The Difference Between Relevance and Resonance
Thursday, February 19, 2009
There's an important difference between cultural relevance and cultural resonance. Resonance is much harder to achieve; it's also much more valuable.
Cultural relevance is achieved when the audience recognizes what you've created as something that reflects their culture. On a basic level this can be as simple as using a popular celebrity in your advertising. On a more sophisticated level it might be like this classic College Humor sketch about Minesweeper (a computer game that almost every American kid born between 1980 and 1990 probably played at one time or another).
(Ricky Van Veen, the founder of College Humor, has a great term for these kind of nostalgic references in their videos: Candy Corn. Most brands could do with a lot more candy corn in their advertising.)
Cultural Resonance is achieved when your audience uses what you've created to talk to each other about something meaningful that they've been observing in their culture.
What's a good example of a brand who has achieved cultural resonance through their marketing? American Apparel. (I'm not making any excuses for any sexual transgressions by the company's founder, just an observation about the brand.)
A new generation of young Americans were born in the 90's, in the hey-day of Brittany Spears, boy bands, and the Super Model. At the start of this decade, however, they got their first digital camera, they set up their first social network profile, and they started having sex. And guess what? Beauty as defined by TV and the fashion magazines didn't match up with their idea of beauty. Most of the photography they were seeing was taken by their friends. They were making celebrities of each other on MySpace. They were exploring their sexuality on SuicideGirls, not in the pages of Playboy.
American Apparel's advertising style tapped into that rumbling sentiment, and gave it a voice. Their ads were provocative, not just because they show young women in sexually suggestive situations, but because they challenged our entire culture's idea of who was allowed to be a sex symbol. The brand caught on because it gave this generation something to use as way to talk to each other about how their idea of what is beautiful was different from previous generations.
That's cultural resonance. In order to find it, companies need to dig deeper, listen closer, and find more ways to stay in touch with the people who ultimately will define your brand.
Cultural relevance is achieved when the audience recognizes what you've created as something that reflects their culture. On a basic level this can be as simple as using a popular celebrity in your advertising. On a more sophisticated level it might be like this classic College Humor sketch about Minesweeper (a computer game that almost every American kid born between 1980 and 1990 probably played at one time or another).
(Ricky Van Veen, the founder of College Humor, has a great term for these kind of nostalgic references in their videos: Candy Corn. Most brands could do with a lot more candy corn in their advertising.)
Cultural Resonance is achieved when your audience uses what you've created to talk to each other about something meaningful that they've been observing in their culture.
What's a good example of a brand who has achieved cultural resonance through their marketing? American Apparel. (I'm not making any excuses for any sexual transgressions by the company's founder, just an observation about the brand.)
American Apparel's advertising style tapped into that rumbling sentiment, and gave it a voice. Their ads were provocative, not just because they show young women in sexually suggestive situations, but because they challenged our entire culture's idea of who was allowed to be a sex symbol. The brand caught on because it gave this generation something to use as way to talk to each other about how their idea of what is beautiful was different from previous generations.
That's cultural resonance. In order to find it, companies need to dig deeper, listen closer, and find more ways to stay in touch with the people who ultimately will define your brand.
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