3 Trends Driving Brand Evolution: Panel

The CMOs from CVS Health and Lyft, among others, discussed a “symbiotic rise of technology and consumer expectations” and getting past the notion that “technology is scary.”

Despite all the fear of missing out brought on by digital disruption, brands have a future. Rather than eliminate the need for branding, personalization and automation will usher in many opportunities, said CMOs and industry executives speaking at an industry gathering Tuesday evening.

“Despite the fear we all have about being late to the game, there’s not been a better time,” said Heather Stern, chief marketing and communications officer of Lippincott. The brand identity company sponsored “The Future of Brands” panel to launch the New York showing of an exhibit, “Like me: Our bond with brands,” surveying the evolution of branding and its future outlook in the face of new technology-driven trends.

Three trends—the drive for transparency, the development of automation and artificial intelligence, and rising issues of control and intimacy around technology—are driving the evolution of brands, Stern said.

“We’re being outpaced by consumers and consumer expectations,” said Norman de Greve, senior VP and CMO of CVS Health. He noted that a “symbiotic rise of technology and consumer expectations” demands that companies adapt to an agility model that will let them react to changes.

“I think less about how technology is scary and more about our preparation as tech evolves,” said Kira Scherer Wampler, CMO of Lyft. She noted the ride-sharing company has “a lot of conversations” about the future of self-driving cars and how companies will have to adapt to riders’ future needs.

Brands also will have to see themselves in a bigger context as technology, such as artificial intelligence, expands.

“You’re all scared of that trend, but that’s the trend that feeds all others around you,” said John Marshall, chief strategy and client officer of Lippincott. “We can know anything and everything about a product, so we have to change what a brand means.”

Possibilities of AI are “phenomenal,” Marshall said. Transparency is “a little scary,” but AI is exciting, he said, inviting listeners to ponder “the suite of problems we can solve by giving up information.”

Consumers are entering a world where there will be sensors everywhere, said Marshall, noting that soon diamonds will have sensors that track whether they came from a mine using accepted practices.

The historical role of a brand, embodying a series of attributes, will be replaced by a brand that stands for the company’s mission and purpose, speakers said. “It changes a brand from a promise to an outcome,” Marshall said. “You can sell the outcome instead of the product.”

This convergence of brand and purpose was at play in CVS’s decision to stop selling cigarettes—a $2 billion move, but the drugstore retailer is building a business beyond a chain, de Greve said. But it couldn’t position itself as a health-care brand and continue selling cigarettes, he said.

Being a purpose-led brand means marketers must be proactive in meeting an “insatiable demand,” de Greve said. Scherer Wampler noted that anticipating the needs of an aging population led Lyft to launch a product called Concierge, which drives customers to doctor’s appointments.

When brands focus on their purpose, it opens more value-added opportunities, Marshall said. Speakers also noted that the new brand dynamics open the door to collaboration between brands in mutually beneficial projects. For example, Scherer Wampler mentioned how Lyft partnered with Anheuser-Busch recently to offer free rides on weekends to avoid drunk driving. The promotion fits with Lyft’s purpose of being, as one of its earlier ads put it, “Your friend with a car,” and targeted a big community problem she said.

Despite all the technology and new products, there’s a future for the global, master brand. It becomes a core essential to shaping a marketer’s business and what the company will become, speakers said.

Scherer Wampler said that Lyft keeps working to hack the future of car transportation, which in 20 years could very well be the self-driving car. But even with driverless cars, the human factor will be a part of Lyft’s mission, she said, because the needs of the rider will still be the focus of the service.

That human factor is always relevant, even when “you can have all the functional attributes you want,” de Greve said. “Relationships matter. They really, really do.”

Regardless of their evolution, the future of master brands is to deliver value to customers, speakers said. They define the business and guide employees, they said. Even legacy brands are hatching “fighter brands” to meet new challenges, Marshall said.

“There’s something innately human about the bond with an idea,” Marshall said. “Brands should be able to deliver on that. Brands that can’t will be commodities.”