While media and politics polarize, brands can unite society.

In brand models, the differentiating power of brands is primarily in the foreground. In view of an increasingly polarized world, Jens Lönneker focuses on the unifying side of brands. Research and marketing should recognize and name these connecting moments in their potential.

The importance of brands for companies cannot be valued highly enough and brand research is versatile and elementary for evidence-based decisions.

This article was published in planung&analyse issue 1/2024 with a focus on brands. Read the article in full here.

While media and politics polarize, brands can unite society.

Brands should, as the name suggests, mark. In order to do this, they have to stand out from their environment and make a difference. When developing strategies for brands, the focus is therefore usually on the differentiating potential of brands. In most brand models, aspects such as uniqueness, degree of substitutability and the USP are the focus. The exploration of insights and the awarding of benefits are intended to enable this differentiation.

Here we will attempt to understand the importance of brands differently. The focus should be on their unifying side - a dimension that is usually given little attention. Although it is somehow recorded under aspects of brand status with parameters such as awareness, household penetration or buyer reach, it is usually not understood as a quality of its own.

The hypothesis: Brands have not had to focus on the unifying quality up to now because a unifying, communal social platform has existed in western societies for decades. There was a fundamental social consensus that was repeatedly discussed controversially, but not questioned.

However, this certainty can no longer be taken for granted today. The concentrated force of major challenges such as climate change, migration, inflation, pandemics and the war in Europe have created a breeding ground for nationalist, populist ideas as well as new areas of conflict in the classic democratic camp: What should be regulated and prohibited, who belongs? The social consensus has therefore become more fragile, and commonalities are less self-evident.

The search for unifying social forces.

Politics and the media are increasingly being denied unifying and connecting qualities. There are various studies on this phenomenon: the Edelman Trust Barometer, for which 32,000 people worldwide were surveyed in 2022, asked about divisive and unifying social forces and reported on this for its Germany report. According to this, the government and media in Germany are attributed more divisive than unifying forces - the opposite is true for the business world and NGOs. Brands in particular seem to be scoring points in this context: In the ServiceValue trust ranking, the top brands achieved high trust values of 85 percent and upwards in 2021. Over half a million customer reviews for around 1,800 companies were taken into account.

In contrast, the media and politics are struggling with crises of confidence. This is shown by our study "Media between respect and ostracism". According to this, one in four people in Germany develop an extremely critical attitude towards the established media. Most of them feel abandoned by the system and politics. Media aversion is particularly high in eastern Germany, affecting up to 40 percent of the population. This is very worrying. According to important media researchers such as Jürgen Habermas, a functioning democracy requires broad acceptance of the major mass media.

The credibility of politics has also been weak for years. In a 2015 study by the Heinz Lohmann Foundation entitled "Public opinion in crisis - a depth psychological study", politicians received the worst rating in comparison with other groups when it came to the keyword "credibility". In contrast, categories such as "experts", "those affected", "NGOs" and "scientists from institutions" received high scores (70+). While the values for politics initially improved significantly around the coronavirus crisis, a Forsa survey conducted at the end of 2023 revealed dramatically lower values again: Only 20 percent of those surveyed have great confidence in the Federal Chancellor and only 21 percent in the Federal Government after values of +60 percent in 2020.

Brands can develop unifying qualities.

Against this background, fields that create unifying social qualities are becoming very important. Brands have - for a long time - had such qualities. Of course, the reality is more complex. The media can also be brands, but they do not have the same tasks as brands and companies from other sectors. Nevertheless, the question remains why top brands and companies from all possible sectors apparently enjoy more trust than the media. It therefore makes sense to take a closer look at the unifying qualities of brands.

Various agencies and institutes have developed approaches to determine the strength of brands: BrandZ from Kantar tries to calculate the brand's share of a company's financial success. Interbrand identifies the Best Global Brands. When determining the Best Brands, GfK and its partners, such as the German Markenverband, take into account the economic market success and the attractiveness of the brand from the consumer's point of view.

The top brands identified for Germany must inevitably appeal to a broad audience - otherwise they would not be in the top positions. But what hypotheses can be derived from the rankings for the unifying social qualities of brands?

The 2023 BrandZ monitor identifies two technology brands in the top two positions in Germany: Telekom and SAP. "Experience what connects" has been the explicit claim of Telekom for years. And in business, SAP sets the standards for working together in commercial organizations in Germany. The success of the two brands can also be interpreted as them developing strong, unifying qualities. Internationally, brands such as Apple, Google or Microsoft can also be attributed to such characteristics. Last but not least, the success of the DHL brand could also be classified here psychologically.

Research needs space to create added value.

However, brands do not necessarily have to put the unifying aspect directly in the foreground in order to score points. Even if many people agree that they consider something to be desirable, a community can form: The Mercedes-Benz and BMW brands are in third and fourth place in Germany at BrandZ. Other sophisticated automobile brands are also on top in Germany. Internationally, however, only Tesla is in the top 50 - an indication that other products are becoming more desirable? The fact that the luxury brand providers Louis Vuitton and Hermès have climbed significantly in the ranking suggests this.

With Siemens and Bosch, there are also two brands in the German top ten of BrandZ that stand for reliable products in the technological infrastructure. Their offerings include both application in business enterprises and in the private domestic sphere. Bosch was also named one of the Best Brands. In the desire for guarantors of a reliable technological infrastructure, many people seem to feel commonalities.

The Aldi and Lidl brands have been scoring points for years with the fact that practically the whole nation shops at these discounters. The philosophy of "less is more" is consistently implemented here. And the interest in low prices unites the Germans, leading to fantastic buyer reach.

The top-rated brands Adidas and Nivea are also omnipresent in everyday social life. They embody products that are widely accepted. Products that you can't go wrong with and that create social commonality in everyday life.

Society is becoming increasingly polarized.

In view of changing polarizing social framework conditions, the unifying aspect of brands is an asset that is gaining in importance. Market research can contribute such new perspectives by taking a creative look at the data and thus "seeing" something. With its data and findings, it "challenges" brand management so that it can work on the added value of the brands. All data used in this article is publicly available. There is a huge pool of research findings that can be used by leading brand companies - increasingly with the aid of AI.

Research also needs space to develop added value for brands. If it becomes a pure supplier that delivers data as cheaply as possible - but is not supposed to think about it any further, the potential for brand development will be wasted.

However, research also needs its space to develop this added value for brands. If it becomes a pure supplier that delivers data as cheaply as possible - but is not supposed to think about it any further, the potential for brand development will be wasted. Hermann Hesse said: "To seek means to have a goal. But to find means to be free, to be open, to have no goal." Accordingly, research should be allowed to "find" more and not just "search". Because a seeker does not see some things that are close to him - like the famous glasses on his nose. Research needs space to "see" for brands.