How can companies achieve competitive success?

It is no secret that in today’s consumers are faced with too much choice. How are we supposed to know which of the twenty types of coffee on offer in our local supermarket represents the optimum combination of attributes to meet our personal requirements?

Advertising hardly makes our choices easier, as we struggle to cope with a eon different messages every day, across TV, Twitter, Out of Home, ads on public transport and so on.

Helping consumers to make better choices is the key to success in today’s crowded and competitive consumer markets. We know from our own research and experience that the relationship between brands and consumers is changing. Whereas, in the past, brands were able to dictate to consumers via a combination of advertising and distribution, the new approach is more akin to the way that personal relationships develop between ordinary people.

When we meet someone for the first time, our decisions about whether or not to develop a friendship with them is often based on two questions: “Do we have enough in common?” and “Can I trust this person”?

If we think the answers to both questions may be yes, then we are far more likely to follow their advice and overlook their imperfections. Brands that are open and honest about their values and aspirations are more likely to succeed in the long term than those that pretend to be perfect.

Value is not a simple combination of price and product/service performance. Consumers use brands to symbolise aspects of their own identity, and if the behaviour of those brands falls below what they expect of their own friends, then they will either reject them completely or continue to use them only until a more suitable alternative comes along.

Arguably, the aspect of personal identity that has changed the most in the last year relates to our personal responsibilities to society and the environment. It is no coincidence that these types of issues are now dominating the political agendas on both sides of the Atlantic.

Of course, the better you get to know a new friend, the better able you are to spot lies and hypocrisy. So it is especially important that brands revisit their core values – particularly as they relate to environmental and social issues and express them through everything they say and do. Then, there is no need to fear the attentions of bloggers, social networkers, journalists and NGOs; rather, those attentions will become powerful drivers of brand value.

In short, if want people to speak well of your brand behind your back, then you need to earn their praise through your own good behaviour...