THE BRANDING GAME: 2020 REWIND
Three amazing things that happened in 2020 that changed our buying perception.
Happy new year!
If 2020 was the warm up, 2021 is the real game. Are you ready for it?
I hope last year fueled your brain with excitement about the future. We all had time to cope and process, but in 2021 it is time to shift.
Adaptability
At the beginning of the year, the risk takers jumped ahead, and companies like Pernod Ricard changed their production to provide sanitizers, and distilleries followed the lead worldwide; H&M, the mass-market clothier, adapted its production lines to supply more surgical garments. All this as an aid to the greater good.
Sustainability
Global warming alarmed everyone, as shown by packaging changes made by industry heavy weights, Proctor and Gamble.
In December, they debuted a paper tube deodorant as part of P&G’s strategy for meeting their sustainability goals, which includes using 100% recycled materials for all packaging and a 50% reduction in the use of virgin plastic by 2030. While this is great, it is nothing new. increasingly new businesses have been priorotizing sustainable ways to sell their products, pushing large corporations to do the same. And that is a win!
Empathy
In June, PepsiCo announced that they would finally retire Aunt Jemima Syrup and Pancake Mix. Over the years, attempts were made to soften Aunt Jemima’s image, but finally in 2020 it was removed from the company’s portfolio. All thanks to the necessity to change old precepts about race and discrimination. Good job!
More than any other year, brands have shown how much they depend on their consumers. More and more, they demand brands that are relevant to their times, more sensitive about their needs, and completely immersed in their social environments, and the protection of it.
Brands will always be part or our daily lives. As consumers we all have the power to enforce and be affiliated with a cause. As company owners we have the responsibility to shift for the greater good, in times of crisis. If you haven’t make the shift yet. What are you waiting for?
