What homonym in the English language turns Americans red, white and blue? Freedom.
There’s been an encyclopedia of articles written on how Americans are self-segregating themselves into tribes based on values, personality types, political affiliations and so on. Since we’re coming up on the Fourth of July, it’s a great opportunity to demonstrate how one word like “freedom” connotes very different meanings to each of these tribes and why brand marketers and their clients need to be crystal clear about their audience before they choose visual and emotionally loaded concepts to communicate and reinforce their brand story.
In his 2012 book, “The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided By Politics and Religion,” author Jonathan Haidt separates our tribes into six distinct moral codes: Sanctity, Authority, Loyalty, Fairness, Liberty, and Care. At face value, none of these adjectives seem like they should make people’s blood boil. Who could possibly be against loyalty, fairness and liberty? Talk about mom and apple pie, but if you look below the surface these words carry a strong correlation with some of our country’s deepest political faultlines.
According to Haidt, conservatives endorse loyalty, authority, and sanctity as core moral principles, while liberals, on the other hand, are more exclusive in their emphasis on principles of care, liberty, and fairness. Interestingly, Haidt notes conservatives draw on a broader moral perspective because they also endorse care, liberty, and fairness far more than liberals endorse loyalty, authority and sanctity. (Here comes the hate mail.)
These moral groundings override higher-level reasoning, which is one reason binary political issues often devolve into anger, and why facts have limited value in political persuasion. While consumers aren’t limited to an either/or choice when it comes to their spending, the same moral codes still apply.
So who is Harley-Davidson trying to appeal to with a tagline, “Find Your Freedom”? Do their TV and digital ads put Harley riders together wearing the same jackets in a group riding on the open highway in an open appeal to group loyalty, or are their ads appealing to fairness and care through the image of a male/female couple parking their Harley’s and petting a baby doe in front of a quaint bed and breakfast?
There will be no shortage of freedom-based ads trying to grab your eyeballs this week. Want freedom from high-interest credit cards, or how about freedom from that uncomfortable mattress? Would you like freedom from airline luggage fees, or how about the freedom long-term cellular phone contracts? If you could give yourself a dime everytime you hear or see the word ‘freedom’ in an ad the first week of July, you would be very wealthy, but the question is whether you’d be any more likely to buy the product or service?
Here’s my challenge: next time you see or hear a commercial pitching freedom, put Haidt’s core moral principles to work and see if you can figure out who was the intended audience. Then take a look at your own brand story. Are the words conveying the right emotions to the audience you are trying to attract? Is there any confusion, or are you simply targeting the wrong customers? If not, it’s time to declare your independence and find an alignment between your brand story and your audience.