To WHAT end?

It’s ridiculous, really, to say that ‘consumers don’t give a shit’.

Maybe in the context of advertising when trying to get an emotional response from an audience that's barely watching.

But in the world of marketing, and brand strategy in particular, it’s dangerous talk.

The fact is people must be paying for something when they buy a brand. Some kind of benefit that has value to them.

It might be what they get from a particular feature, the functional benefit.

There’s a chance that feature could be unique to one brand. Even so, the functional benefit of it may be shared across a category, to a greater or lesser extent.

So generally what people pay for is an emotional benefit.

Some call this the consumer goal. ‘I want to feel this’ or ‘I want to look that’. Gratification or self-expression.

More than likely, it’ll be an implicit goal that people don’t readily acknowledge.

But if you happen on a positioning idea that hits the spot, it’s like Declan Rice’s free kicks for Arsenal against Real Madrid. Unstoppable.

In a way, though, this is also dangerous talk. It makes it sound like it doesn’t matter which goal you pick as long as you score.

Some brand consultants even peddle what they call ‘cheat sheets’ as part of their training courses. These are long lists of possible emotional benefits, sub-divided in some way.

What they never explain is which one to go for. Maybe it’s because they only want to train you to a certain level, so you keep coming back for more.

The problem is thinking of goals as the end result, when what you need to know is how to get there.

That starts earlier in the process, in the diagnosis stage of strategy, with understanding people’s needs in the category.

It takes a proper stage of exploratory qual research, small groups, best done face-to-face, projection techniques.

And analysis time to build a Need Map to explain the deeper motivations driving brand choices. To show where brands in the category are anchored on that map. To point out where opportunities may exist.

Ideally, followed by quant research to show the relative size and potential of the different need segments.

Then you can look for insights in the segments of most interest and use these as start points for positioning development.

So really it’s two questions.

For what need?

And to what end?

It’s like a combination of playing out from the back through a flexible formation with a calculated press, efficient transition and an unpredictable attack.

Worked for Liverpool.