Buyers Want You to Shape a Better Future

An organization’s brand vision must show a better future for buyers

We are living in what can seem like a never-ending time of unpredictability and instability.  Two years into a worldwide pandemic.  It is a long time.  With no predictable end in sight.  I referred to this time recently as an Era of Uncertainty.  An era where buyers are seeking a better future.  Perhaps more appropriate to say something stronger like – wanting a better future. 

On many fronts, buyers of today are contending with issues that impact their view of the world.  Inflationary pressures.  Supply chain obstacles.  Staffing shortages.  Technology shortcomings.  Social unrest.  Environmental impacts.  These are just a few of the pressures and fronts that can affect buyers.  The list can go on.  All industries are affected to varying degrees by such pressures.  It is no wonder then we see buyers are wanting a better future. 

This wanting of a better future is escalating the attention buyers pay to an organization’s brand vision.  Can an organization’s brand story and vision represent a better future?  A brand vision is a very different dimension when one thinks of branding in general.  It is more than just the sum of what an organization wants to say about who they are and their products and services.  It is an articulation of purpose and vision about the future.

In my qualitative buyer interviews, I can hear it in the voices of buyers.  It is deeper than the conventional “tell me what you can do” expectations.  Buyers have expectations that by investing in a brand’s vision, they will be able to visualize and realize a better future.  As we transition generationally to new roles and buyers, expectations no longer pertain to the internal organization.  But also, to its impact on life and society outside of an organization.  In fact, the next generation of buyers and leaders will demand it.

Buyers are looking to you and organizations to offer them a brand vision that helps to shape a better future.  Business leaders, in consumer and B2B businesses alike, who can take on this unsaid accountability will have the best chance to lead in their markets.  Determining and articulating a brand vision requires investing in critical buyer insights. 

What a better future may mean to you and what it may mean to buyers can be vastly different.  Therefore, if you hope to create a brand vision that articulates shaping a better future, then you need to know what that vision looks like to buyers.  You are not going to be able to walk down a hallway and ask someone to run a report to find out.  It takes qualitative insights legwork.

Understanding how buyers view a better future delves into the area of how buyers think.  It takes skillful qualitative buyer interviews to develop a picture where the colors used have to do with perceptions, beliefs, goals, attitudes, and more.  The translation of such insights just may enable you to offer a vision of the future they could not think of.

Buyers are wanting more and their thinking about the future has only intensified since the onset of the pandemic.  This means the entire weight of an organization needs to consistently articulate its brand vision.  As I have mentioned before, buyer personas are a communications and talent development tool.  They can be extremely helpful in empowering personnel to truly understand the buyers’ thinking on what a bright future means to them. 

Buyers are wanting of a better future.  And they are looking to you and wanting you to shape it.