In brand strategy, emerging cultural stories are important, but the real opportunity lies in the unmet needs that underpin those stories.
One of the most important emerging cultural stories of today is “connection”, but brands need to look at the unmet needs that sit under that story in order to create and capture value.
Two major needs are apparent:
1) Play – Low-stakes ways of being vulnerable in our interactions
2) Pleasure – Bringing sensuousness back into daily life
We talked about this in this month’s Brands and Outliers presentation, which was a fantastic discussion full of provocative signals for brands, including:
- (0:07) All of our fundamental institutions are in the exploration phase at once.
- (36:06) As the cultural universe expands, new gravitational centers are emerging.
- (45:47) We’re stuck in the liminal space between AI heaven and AI hell.
- (58:02) Our imagined boundaries are becoming more elastic.
- (1:10:02) With social connection hogging the spotlight, play and pleasure are unmet needs flying under the radar.
My favorite part, however, was our discussion on whether it makes sense to use old schools of philosophy in judging the future.
I mean, does it make sense to reference the ancient stoics and philosophers when considering things like the future of social media and dopamine culture? I’m not so sure, but my team disagrees 😉
It’s a great conversation. Watch the fill video here.
