Every brand leader claims they want their company to stand out. Yet when confronted with the choices required to become truly remarkable, fear sets in.

• Fear of alienating some customers.

• Fear of disrupting the industry status quo.

• Fear of being copied, criticized, or misunderstood.

• Fear of taking risks that may not pay off.

This hesitation is what keeps many brands in the comfort zone of being good or great but never remarkable.

When most people think about building a brand, they imagine logos, colors, taglines, campaigns. However, the truth is less glamorous and more powerful. Great brands aren’t built from the top down. They rise from the foundation up. The foundation determines everything.

Brands That Endure Start With Emotional Relevance, Not Campaigns

A brand’s true foundation isn’t the visuals, the messaging, or even the product. It’s relevance of meaning, emotional purpose, identity, values, what makes you unforgettable, and what makes customers want to talk about you.

We are living in the age of instant relevance. A trend explodes on TikTok. A cultural moment hits the news. A meme ignites social feeds. Within minutes, brands rush to “join the conversation.” Fastvertising has become the marketing world’s caffeine shot. When done well, it’s clever, timely, and wildly shareable. When done poorly, it’s awkward, forced, and instantly forgotten.

Fastvertising creates attention or buzz. Real brand building creates advocacy.

And those two are not the same thing.

Most brands want Word of Mouth. Very few actually engineer it. They assume great operations, good people, and solid marketing will naturally turn customers into advocates. Sometimes it happens. More often, what they get is satisfaction and not shareability.

Some industries are better suited than others to withstand and thrive in VUCA conditions. Franchises in essential services, recurring revenue models, and non-discretionary spending sectors consistently show resilience. What are the best-performing franchise industries in today’s environment and why they offer stability, scalability, and long-term value.

Strategic investors don’t wait for perfect timing—they create it. In VUCA environments, those who move early benefit from reduced costs, superior territory options, and compounded business value as the market recovers. Combining action with opportunity creates not just ownership, but long-term wealth.

In unpredictable economic conditions, entrepreneurs crave structure and support. Independent ventures can leave owners isolated, while franchise systems offer consistency, guidance, and peer networks. Franchises serve as a stable foundation in VUCA markets, enabling owners to make smart decisions with confidence and clarity.

Franchisees who act during volatile markets are often the best positioned to scale as the economy rebounds. Rather than trying to catch the wave of recovery, they’re already operational, trained, and ready to meet rising demand. Franchising during a downturn sets you up for accelerated growth and long-term advantage.

Economic slowdowns trigger fear in some but open doors for others. In VUCA markets, those who act instead of retreat can acquire franchises at lower costs, secure superior real estate, and build stronger teams. Buying a franchise during downturns creates structural advantages that compound over time.

Economic uncertainty often causes hesitation, but history shows that entrepreneurs and business owners who act decisively in volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) environments often gain the greatest rewards. Franchising, in particular, offers a proven system that reduces risk, accelerates time to profitability, and builds long-term equity, especially in times of disruption. Acting during uncertain times positions franchisees to lead the market recovery, not chase it.

We are now living in an era shaped by constant change. Business owners and entrepreneurs are increasingly operating in what’s known as a VUCA environment. An environment marked by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. While many view these conditions as deterrents to action, forward-looking entrepreneurs recognize VUCA as a signal to act strategically.

An army of brand advocates can be a very powerful marketing force.  More and more, marketers are seeking to create or ignite brand advocacy.  They are creating price promotions, leveraging Social Media, and creating experiential campaigns all with the hopes of getting customers to advocate for their brand.

When we think of the word care, we think about being concerned, having regard or simply having a liking for someone or something. When we think about the acronym C.A.R.E., many will think of the international humanitarian agency delivering emergency relief and long-term international development projects.  In both cases, there is an emotional affinity towards and, in many cases, a desire to advocate on behalf of a cause or people.

CMOs are continuously looking at their marketing media mix to improve ROIs.  The simple difference between traditional Media, such as television, print, radio, direct mail, outdoor and even digital and social media, and Customer Centric Communities is the difference between one-way communication (or monologues) and two-way communication (or dialogues).

For decades, marketers relied on a simple formula:
∫(VALUE) = Quality ÷ Price.

It worked in an era where competition was about what you sold.

But today, in a world driven by why people buy, that formula feels obsolete. Consumers don’t just purchase products; they invest in meaning, ease, and alignment.

Value is no longer transactional; it’s transformational.
It’s not what something costs, but what it contributes to life, identity, and growth.

The original “4 P’s” of marketing, Product, Price, Place, Promotion, defined the discipline for decades. Later, the “7 P’s” expanded the model to include People, Process, and Physical Evidence for service industries. But in today’s marketplace, driven by transparency, technology, values, and culture, brands need an even more holistic, modern compass.

 I would like to introduce The Eight P’s of Marketing:
Purpose, Performance, Perception, Participation, Proposition, Prevalence, People, and Process.

Make your Online Communities more effective by incorporating physical experiences.

Developing and nurturing online communities can be a powerful way of developing deeper customer relationships; if done properly. The problem with many online communities today, is that they are only online. They rely on technological solutions to facilitate communication to drive relationships. The problem with this strategy is that online technological solutions only leverage a portion of the brain’s primary communication function. 

Companies spend millions of dollars executing CRM plans against databases of millions of customers.  I do not understand the appeal of CRM or Customer Relationship Management. Why would customers engage with brands that want to manage their relationship? Who wants their relationship managed?  Try this.  Go home and tell your spouse or significant other that you want to manage the relationship. What do you think their reaction would be?  It would probably not be very positive.