What is persuasion turning into?
Do you make decisions like you did 10 years ago?
Or are you a bit more skeptical now, in a healthy way?
If you answered yes, know that it’s not just you. Consumer trust has taken a steep drop over the last few years (with under 10% of those surveyed saying they have complete confidence in big organisations). So, in order to retain and grow their customer base, brands need to bring empathy and authenticity to the table.
Strategies that once worked – like scarcity tactics, pressure-driven sales, and fear-based messaging – now stand in the shadow of their former selves.
And that’s a good thing.
But it doesn’t mean that the art of persuasion is dead. It’s just different now, complete with a different word for pitching your brand and seeing if the people choose it.
Marketing, done ethically, will continue to thrive in our evolving world.
No pressure to persuade, just connect
Manipulation is out, meaning is in. Which means honouring and celebrating what your audience is into – even if it’s an underconsumption trend like No-Buy 2025.
Can’t imagine how that would work for a brand? Thank Patagonia for its game-changing Don’t Buy This Jacket ad, released all the way back in 2011.
So peel open your ears with social listening, and really listen to your audience’s needs and desires. There are so many exciting opportunities emerging.
Gather round the fire, it’s story time
Storytelling. We did it thousands of years ago, and we still enjoy it today.
You won’t have to work hard to make a sale. Storytelling will help you naturally get there, depending on the story you’re telling (and we don’t mean fluffing it).
So don’t drone on about your product’s features, weave them into a story. Show your audience the reality behind the brand by spotlighting your colleagues, company culture, and behind-the-scenes glimpses. Want an example? Nibble on cereal brand Surreal’s content here. It often goes viral, and with good reason.
Brand voice is great, but how’s your customer care?
Your Instagram page might be a marketing hall of fame, but do you leave angry complaints on read in your DMs? Are your negative reviews about how frustrating your customer service is? If a customer care team replies to comments on social media posts, do they sound nothing like your brand does?
With AI bots quickly taking over customer care, your brand’s relationship with its audience might be in hotter water if they don’t get what they need. As a consumer yourself, how often have you hit an AI wall and just wanted to speak to a human?
Don’t give your customers a reason to be angry with your brands. Word spreads, even faster than wildfire when it’s negative. Gather your communications team from all levels, including the intern, and spend a whole day (or however many it takes) to give your customers the care they deserve. Complete with warmth and empathy.
Let’s take this outside
Not into a dark alley.
But into the real world, so our collective screen time can go down.
Social media is a powerful platform, but be sure to avoid bombarding viewers with endless ads and three posts a day. Now multiply that approach by all your competitors – that’s a lot of content that people are faced with. Familiarity and exposure-over-time does lead to sales, but everything in moderation right?
Instead, meet customers outside. OOH campaigns are one thing. But give back to the community with feel-good initiatives. Invest in the local areas your stores are located in with community-focused features to help make everyone’s life that bit better.
Toilet paper brand Who Gives A Crap does this wonderfully, by donating a whopping 50% of profits to help build toilets in parts of the world that need them. Transparency and customer education is a big part of its content strategy, helping customers understand why donating this portion of profits is practical for most brands.
What does the road ahead look like?
Marketing still has a place in the evolving world. But the way it’s done boils down to respect – for your audience’s attention, values, genuine needs and desires. Lead with the right priorities, and profit will naturally follow. As will customer loyalty for the long run, positive word-of-mouth, and an equally positive impact on the planet.
If you or someone you know is in the market for communications support, let us know at [email protected]. We’ve spent close to 10 years doing what we do – specialising in PR in Dubai (we won an award too), social media marketing (check out the folks we’ve worked with here), as well as content creation, copywriting, and design.