Defining Editorial Authority
Over the past five years, we have been busy becoming experts in the Millennial and consumer trends space. From retail buying patterns to flavor preferences to how income and life stage differentiates cohorts within the Millennial generation, we have found and shared a wealth of information about how Millennial consumers behave differently in our market today.
One of the greatest influences this generation has is on the way marketing professionals and brands communicate their stories, messages, values and ideas through a completely digitally-integrated world. As a result, we determined that social media marketing as we thought we knew it is dead. Rather, brands now need to focus on more informative, interactive and engaging content as the key driver of Millennial love and participation.
The problem? Ninety percent of marketers agree that it is important to have a brand content strategy, according to eConsultancy, yet only 38 percent of brands actually have one in place.
While promoting products and services are no doubt important, it’s time for brands to think of content as an opportunity for the brand’s voice to live everywhere - even beyond these offerings. Long-lasting relationships and even powerful brand loyalty are created with a powerful content strategy that infiltrates every aspect of a brand - externally and internally. At Barkley, we call this a brand’s Editorial Authority.
How Brands Build Editorial Authority
Editorial Authority is the framework for creating relevant conversations with consumers based on topics they are invested in and willing to share. As the foundation of a brand’s overall content strategy, Editorial Authority allows organizations to build the content pillars that will help them identify what opportunities exist to lead and participate in relevant conversations above and beyond the just the product into the culture of consumers.
When we talk about content, we are talking about the communication with which people choose to spend their time. This changes the standard definition of content from something that brands produce to something much more valuable - an engagement tool. Thinking about it this way, we describe Editorial Authority as a brand’s magazine. When you look at the contents page, what is featured inside? These features should always be true to the brand, good for the business and relevant to people and culture at large. After all, Millennials are more likely to choose to spend time with content that ventures outside of the products and services box.
However, establishing Editorial Authority is not a simple task. It certainly should not be a brand’s first strategic planning step. Brands need to first determine their core idea, the most prevalent unmet consumer needs they can answer, and what cultural relevancy they have that is sustainable within the current market.
Why these three tenets?
First, brand ideas are at the core of everything to do with a brand. The brand idea is the long-term proposition that should drive the entirety of strategy. It guides and inspires every action. While campaigns come and go, brand ideas are meant to live for years.
Second, the best brands are those who solve consumer problems before consumers even know they have them. Take Netflix, for instance. Most consumers couldn’t have distinctly stated their issue with late fees at the corner movie store until Netflix had already created a solution. Because it did, however, it was able to capture consumer attention from the beginning and carry it out through its continued technological advances.
Third, cultural relevancy builds equity for the brand across the right audience. If there is no equity, consumers have no problem leaving a brand for the next biggest thing that comes around. The goal for brands is to determine where the overlap exists between brand culture and consumer culture.
Determining these factors takes time, and there is no perfected formula of the exact steps brands should take to achieve Editorial Authority. After all, every brand is different. There are vastly different products, fans and messages that exist. Nevertheless, Barkley does offer a few options for where a brand can begin:
The Brand Modernization Approach: Brand History
Smart brands lean into their historical relevance to learn about what has truly engaged their most loyal fans over an extended period of time. By exploring their entire history and investing their resources in truly understanding what builds long-term customer relationships, they are able to build a solid foundation for continued relevancy. They ask themselves: How can our brand equity become a powerful unfair advantage?
The Human Approach: Brand Story
If brands approach their communication strategy in an automated way, simply adhering to traditional mass marketing techniques, they will miss out on valuable one-on-one connections with the consumers they seek. The most inspired brands have quickly realized this paradigm shift and are instead leveraging an authentic, humanistic approach to marketing that defines their Editorial Authority. Modern consumers want to hear about the things that really matter to them - not the fluff that has traditionally defined advertising and marketing.
The Inside-Out Approach: Brand Model
The most salient, successful companies are those who treat their business model and brand idea as one and the same. They simply think from the inside-out, always from this perspective. This approach is in perfect alignment with the Millennial demand for transparency. The more that Millennial consumers are able to see behind the curtain, the more likely they are to buy into a brand’s actions and messages.
Regardless of which foundational tactic is used, understanding and developing Editorial Authority gives brands across business verticals an opportunity to engage, comment on and create content that will propel them into the hearts and minds of the consumers. A strong Editorial Authority also gives them the tools they need to identify the right conversations in overarching culture where they can add value. With such, brands can and will achieve the resonance they need.
