Of course, leading with ideology in the mass market can be a double-edged sword. The brand has to walk the walk or it will be called out. Chipotle is a large and growing business with many industrial-scale processes, not a small farm-to-table taqueria. Delivering perishable fresh food, which the company is committed to as a preindustrial food champion, is a huge operational challenge. Chipotle’ s reputation has taken a painful hit with highly publicized outbreaks of E. coli and norovirus contamination. Chipotle won’ t win back consumer trust through ads or public relations efforts. Rather, the company has to convince the crowdculture that it’ s doubling down on its commitment to get preindustrial food right, and then the crowd will advocate for its brand once again.
Competing for Crowdcultures
To brand effectively with social media, companies should target crowdcultures. Today, in pursuit of relevance, most brands chase after trends. But this is a commodity approach to branding: Hundreds of companies are doing exactly the same thing with the same generic list of trends. It’ s no wonder consumers don’ t pay attention. By targeting novel ideologies flowing out of crowdcultures, brands can assert a point of view that stands out in the overstuffed media environment.
Take the personal care category. Three brands— Dove, Axe, and Old Spice— have generated tremendous consumer interest and identification in a historically lowinvolvement category, one you would never expect to get attention on social media. They succeeded by championing distinctive gender ideologies around which crowdcultures had formed.
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