface.
  • Technology

DoubleVerify’s Custom Contextual Targeting Launches On The Trade Desk

DoubleVerify has announced the expansion of a partnership with The Trade Desk to include activation of DV Custom Contextual, which will enable programmatic advertisers using the platform to target relevant audiences in a privacy-safe manner that does not utilize cookies or personally identifiable information. The Trade Desk now supports a comprehensive suite of DV’s pre-bid […]

Seven Reveals Revenues Up 45% In Q4
  • Media

Seven Reveals Revenues Up 45% In Q4

Seven West Media releases Q4 update. Yet, no mention of Ben Roberts-Smith or James Warburton's gold-plated toilet seat.

Swinburne University Of Technology And FourthRev Help Students Gain Hands On Digital Skills
  • Marketing

Swinburne University Of Technology And FourthRev Help Students Gain Hands On Digital Skills

Swinburne University of Technology has launched a series of  Bootcamp Graduate Certificate courses, developed in partnership with FourthRev. The courses, an Australian-first, will upskill career changers and provide students the capabilities required to thrive in the digital economy. They are available on-campus and through its online arm, Swinburne Online. Alongside completing projects which will emulate […]

PayPal Partners With Welcome To Country
  • Marketing
  • Media

PayPal Partners With Welcome To Country

PayPal has partnered with Welcome to Country, Australia’s first Indigenous-led not-for-profit marketplace, which showcases businesses that support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Welcome to Country launched in 2019, providing an online platform for Indigenous experience providers across tours, day treks, scenic flights, bush food, festivals, art and cultural experiences. When the pandemic hit, the […]