The Impact of 'Relevance' In Travel Marketing

In the next of our series of articles exploring the key trends that will shape travel this year and beyond, we look at why we think RELEVANCE will overtake concepts like authenticity in marketing, as consumers challenge the brands with which they engage to prove themselves.

‘RELEVANCE’ IN TRAVEL MARKETING

For several years now, we’ve been told that a brand must be clear on its purpose if it wants to win favour with consumers – especially the next generation of spenders. To know its purpose, and for that to be sincere, a brand’s marketing must be ‘authentic’ – knowing its own voice, not trying to be something it isn’t. Being truthful.

Any psychologist will tell you that it takes more effort in the long run, and is harder, to maintain a lie. So if a brands present itself in an inauthentic way it will be harder to sustain that image over time, as more and more customers experience it as something else – and the blowback is harder to rectify the longer the lie lasts.

All marketing is about behaviour change – you’re trying to persuade someone to do something you want them to do. Whether that is clicking ‘buy’, signing your petition, coming to your shop, donating to your charity or whatever. It’s all designed to have a result. In recent years, this has been dressed up a story telling, or a craft that sincerely wants to help people. So far, so touchy feely.

The trouble is, increasingly, consumers haven’t the time or bandwidth to follow a painstakingly established brand narrative these days. Consumers are time-poor these days – having hours in the day is the new luxury. If ‘authenticity’ means not trying to be something you aren’t, and avoiding cack-handed attempts to capture the zeitgeist (think of Pepsi’s clumsy appropriation of the Black Lives Matter movement with Kyle Jenner), then absolutely – that is basic common sense. But we believe that authenticity will have to increasingly sit within a framework of speed and relevance. Make it personal to me, who I am, what I believe in, the context of my life – and do it fast, because my attention span is shortening and you’re competing with a lot of distractions, worries, commitments and obligations.

For all of the talk of authenticity, according to Ipsos MORI, only 12% of Millennials are interested in rewarding social responsible behaviour with product purchases. This doesn’t mean that brands should behave irresponsibly, but neither should their desire for positive social impact supplant marketing common sense. Brands that market themselves in a way that heroes the relevance of the value they offer their customers are taking the first step toward real authenticity.

But increasingly the demand will be for authenticity to sit within a framework of speed and relevance.