When growth stalls despite high awareness, the reflex is to buy more reach. We see a pattern: teams optimise for attention, not usefulness. Define relevance as earned usefulness and measure it simply; preference follows, because decisions reflect value delivered, not impressions counted.
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What this means for leaders navigating growth, change or transformation in their organisation.
Many teams still conflate being well known with being worth choosing. Awareness buys you a glance; relevance earns you a decision. In markets of abundant choice and fractured journeys, attention without usefulness is increasingly fragile. You can’t out-shout switching costs or risk perceptions with impressions alone.
EY notes that 35% of consumers no longer see brand as a meaningful factor in their purchase decisions, a signal that familiarity is losing ground to perceived value and fit. If leadership treats visibility as victory, strategic choices drift toward campaigns rather than the proposition, service and proof that actually move preference.
A practical definition of relevance is earned usefulness: the degree to which your brand helps people progress at the moments that matter. It’s not a sentiment score; it’s the downstream effect of solving a current problem better than alternatives, and being seen doing so.
Edelman reports that 64% of people now choose brands aligned to their beliefs, up four points year on year, which underlines a wider point: usefulness is functional and cultural. It blends outcomes, values, and credible behaviour. Treat it as a moving measure tied to context, not a static attribute pinned to a tagline.
If relevance is earned, you can instrument it. Build a simple, stable set of signals and review them cross‑functionally each month so decisions compound rather than fragment.
The shift from attention to usefulness is less marketing tactic, more operating model. It asks leaders to sequence ambition, simplify governance and show proof in market-facing behaviour.
In our experience with leadership teams at inflection points, this reframing unlocks alignment, sharpens choices, and makes return on investment easier to defend quarter by quarter.
Leaders who adopt this lens will find that brand stops being a cost of communication and starts acting as the operating system for choices—quietly compounding trust, preference and performance as conditions change.
Every organisation hits brand questions it can’t solve alone — if you’d like an outside perspective, we’re here. Let’s talk.