What Every CEO Must Know: Secrets to Brand Growth in the U.S.

One hears over and over again that amp8220all the growth is outside the US nowamp8221Judging words by their operative meaning amp8212 the impacts on behavior that any words have subtle though those effects may be amp8212 there is as always good and bad news The good news is that this view leads to creative thinking about all those other countries where it is easier to grow The bad news is that it leads to a givingup on growth here in the US which would be a deadly mistake Any growing thing that stops paying attention to its core is in troubleNot just for the obvious reason we stand on those foundations Also for the slightly subtler reason that there is still growth to be had here in the US We also need creative zerobase thinking here in the US just as much as we need it globally Otherwise we stand to leave a lot of money on the table amp8212 or more likely on our competitoramp8217s table if one lets them be first to unearth the secrets of brand growth in the USThere are leverage points one has in the US that make it easier and may yield a higher probability of success One virtue is that the US is the worldamp8217s largest market for most US brands today although some are now passing the halfway mark outside the US This is also a market in which each advertiser already has great data lots of sometimes painful experience that has been learned from deep cultural understanding for right creative thinking and wellpracticed ways of distribution and media The trap is that with such long practice and sense of experience we find it hard to really be zerobased in our thinking about marketing advertising and media amp8212 even though a large percentage of our experience comes from before computers went into our pockets When smartphones reached tipping penetration only two years ago that was the quiet start of a new era in marketing advertising and media At about the same time social media reached a degree of quantitative and business maturity within advertising The year 2011 may have marked the beginning of the revolution itselfThe revolution being in the general modality of existence Even with computers not far away from the average person great search engines fast response pretty colors amp8212 until we had all that in our pockets or handbags we were still relatively naturalistic in our thinking and feeling from moment to moment We were essentially the same breed of smart apes that we always wereNow there has been a shift With an extension of our body that is attached to us almost 247 like our other appendages the smartphone has become the puppet master alien that inhabits our consciousness If before we were ruled by our gametes seeking to use us to give birth to other gametes that master is sharing control with the one in our hand I say the latter jocularly in that consciousness is the master and in Flow state this comes trueWe are no longer acting naturalistically The phase from branchtobranch brachiating up until 2011 was one phase this is another This new phase is a soft form amp8212 like an unwired network amp8212 of cyborgism We have become in a sense half human half machineThis is not the only change occurring simultaneously with the rest of this shift The cold thinking of the Enlightenment which gradually distanced us further and further from feelings that pendulum has swung back much faster than the outswing went We are letting our feelings show to one another more like in a Latin culture Cinema and television have contributed to this and the Internet has added a gritty truthinsistence streak The person formerly known as consumer has laid down the law to the brand amp8220get naked take off that maskamp8221With all these changes a CEO or brand manager would be crazy to leach off too much of hisher own creativity to lands abroad to the detriment of zerobased reinvention of self in the US This zerobase is top priority in the home country first where there is the biggest upside and the biggest downsideWhat are the secrets of brand growth in the US The real question is worth testing and might work and then be remembered as one of the secrets of what caused brand growth in the US to resume at a higher level than the current poor showing We may find that 510 growth is sustainable even with zero population growth in the US given how many people will be moving upward from below the poverty line Think of the potential of being a brand that levels with the underprivileged lends a helping hand engages in cause support training programs workstudy programs and employment policies that stripped naked on meanstreaked blogs still earn respect and gratitude When those people grow out of poverty they will have deep loyalties to a brand that keeps their trustThis might turn out to be one of the secrets amp8212 ie something most of us donamp8217t know now but could find out and then profit from Call this one amp8220Reach Downamp8221 Grow the brand by helping people who canamp8217t afford it It might also be tested in other countries Help them how As just described cause support workstudy programs employmenttraining practices and so on The helping hand might be any means of economic benefit amp8212 it need not simply be discounts although that is the most obvious possibility However letamp8217s discuss alternative ways of giving people economic benefits rather than price cuttingWe recommend that brands ideate scenarios with their agencies and teams on the amp8220Reach Downamp8221 hypothesis and then do inmarket AB test of the design execution If results are positive refine and test again or roll out depending on the findingsIn the next post we will continue to explore the potential secrets to brand growth in the US analyzing our own ideas such as Test a Cure for the Promotion Addiction Test Bold New Media Mixes Test Vast Scaleup in Owned Media Test Whether Science Can Lift Success Rate of CreativeLooking forward to your feedback Bill Harvey is a wellknown media researcher and inventor who cofounded TRA Inc and is its Strategic Advisor His nonprofit Human Effectiveness Institute runs his weekly blog on consciousness optimization Bill can be contacted at billbillharveyconsultingcomRead all Billamp8217s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at In Terms of ROICheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBlogger The opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggerscom management or associated bloggers MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all commentariesImage courtesy of David Castillo DominiciFreeDigitalPhotosnetamp160

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