Brand Strategies to Connect with Veterans

I am both professionally and personally happy to share with you a new whitepaper from Collage about how brands can best reach, resonate, and grow with active military service members, veterans, and their families.

As a spouse of a veteran who served in Afghanistan and the mother of a Ranger currently stationed in Europe, I know firsthand the unique and cultural experiences of this segment. Brands have a unique and powerful opportunity to build authentic connections with the military community.  

Read the White Paper, Marketing Strategies to Reach, Connect, and Grow With Veterans filled with proprietary Collage data and insights. And read on below for some personal examples of brands that nailed it and have earned my brand love for life.

During my husband’s deployment to Afghanistan, I was gripped both by fear and pride along with the job of being a full-time working and single parent of three, with no family in town. Looking back 13 years later, I can see the impact that specific amazing individuals had on my life and how my connection and loyalty to certain brands were solidified. These brands were simply great products, enabled customer service authority, and also created magic – the playbook for brand love.

• Daddy Kiss Jar – The best idea I received from seasoned military spouses was the jar of Hershey kisses for my 4 yr old to enjoy each day. To be honest I had to replenish the jar every few weeks because a jar of 365 chocolate kisses was too big to look at on the kitchen counter, but the idea worked and made my daughter smile.  
• Rice Krispies for dinner – On my own as a working mom, there was never enough time between work and the three kids’ evening sports and activities to do the basic household chores. So many nights, when we were running late or just too tired, we had Rice Krispies for dinner. Low sugar, great protein from the milk, and delicious. And faster than pancakes.     

• Trader Joe’s customer service – A Trader Joe’s check out clerk secretly added a bouquet of flowers to the cart of my friend who was buying dozens of bags of nuts for her deployed husband. When my friend noticed the flowers in her cart and said, “Those aren’t mine,” the clerk responded, “Yes, they are now. Thank you for your service.” Of course we both cried when she told me the story, and I’ve always thought of Trader Joe’s in that positive light ever since.
• Disney World magic – I decided that during the deployment year I was in charge of my family’s “Plan Fun” – so I went out of my way to plan fun activities for my children, so we had things to look forward to. The Disney parks of course are masterful at creating magic, where 4, 9, and 10 year olds could just be kids.
• USAA family support – USAA’s customer service sets the standard with respect, permanent change of station (PCS) and deployment checklists, and incredible customer service. When the person on the phone called me ma’m and kept asking if there was anything else I needed, I knew he was focused on exceptional service and not a queue line. He helped with everything from putting our car on deployment status to save money on insurance, updating life insurance, and offering a loan during the government shutdown that year. 
• United Airlines gate angel – After my husband’s return flight was delayed past midnight, a United Airlines gate agent personally escorted our family through the empty dark terminal at Boston Logan airport to the gate. I will always remember the sound of hope in our sleepy shuffles as we walked in that vacuous space. The agent graciously told the three children they could take a nap in the gate seats while they waited and that she promised she would wake them before the plane would arrive at the gate. That was and still is one of the best days of my life.

I still feel a strong connection when I see an ad that authentically represents that moment of pride, relief, and sheer joy of a returning serviceperson coming home. As part of Collage’s Inclusive Marketing 3.0 framework, this event is Realistic Representation in action that we in the military family community can relate to. But there are many, many daily moments that matter that can be leveraged in brand strategies as well. 

People who join the military do so in pursuit of a higher calling, and when duty calls, are honored to be the first to respond. I have now entered a new phase from military spouse to parent, as my husband will retire from the Reserves this coming year, I have one child serving active duty, and another is about to start. On Veteran’s Day and every day of the year, I thank all who serve, and I thank their families as well. We are here for each other.

Consumer satisfaction with inclusive advertising has reached a plateau. Our signature analysis of Ad Cultural Fluency reveals how to break through the plateau by representing the reality of consumer experience.

Consumer identity has rapidly evolved. Even the best portrayals of intersectional identity struggle to keep up with the nuanced complexities of consumer identity today, and consumers are left feeling unrepresented by advertising today. To enable marketers to stay a step ahead of this identity curve, Collage CultureRate has evolved too.

Our new model was designed to surface the right mix of cultural factors that maximally predict favorability and purchase intent.

Download a sample of our CultureRate report to learn from the winning ads that are breaking new ground in representing the reality of consumer experience.

The Big Picture:

The foundation of our methodology are four major elements impacting ad performance:

• Likeability of an ad
• Persuasion to learn more and choose a brand
• Resonance
• Credibility

Succeeding in the four components drives ad cultural fluency (A-CFQ) which in turn connects to increased brand favorability.

What Surprised Us:

About 40% of Americans are not satisfied with their portrayals in advertising. They embrace their multifaceted identity, both individualistic and intersectional characteristics, but don’t see this reflected in “inclusive” marketing. Ultimately, inclusive marketing must evolve to emphasize the individual depth with which consumers see themselves.

CultureRate Analysis Reveals Key Tactics for Creating Cultural Fluent Ads:

Using five best practice case studies of ads from our database, we reveal tactics marketers can use to create culturally fluent ads. Contact us to take a deeper dive into the five case studies and what they reveal about driving growth, trust, and inclusivity in advertising.

Brands that use cultural and linguistic cues relevant to their target audience and facilitate content or product information sharing will enable them to connect more dynamically with this diverse demographic, fueling further growth.

We look forward to partnering with you and continuing our contributions to authentic brand engagements that elevate diverse consumer voices year-round.

Collage offers a deep dive into trends across diverse consumer segments: Economy & Finances, Technology & AI, Health & Wellness, Family & Community, New Experiences, and Media & Creators.  Discover new insights and trends from today’s cultural transformation; changes in multicultural, Gen Z, and gender segment attitudes; tech adoption, media consumption; shopping behaviors; and expenditure projections by category.

Economy & Finances – This trend space tracks the economy, household realities, and personal priorities influence purchase decisions. Macro economic trends will look at uncertainty and perception of pricing as well as category expenditure, by category and multi-cultural segment. Have you seen the QSR $5 meal wars or the huge increase in footwear spend by Black consumers which was recently eclipsed by Asian consumers? See where consumers are now prioritizing their spend with passion points.​

Technology & AI – Technology and connected living plays a role throughout our personal, professional, and family environments. From house to wearables to health, technology trends are rapidly changing, social media engagement is revolutionizing, and new purchasing channels continue to appear. AI is enabling business and personal efficiency, but consumers are wary of AI infiltrating their life so adoption will be moderated. 

Health & Wellness – From tech enabled monitoring of health to sleep to V02 max, the democratization of health monitoring has created a new generation of self-advocates. Health & Wellness trends will cover food and alcohol consumption and access to healthcare for emergent critical issues. This trend is bookmarked by the hyper environmentally conscious Gen Z to older Boomers who represent the majority of health care costs.

Family & Community – Family as a cultural value plays a key role in influencing product decisions and continues to evolve as different generations engage in food preparation, technology enablement, and gift giving. Gen Z is the first digitally native generation and Boomers are living longer, so the rules around care-giving, co-habitation, adulting, and purchase behaviors are rapidly changing. Found family of friends and the role of pets is also a key of attitudes and purchase behaviors. And despite the complexity of contemporary life and impacts from social media, the traditional role of community remains undiminished to many Multiculturals, especially Hispanics.  Explore differences across Hispanic, Black, Asian, Women,Gen Z, LGBTQ+ segments.

New Experiences – New experiences appear across food, travel, and the adoption of new fashion. In-culture trends from lead users and different Multicultural consumer segments inspire massive changes in trying new foods, engaging in new concert or hiking experiences, and what clothing they buy for themselves. And for Gen Alpha and Gen Z, their interest in Tik Tok shops and what they ask their parents to buy them. Fandoms often appear through experiences. “Worldly” is a strong cultural trait for LGBTQ+, Millennials and Asian American consumers.

Media & Creators – The creator economy is driving innovation like never before. With barriers to entry almost non-existent, new start-ups are launching each week with DTC offerings and new influencers driving purchase behavior. Creators have changed the way consumers learn about, consider, and buy. Media habits are rapidly changing and new product trends continue to originate from Multicultural, generational, and fandom cohorts across gaming, wine enthusiasts, and book worms.

Click into each of these curated proof points to dive deeper and further your insights discovery.  Collage’s curated insights are powered by a proprietary survey data set of millions of consumers that dives deeper across intersectional lenses of the U.S. population. It is supplemented with an analysis and probabilistic projection of the Consumer Expenditure data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that ensures the stability of insights.

To uncover new insights specific to your brand, growth segments, and innovation opportunities, Collage customers have 24/7 access to:

• Insights Designer (discover key insights by searching any topic of any survey or question Collage has ever run!)  
• Insights Hub (refreshed daily with new consumer, category, and brand data across generations, multicultural, gender & sexuality, parents & kids, across 14 industries)
• fluen.ci (identify your brand’s Brand Lover consumer segments, growth segments and audiences deep dive, plus your brand’s cultural fluency and future purchase intent head to head vs competition)
• Cultural Strategist, anthropologists, and customer success team helping you connect the dots across your consumers, brands, and activation

Gen Z’s purchasing power is predicted to reach $12 trillion globally by 2030, exceeding Millennials. Start now to capture this key segment as a new category entrant!

Collage provides customers with curated insights from data refreshed daily, and our Cultural Strategists help you identify specific actions for growth.

Learn how a leading Food company grew +4% by identifying growth opportunities (consumer & brand), discovering new cultural insights, and activating for action with Gen Z Hispanic consumers.

Marketing leaders from PepsiCo, Comcast, and Diageo joined Collage and Publicis Media to discuss growth strategies and share how they are leading America’s iconic brands to effectively navigate the evolution of the modern American consumer and win in a polarized America.

The panel was part of Collage Group’s annual flagship event this fall: the 2024 Cultural Fluency Summit, held in partnership with Publicis Media in New York City. As part of the event, Collage welcomed marketing and insights leaders from the world’s leading brands for an exclusive look at the latest cultural intelligence to fuel growth. In addition to the panel, Collage unveiled our annual, trended, flagship research in our presentations “America Now: Reimagining Inclusion to Drive Growth from Diverse Consumers” and “Break Through the Noise – How the Best Ads Activate Around the Reality of the Consumer Experience.”

Joining us for our panel was:

• Maria Teresa LaSpisa, Senior Director of Marketing Innovation at PepsiCo, where she leads marketing and innovation initiatives. Her focus is on leveraging integrated marketing expertise to shape brand strategies and plans that resonate across diverse consumer segments.
• Khary Campbell, Vice President, Consumer Research & Insights at Comcast, where he leads the research function. His team ensures that the business can make decisions grounded in consumer truth, needs and context.
• John Wise, Director of Innovation & Future Spaces at Diageo, where he works to help organizations understand, navigate, and act on cultural currents. He has applied his expertise in the art and science of culture to support leading brands including Target, Google, Coca-Cola, Macy’s and Pfizer.

Fill out the form to watch the replay of the panel discussion and to learn how these leading brands are engaging diverse consumers.

Here are the top-level insights shared from this meaningful conversation:

• Stay on top of evolving consumer trends to win business goals: Consumers’ preferences and behaviors are always changing. To remain competitive, businesses must continuously monitor and adapt to these trends, especially at the deepest cultural level in order to keep ahead of consumer demands and expectations.
• Get out of the office, observe, and build empathy by engaging with diverse cultures and experiences: Stepping outside the office environment and immersing yourself in different cultures and experiences helps build empathy. This understanding is crucial for creating products and services that truly resonate with diverse consumer bases.
• Foster collaboration within your organization to make smarter, more human decisions: Collaboration across different departments and with peers enhances decision-making. By incorporating diverse viewpoints, organizations can develop more innovative and human-centric solutions.
• Embrace multiple perspectives for effective problem-solving: Relying on a single way of understanding limits problem-solving capabilities. Embracing various perspectives allows for more comprehensive and effective solutions to complex challenges.
• Blend art and science in marketing for impactful results: Successful marketing requires a balance of creativity (art) and data-driven strategies (science). This blend ensures campaigns are both innovative and grounded in insights, leading to more impactful outcomes.

At Collage, our mission is to support your efforts to unleash the power of cultural intelligence to drive brand growth.

Our aim is to help you drive cultural fluency to drive enduring brand growth. Today’s consumers continue to change the game with evolving media habits, trends, and purchase decision drivers, and Collage’s Inclusive Marketing 3.0 framework helps brands continue to grow in cultural fluency.

Thank you again to our members who joined us in person and virtually, our marketing leader panelists, and to Publicis Media for their incredible partnership.

Contact us today learn how you can partner with us on the journey to cultural fluency and engaging diverse America.

Americans—especially younger generations—devote an enormous amount of their time and attention to the digital media space. Whether it’s social, video, or audio streaming content, these super-users actively engage with digital content creators, other people from their community, and even with brands.

Collage’s latest Media study provides insights into where people are using media, why they’re going there, and how your brand can authentically engage with your target segments across channels. Our latest report dives deep into the platform usage and drivers, content preferences, and engagement with influencers and brands on social media for consumers across generations.

This blog and download include a small sample of the deep cultural intelligence available to our members. Contact us to learn how you can unlock access to our cultural intelligence engine.

The Big Picture:

Consumers seek simplicity, escape, and connection from media.

• Americans are craving collective identity and embracing media-driven cultural moments to get it. Media facilitates connection around shared moments, from the Olympics to “Brat summer.” Consumers’ embrace of monoculture moments signals their desire to escape from the “doom loop.”
• Subscription and algorithm fatigue are re-defining Americans’ value equation around media. Americans are pining for simplicity in their media entertainment. Algorithms and cord-cutting were once seen as a way to streamline media, but instead consumers find themselves overwhelmed by choices, platforms, and subscriptions. This shift is making way for new up-and-comers offering a media experience like “the good old days.”

Key Insight #1: Social Media

TikTok and Instagram excel in attracting Gen Z to the zeitgeist. These are Gen Z’s preferred platforms for finding new trends.

Do This:

• Keep your finger on the pulse of culture by keeping tabs on TikTok and Instagram trends as a compass for Gen Z — and broader American — cultural moments.
• Take swift action on trends, because they rise and die quickly! Get in on them before they peak, because Gen Z may view belated action as “cringe.”

Interested in the full study? Contact us for additional insights on how to connect with today’s consumers, and to learn how to make your brand a winner with high-growth segments.

At Collage, we measure Cultural Fluency by gauging consumer sentiment across six key dimensions: Relevance, Fit, Memories, Trust, Advocacy, and Values. These dimensions are weighed and combined to create the Brand Cultural Fluency Quotient (B-CFQ) score. The B-CFQ score gives our members crucial insights into their brand’s resonance across different consumer segments and strategies for improvement, referencing the unparalleled depth of data in our fluen.ci (SM) database.

These brand rankings illustrate Collage’s deep understanding of what works and why, and how we support the world’s leading brands in applying actionable insights that fuel growth. Our latest research has identified the top brands for parents based on average B-CFQ score, and then deep dives into specific brands that perform uniquely well with the segment.

This blog and download include a small sample of the deep cultural intelligence available to our members. Contact us to learn how you can unlock access to our cultural intelligence engine.

The Big Picture

• As kids grow up, brands must adapt to demonstrate multifaceted utility and support for parents navigating every stage.
• Have a point of view when it comes to the issues concerning today’s parents.

Why it Matters:

Parents face evolving challenges as they balance raising children with personal and professional demands. They seek brands that provide tailored solutions for each stage of their child’s life. By addressing the issues parents care about, like their children’s future and wellbeing, brands can build trust, foster loyalty, and inspire optimism.

Want to see how your brand performs with Parents and other segments across each B-CFQ component, identify growth opportunities, and compare your brand to key industry competitors? Contact us to learn how to make your brand a winner with high-growth segments.

While shopping for deals these days may be universal, there are specific Gen Z differences that can help you hone your creative direction, messaging, and media buying.

• Which multicultural groups buy more on Black Friday?
• Which Gen Z gender shops the most?  The answer may surprise you.
• And do you think Gen Z is buying just for themselves, or is a significant percentage parents and buying for their children as well?

Collage offers Custom Audiences to enrich your current segmentation or media audiences with rich cultural insight.  Specifically, Collage highlights the top passion points (where consumer groups prioritize their time and money), top cultural attitudes (for new creative inspiration), and which categories they are actively looking to buy.

Today’s inclusive marketing is caught in a cycle of diminishing returns. This signature research teaches brands how to escape the cycle and build toward growth with the New Inclusive Marketing.

2024 is defined by rapid change and supersized cultural events. From groundbreaking music releases celebrating intersectional identities to a tumultuous election year featuring powerful protests for Gaza and the electrifying Caitlin Clark/Angel Reese rivalry in the WNBA, Americans are navigating a cultural landscape that demands engagement. However, this excitement is tempered by a sense of burnout. Many Americans feel overwhelmed by the constant flood of big events and unfulfilled promises for change.

In this complex environment, the urgency for brands to embrace inclusive marketing is paramount. Yet, brands find themselves caught between responding to backlash with caution or ignoring the risk to lean in more. Our research reveals that this is a false choice destined for disappointment. Instead, brands need to evolve their inclusive marketing to break today’s stagnation and foster growth in 2025 and beyond.

Download a sample of our America Now report for our guide to driving growth, building trust, and gaining momentum with new inclusive marketing strategies.

The Big Picture:

1.) America is stuck in a cycle. That includes Inclusive Marketing – a.k.a. campaigns focused on diverse representation and engagement.

2.) American consumers still want brands to engage in cultural storytelling and outreach.

3.) To grow in 2025, brands must adopt the next evolution of inclusive marketing.

What Surprised Us:

Over the past few years, consumer satisfaction with representation in advertising has steadily improved across various demographics. However, this year marks a notable shift, with 40% of Americans expressing dissatisfaction with how they are portrayed. This plateau in satisfaction reveals a critical gap that brands can no longer afford to ignore, highlighting the urgent need to align marketing strategies with evolving consumer expectations.

Collage Group’s Strategies to Evolve Inclusive Marketing:

Inclusive Marketing has evolved before and it’s time for it to evolve again. We’re calling the new practice Inclusive Marketing 3.0 and it builds off of the cultural specificity of version 2.0 to zoom in even closer. Inclusive Marketing 3.0 highlights the most resonant everyday moments, unifying struggles, and collaborative boosts that produce cultural storytelling with the power to move more American consumers.

Interested in more? Contact us to learn how you can navigate this cultural complexity, especially as the U.S. continues to diversify. Brands that use cultural and linguistic cues relevant to their target audience and facilitate content or product information sharing will enable them to connect more dynamically with this diverse demographic, fueling further growth.

We look forward to partnering with you and continuing our contributions to authentic brand engagements that elevate diverse consumer voices year-round.

Awards announced at flagship annual event, Cultural Fluency Summit

I was delighted to see so many familiar faces, and meet many new members, at our annual 2024 Cultural Fluency Summit in New York City where we welcomed over 100 insights and marketing leaders. At the event, it was my pleasure to recognize 11 brands and individuals with our all-new Cultural Fluency Maker Awards. The honor distinguishes leading Collage member brands and individual members for notable progress in their cultural fluency journey.

Each of these brands, individuals, and their teams, did the hard and necessary work in leveraging cultural intelligence to engage a wide range of consumer segments. Their efforts show an unwavering commitment to use cultural insights can lead to a measurable impact on authenticity, resonance, and brand love, and Collage is pleased to recognize these endeavors.

There are three categories for the awards that recognize both brands and individuals for their impactful work during the past year.

Our Platinum Award recognizes brands as a pre-eminent leaders in Cultural Fluency–leveraging cultural intelligence to efficiently and effectively connect across consumer segments. The honorees have the most brands scoring in the very top percentile for Brand Cultural Fluency – Collage’s proprietary metric that measures brand performance.

• Winner: Procter & Gamble
• Honoree: PepsiCo
  

The Hero Award celebrates both brands and individuals who are leading the way in applying cultural insights for business impact. Hero is one of the 12 universal brand storytelling archetypes, and it honors competence and confidence in making change. That is the inspiration for the selection of these honorees – as leaders in making positive change.

• Brand Gold: Pernod Ricard
• Brand Silver: The Walt Disney Company
• Brand Bronze: Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits
• Individual Gold: Jason Hall at Gray Media Group
• Individual Silver: Matrika Chapagain at AARP
• Individual Bronze: Maria Twena at Adsmovil
  

Our Igniter Award honors brands that had the largest increases in brand momentum. These brands rank in the top 5% of the hundreds of brands tested and are the up and coming leaders in Cultural Fluency – something to truly pay attention to.

• Gold: Elevance Health
• Silver: Philips
• Bronze: Comcast