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How to Speak American: Building Brands in the New Heartland

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“I think the Heartland is a nice place to raise children. People are nice, but they’re dumb, overweight and gullible. They wear tacky clothing and jewelry. They’re racist, unworldly and dumb.”

Marketing executive in New York City

If you are reading this column, you most likely play a role in building brands. You may even share the views of the marketing executive that I quoted above. If either is true, you need to take a deeper look into this massive segment of America.

From what I’ve seen, many marketers don’t understand the New Heartland. At all. They have wasted time and resources, and the results delivered, no matter how strong, are only a fraction of what they could have been. The Heartland consumer is a unique segment that is ever evolving and requires constant attention for brands to remain relevant.

This segment is underestimated, underserved and misunderstood, and that presents a huge opportunity for brands who become Heartland savvy. It is my mission to make sure that your brand will be among them.

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About the Author

A brand strategist for more than 20 years, Paul Jankowski has created and executed consumer promotions for some of the world’s largest and most successful companies, including Pepsi, Ford, FedEx, and Beyonce. His experiences targeting the “typical American consumer” on the East and West Coasts coupled with several long drives within America’s interior in his Ford F150 provided fertile ground for his study of an often-overlooked segment of the population, what Paul calls “America’s New Heartland.” As Author of How to Speak American: Building Brands in the New Heartland, Paul shares his groundbreaking insights and has emerged as one of the most respected voices in marketing today. To read Paul Jankowski’s full biography, click here.

Forget Brand Preference – Win the Brand Relevance War

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There are two ways to compete in existing markets – gaining brand preference and making competitors irrelevant.

Brand Relevance

The first and most commonly used route to winning customers and sales focuses on generating brand preference among the brand choices considered by customers, on beating the competition. Most marketing strategists perceive themselves to be engaged in a brand preference battle. A consumer decides to buy an established product category or subcategory, such as SUVs. Several brands have the visibility and credibility to be considered – perhaps Lexus, BMW, and Cadillac. A brand, perhaps Cadillac, is then selected. Winning involves making sure the customer prefers Cadillac to Lexus and BMW. This means that Cadillac has to be more visible, credible, and attractive in the SUV space than are Lexus and BMW.

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About the Author

David Aaker, author of Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant, is Vice-Chairman of Prophet, a marketing consultancy that helps senior executives balance their organization’s short-term business needs against their long-term growth goals, and Professor Emeritus of Marketing Strategy at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. One of the world’s leading experts on branding and the winner of three awards for lifetime contributions to the science of marketing, David has published over 100 articles and fourteen books; including Strategic Market Management that has been translated into eighteen languages. To read David’s complete biography, click here.