How brands are tapping into growing push for responsible consumption

The Kenya Wine Agencies Limited (KWAL) has turned to aspirational consumers with its slogan “Rise Above” for its product Kingfisher fruit wine, which is meant to relate to the young modern Kenyan woman, who is its target market, by positioning itself as the brand for the confident and ambitious.

Its targeting of aspirational consumers is a move that sees it appealing to world’s largest consumer market.

“Aspirationals are the largest consumer market globally and the most important segment in which to enable advances in sustainable consumption, not only because of their overall size and presence in developing markets but also due to the fact that they honestly want to purchase with a purpose,” according to a research by consultancy firm, GlobeScan.

“Our research revealed four consumer segments on the sustainability spectrum; highly committed advocates at 14 per cent, aspirationals at 37 per cent, price and performance-minded consumers accounted for 34 per cent and less engaged or indifferent were 16 per cent.”

For KWAL, “the slogan is meant to urge our target market to work hard so that they achieve their personal and career goals,” said Jane Mugun, the KWAL marketing manager. “It relates and appeals to the modern woman.”

The way in which a brand presents itself in the market in a bid to appeal to this large consumer base can prove to be instrumental when purchase decisions are evolving.

“Exploring the differences among consumers for brands provides a rich understanding of their values, motivation and behaviours as well as insights and opportunities for engagement and action,” read the GlobeScan research.

An example of a brand that used this strategy to successfully appeal to aspirationals is Virgin Group, a multinational venture capital firm.

In 2014, it launched a car racing team to compete in the Formula E, an electric-automobile racing series, in an effort to make it an aspirational brand in that line of vehicles in the future.

“In the Virgin Group, we look to amplify our brand and bring through brand values. In this, we want to become an aspirational brand and be a people champion brand.

Formula E does that. It looks after the planet and people, it is young, aspirational and alluring – it has all of the elements,” said Alex Tai, the team’s principal in an interview with online business magazine, Marketing Week.

Virgin then embarked on a social media marketing campaign to appeal to its target market, young consumers and urge them to vote for its drivers, Sam Bird and Jaime Alguersuari via the fan engagement element FanBoost – which gave a five second addition of power during the race that a nominated driver can use once to get ahead of the competition.

At the Long Beach ePrix, one of the 11 race destinations of the 2014-15 series, Sam Bird won the FanBoost.

“We created content by leveraging on the assets from the Virgin brand , an aspirational company and the Virgin Racing car, the drivers,” said UK firm Pitch PR, whose role in the marketing team was co-ordinating its social media and PR activities, reported in a case study titled, How Pitch and Virgin Racing Won FanBoost.

However, for brands to tap into the aspirational market, it requires them to prove their value to the consumer in terms of service rather than with their products.

“Barriers of marketing to aspirational consumers include a lack of knowledge about products’ sustainability benefits. They want to connect with people through brands, so companies should consider social branding initiatives rather than push advertising or other traditional efforts to overcome credibility issues,” reported the GlobeScan research.

-African Laughter