As the world wakes up to the reality of four more years of Donald J. Trump, I wanted to reflect on this historic moment. This is a genuine attempt to reflect on what just happened and how we might leverage brands to respond. Or perhaps it’s just a coping mechanism and my attempt to make sense of all of this.

Growth beyond profit

Purpose is a dirty word in brand building these days. Reflecting on the Pepsi Kendall Jenner debacle or the Bud Light Dylan Mulvaney car crash, it's easy to see why. Far too often brands deal in purpose washing;  claiming to benefit everyone when in reality they serve only an elite few. Namely their shareholders, investors and the very richest in our societies.

The inconvenient truth is that Trump, in many ways, was born from this trend. In a world where brands' sole aim is to maximise profit & minimise their tax burden, societal inequalities widened and millions felt disenfranchised from the establishment. A world where it was easier than ever for populist leaders to swoop in and promise (albeit lie) to offer something better.

How might brands address this? Well, turning to the past we can find some hope. In the early 1900s brands such as Cadbury’s looked beyond profits and actively sought to improve the lives of its workers, building social housing and better medical facilities. An approach that helped their workers live happier & healthier lives and helped Cadbury’s build one of the world’s most successful brands. Am I suggesting every brand invest in social housing? No. Am I suggesting that brands should look beyond short-term profits and consider how they might offer broader benefits to society? Yes.

If many brands can adopt this approach, in a meaningful way, we can help to reduce inequality and the firepower the likes of Donald Trump leverages.

Reconnect with a broader base 

I was listening to a podcast the morning after the election, and one quote summed up the Trump win better than most.

“A vote for Trump is not necessarily a vote for the man himself…but rather a vote against the status quo”

The inconvenient truth is that Trump is so successful because he has positioned himself as an anti-establishment figure. A figure who took time to understand the frustrations of voters and leveraged that to appeal to a much broader base.

What can we learn from this and how might brands respond?

Well, for a start, it’s not about ‘educating voters’ or forcing our agenda upon them. It’s about getting out of our ivory towers and doing what we used to do so well as brand builders — stepping out into the real world and really understanding everyday folk. Only if we can do this can we hope to build brands that appeal to a far broader base. Brands that are culturally relevant and speak to them.

One brand that has done this better than most, is McDonald’s. A brand that spent months driving across America talking to everyday folk and helping them create proudly populist work that is in stark contrast to Burger King. The latter being a brand lauded by Adland but in reality, has driven little to no significant brand value growth.

Fame at all costs 

I was talking to a CMO recently and we were both bemoaning how formulaic and boring advertising had become. Whilst there are many factors at play here one is not mentioned enough: testing. The rise in link testing and rational pre-testing has distracted many marketers from what matters most. Increasingly they obsess over likeability scores and forget what really matters which is brand fame.

If Donald Trump teaches us anything, it is that brand fame, no matter how offensive or divisive, works. To be clear, I am not advocating that your brand attempt to overthrow democracy, promote misogyny, or lack any sense of morality. What I am advocating, however, is never to forget that when it comes to communications, fame (not likeability) matters far more.

No brand understands this better than the over-cited but still brilliant- Liquid Death. A brand that has grown over 100x in revenue by embracing fame and never caring much about likeability? Does Liquid Death ever do a Millward Brown Link test? I think not. So in short brands should always aim for fame and if you are forced to pre-test you are far better off using more effective methods, such as System1.

If we want to combat the likes of Trump and other populist leaders we as an industry have a very real role to play. It won’t be easy but we should aspire to create brands that are a force for social good and benefit the many, not just the few. We should also get out of our ivory towers and walk the streets to really understand everyday folk. And only then can we hope to leverage fame and use brands to beat Trump at his own game.