Will Themes Like “Populism” and “Nationalism” Affect Your PR?

In every business, it’s important to keep an eye on major macroeconomic and cultural trends to understand the hearts and minds of your customers. None of us lives in a bubble, so we can’t help but be impacted by what’s happening in our towns/cities, countries and world; your customers and employees are no different.

The U.S. has experienced a major geopolitical shift. Within a recent 48-hour period, Donald J. Trump was sworn in as the nation’s 45th president promising an “America-first” policy, while millions of Americans marched in protest of much of what the new administration espouses. It can seem to marketers as though they are tasked with talking to two Americas.

So just how much will marketers need to shift their own messaging and priorities to adapt to this new reality? One way to think about it might be to liken yourself and your brand to a long-term investor. Just as smart long-term investors deal with sudden volatility in the stock market by largely staying the course and not trying to chase market swings, marketers might do well to look at the mainstays of their messaging and positioning – their core value proposition – with a long view in mind, resisting the urge to succumb to the effects of near-term swings in the marketplace.

With that said, however, it’s important to recognize the elements of change that are more fundamental and likely to represent a long-term move in customer sentiments.  In my opinion, there are a few overarching themes that might just fall into that category and are worth considering as you look at your messaging and PR, content, and social programming for 2017 and beyond.  They are the ones that seem to have resonated, albeit in different forms, on multiple points on the political and cultural spectrum.

The “Forgotten” Man or Woman

There is a growing sense across the U.S., and many parts of the world for that matter, of disenfranchisement among multiple demographics. People of all stripes feel their voices are not being heard. That sentiment gives brands an opportunity to do some real listening and then to act on that listening in ways that are meaningful to a broad cross section of their customers. Think about how your marketing communications can be inclusive in new ways that emphasize a common bond beyond that of the typical demographic programming that often serves to further divide.

Everyone Needs to Pay His or Her Fair Share

Now there’s a lot of disagreement around what “fair” is.  But most people – no matter how rich or poor they are – would agree that it’s not a good thing for a society to have so much of its wealth concentrated in the very few, especially if that comes at the extreme expense of the many. So brands need to be vigilant against behavior that could be construed as counter to the interest of their customers, employees or communities. No one wants to hear that a corporation won’t support a minimum wage increase when their executives are receiving large bonuses and driving around in expensive luxury cars on the sweat of their minimum wage employees. Similarly, no one wants to hear about the successful global expansion of your brand, if it means friends and neighbors will be losing jobs to overseas workers with no alternative work in sight.

Activism

Complacency seems to have gone out with the Cubs’ curse, Ringling Brother’s Barnum & Bailey and the TV series Rizzoli & Isles – it appears to be over for the foreseeable future. Whether it’s a result of the proliferation of social media, a sense of unrest due to dramatic (and often violent) world events or something more cyclical than either of those, people are energized to speak their minds, organize around causes they care about and embrace change. This can offer meaningful opportunities for brands to connect on a more personal level with their customers if they are on the same page with their customers and can contribute to their causes in authentic, constructive and inclusive ways. 

All of the above themes, I might add, are deeply American. They’ve been a part of our history since the beginning. So while they aren’t new, there is a renewed emphasis that’s been emerging in recent years.

As PR and marketing practitioners, it’s our job to help the brands we serve effectively communicate their mission and value to all of their constituents, starting with employees and moving to partners, customers, the local communities they serve, and their investors. So it’s important we take the time to stop, look around and listen to what those constituents are experiencing and thinking. If we don’t, we risk losing all sense of context in which our messages are being heard, and consequently all relevancy.

What themes taking shape today have you rethinking your PR, content and social programming? We’d love to hear them.