There’s a reason why John Lewis put so much effort into making the nation care about Buster the Boxer during the holidays: content matters, especially emotionally-charged content. In fact a new survey has revealed that brands producing content that connects with people on an emotional level outperform companies that don’t. The only problem is that most businesses are dreadful at getting it right.
Having surveyed 300,000 people across 33 countries and 1,500 brands, Havas Media Group, the advertising firm, highlighted the relationship between a brand, the impact its content has on consumers and how well the business performed. According to the report, brands that have established a meaningful connection with their customers could see their audience willing to spend 48% more on their products and have seen specific KPIs increase by 137%.
Despite there being a 71% correlation between content effectiveness and a brand’s impact on personal wellbeing, 60% of all content created by brands is poor, irrelevant or fails to deliver. And this may be why people remain sceptical of brands. Even though 75% of the people polled said they expect brands to make a contribution to their wellbeing and quality of life by inspiring, entertaining, educating, informing, helping and rewarding the viewer, only 40% thought brands are actually doing this.
And companies should be wary of falling short when it comes to customers’ expectations .“74% of brands could disappear overnight and people just wouldn’t care,” said Dominique Delport, global managing director at Havas Media Group, to CNBC, the news channel. “Why? Because we have an overload of brand opportunities. So people can switch very easily and two, there’s too much communication. So you need to be meaningful for people.”
In order to cut through the noise, both industry giants and startups alike need to ensure their message resonates with their audience. “In this world, only brands that form more meaningful connections with people will prosper,” said Yannick Bolloré, chairman and CEO at the Havas Group. “It’s no longer enough to produce products that work. Brands need to know why people care and what makes their brands meaningful.”
In other words, entrepreneurs who want to failure-proof their startups better ensure their marketing team does everything in their power to connect with potential customers. 
