Brands should think like a 7 year old.

Brands should think like Corn Kid.

I don’t mean all brands should be jumping on the latest trends to try and make hay with whatever clip/meme/story is capturing the public’s interest (though that’s not a bad thing to do for many brands.) What I mean is that brands should embrace the inherent positivity and joy that Tariq showed in that Recess Therapy video and bring a sense of humanity into our daily lives. We could sure use it.

We’re getting mixed signals on the economy, and no one seem confident on how to forecast what exactly is going to happen in the coming months. Our political parties on a good day are at war with each other, and in the run up to the midterms we can’t hide from the confrontational ads, and the downright lies that are being peddled to us. The impact on our daily lives from Covid may be receding, but it’s still not gone, and hundreds of people are dying each day. All of this is leading people to feel insecure, and likely a large swath is worried, or unhappy, or both.

Recent survey data underscores this point. Resonate tracks US consumer attitudes on a range of topics. Some insights from recent reports:

• In July the report found that economic dismay has increased 11% in the past few months, with 27% of respondents saying the economy will “never return to normal.”
• In a September report 49.2% say they are only “getting by” financially. An additional 25.4% say that “times are hard” and they’re struggling to even pay for necessities.
• In the latest survey about Covid attitudes, while 35.4% said that their lives are already back to normal like pre-Covid, 48.1% believe that it will take at least 7 more months for that to be true. 22.1% think it will be more than a year and 18.1% said it will never be back to normal.

That’s why beautiful, genuine, warm, human moments like Tariq gave us are so welcomed and embraced.

When I think of that from a marketers’ perspective, I see a crystal-clear directive on how brands need to show up in people’s lives right now. This has implications for customer service, copy in marketing messages, tools…anything that touches consumers. In short, we need to bring humanity at scale back into the world. Three tips for doing that:

1. Approach me with warmth and humanity. We’re awash in uncertainty. The economy, personal rights, health issues are shifting and changing every day. Reflect that understanding and help blunt some of its impact.
2. Speak to me in clear, simple, and easy to absorb ways. We’re stressed, overwhelmed, unsure. We need to sift through competing information to figure out what’s real and accurate, and even what’s worth our time to try and delve into. Don’t make me do that hard work when dealing with your brand. Simplify your message for me.
3. Bring a smile to my face. We’re inundated with stressful, hard news and situations many times a day. Give me a reminder that all is not gloom and doom.

The optimist in me says that if brands can do those three things, authentically and consistently, not only will it help their business, but it will also give their customers a Corntastic day.

This post was originally published by Campaign US.