Elevating CPG Brand Voice With AI

Situation

As a brand strategist, clients often ask me, "Should we address complex social issues? Will it help or hurt our brand?" Consumer understanding is essential to answering these questions. Still, many of my clients lean heavily on ad-hoc data or gut feelings, leading to a limited understanding of culture and “hit-or-miss” advertising. Surveys, for example, are misleading and fundamentally flawed when they provoke shame or ignore the dynamic cultural forces influencing consumer opinion.

Insight & Action

While working with one such client, I knew we needed to use a fresh approach, so I found data that could be transformed to yield real-time comparisons between consumer opinions and brand voice on key topics. Collaborating with my data science team, we quickly compiled and analyzed the data using custom AI and Machine Learning models. Using that analysis, I created the "I Hear You Curve," a tool that provides real-time comparisons of brand voice and consumer sentiment on complex social topics.

Results

With the "I Hear You Curve" I was able to show my client when their words didn't resonate with consumers, and I showed them when critical topics like "clean drinking water" went under-addressed while others like "fair trade" were over-indexed. Finally, by benchmarking them against peers, I showed my clients hidden blind spots and opportunities. The "I Hear You Curve" received rave reviews, and my approach was replicated multiple times, elevating brand voices and improving our relationships with key accounts.