• by J. Walker Smith , Op-Ed Contributor, Yesterday

From all my years in research and consulting, I think I’ve learned a thing or two about marketing worth sharing. Enduring fundamentals, mostly -- yet often overlooked. So, over the course of my biweekly column this year, I want to share some snippets for your consideration. I hope they’re helpful.

This week’s thought: Nothing matters unless it is central to a brand’s value proposition.

Lots of things come and go in marketing. Fads and trends, new books and new concepts, innovative ads and inventive products -- all of these things and more crowd the scene and grab the attention of marketers looking for the next big thing. There is always something new pushing something old out of the limelight.

But only rarely do these fads and inventions go to the heart of a brand’s value proposition. Mostly, all this commotion in the marketplace is about how to represent a brand’s value proposition or the channels by which a brand’s value proposition is communicated. It’s not central to the value proposition itself, and thus it really doesn’t matter much. Worse, it can be distracting. Worst of all, it can be easily discarded.

Sustainability is perhaps the biggest instance of this sort of fuss in the marketplace. Too often, it is approached as a fad not as something central to a brand’s value proposition. All too often, sustainability marketing is virtue signaling, merely flying the eco-flag to signal an alliance of sensibilities and priorities.

But this sort of mind-meld is not about product differentiation. Sustainability is most powerful when the value delivered by the product itself is uniquely created by sustainability. This is not something that is true for most brands. For example, product ingredients maybe sustainably sourced but the performance of the product itself -- the benefit delivered -- is not enhanced or improved in any way because of that. Similarly, EV autos may have a lower carbon footprint but may not have anything to do with the styling or power or roominess or safety that is the central value proposition of a brand or the category.

The same applies to other things that have become commonplace in marketing over the past decade or two. Such as diversity and inclusivity. These are laudable goals for businesses and brands, but the link that most brands make to these goals are not central to the benefits delivered. To say this more provocatively—forewarned—the absence of any tie to a brand’s central value proposition, or the benefit delivered, is why it is so easy for brands to abandon diversity and inclusivity in the face of boycotts or political pressure. Brands can live without it, at least in terms of product performance, and therefore they do.

But this very problem points to the solution. Which is to make things like sustainability or diversity and inclusivity central to a brand’s value proposition. Then these things will matter, and hence they will stick through thick and thin.

The biggest growth opportunity for brands is Hispanic consumers. This is a group that is growing in numbers and spending power. Generally speaking, Hispanic consumers are creative, innovative and commercially minded. They have disproportionate interest in technology, fashion and food, as well as shopping, novelty, fun and family. Hispanic consumers want to be engaged in the marketplace, and they are loyal to brands that connect in culturally relevant ways.

But this is where most marketers go wrong. Treating Hispanics as a sideline or a complement to the main business means that Hispanics are not approached as relevant to a brand’s central value proposition. Nice to have, but possible to do without.

To grow, brands need to add consumers -- build penetration. Hispanics are a growing consumer group, so the easiest way for a brand to grow is to make Hispanics central to its growth plans. In other words, put Hispanics at the center of the brand, not at the periphery. Because that’s where growth will be found.

This kind of problematic approach is true as well for single households. This is the fastest growing household structure in the world, and in the U.S., too. But too many brands treat single households as a marginal target group. Most of today’s big brands were developed during a time when married households with children were the biggest part of growth, so these brands are designed for the household needs of those types of households. Which are not the household needs for singles. Single households tend to be approached as something to extra not as something central. And because they are not central to a brand’s value proposition, they get short shrift.

Repeatedly, some of the biggest opportunities in the marketplace go unrealized because brands approach them as an add-on, thus walling them off from the central value proposition. At the same time, of course, brands must not dilute their value propositions, meaning that other approaches must be taken with extensions, portfolios or new products that can put these opportunities at the center. Because that’s the only way that brands can stake themselves to something valuable and true.