Meaningful brandsfor a sustainable future

Meaningful Brands, our new index and approach challenges traditional marketing definitions of brand value

..and provides us with new ways to create strong brands in these challenging times

We found that only 20% of brands have a notable positive impact on our sense of wellbeing and quality of life. Furthermore, for the second year running, we also found that most people would not care if 70% of brands ceased to exist.

Meaningful Brands demonstrates that, in many cases, the connection between brands and consumers is either weak or broken.

All this is further evidence that the existing approaches to building and measuring brand value are out of date.

What is needed is a new way of working – a new vision. A new vision of what it means to be a strong and prosperous brand.

Meaningful Brands is our vision.

We are proud to launch “Meaningful Brands,” our global index and framework that offers a new set of communications tools to measure and build brand value in the context of today’s demanding environment.

This innovative global undertaking enables us, for the first time, to connect brands with our quality of life and wellbeing. It does this by measuring the perceived impact of brands on our personal wellbeing – their influence on factors such as our health, fitness, happiness, values, social relationships, financial security, lifestyles and habits – and our collective wellbeing, that is, how brands help to improve communities, societies and the environment.

For the first time, we can fully understand consumers’ expectations and perceptions of brands and how they contribute to improving their wellbeing. If you would like to find out more about the results, please click here to read the press release.

Let’s think about some of our findings:

The quality of products and marketplace issues (for example, price and packaging) all register as important for brands, though they are not enough in themselves to make a significant difference. This shows that for many of us, basic levels of sustainable practices are now considered to be an entry level requirement.

The way in which companies create value matters as much as the products and services they provide. We expect companies to behave ethically and transparently. This is becoming more and more important across all industries and countries. We can see from our research that consumers expect brands to take the lead to help solve social and environmental issues.

Brands become more meaningful when they help us all – as individuals – achieve lasting, positive outcomes that enhance our sense of personal wellbeing. We see that only a small number of brands are establishing ownership in this area, with many missing exciting new opportunities to explore these uncharted territories.

What makes brands meaningful differs significantly across markets and industries. Contrasting consumer expectations and needs – especially within different cultural contexts – mean all brands’ communication strategies must vary. We use Meaningful Brands to dig deeper and find out which specific areas are more important for each brand.

Havas Media offers companies the opportunity to discover and maintain new pathways to meaningfulness through its portfolio of Meaningful Brands solutions and proprietary tools.

This represents a huge opportunity for brands. If you would like to find out more, please contact us at info.meaningfulbrands@havasmedia.com

Meaningful Brands Infographic

Meaningful Brands Global Factsheet