Communicating at the Intersection of Purpose, Protests, Politics, and Pandemic Confirmation
Linda Descano started her talk with some data about what makes brands meaningful. She explained that functional benefits, person benefits, and collective benefits all contribute to how much customers value different brands. Descano talked about the importance for brands to have alignment between their values and their actions. She explained that customers do not believe that brands truly possess the values that they claim to have. Values and actions must match in order to reach the expectations of customers as well as the employees. Descano discussed the importance for brands to have an easy to understand message that relates to the current times. She specifically mentioned Walmart’s 6, 20, 100 message of staying 6 feet apart, washing your hands for 20 seconds, and not being allowed into the store with a temperature of 100 or higher. Descano explained that CEO’s and executives of companies are becoming more involved and engaged with employees as well as projecting that involvement to the public. She ended the talk with a Q&A.