While more than 80% of Americans live in Urban cities, the results of the 2016 presidential election highlighted that there are many unique differences and considerations facing the 20% of Americans living in rural areas. Many of the frequent cultural assumptions we make when planning campaigns for the general population do not necessarily match up with what Rural Americans experience on a daily basis.

Today's consumer goods industry was built on brand marketing. For decades, the focus was on high-impact campaigns across TV, billboards and radio, with companies seeking to develop slogans and brand narratives that resonated with consumers of all ages and backgrounds.

As I travel around the country speaking about brand advocacy and engagement, the question I am often asked is, "What makes for a truly successful brand-owned community?" Having worked with many marketers on establishing a home base for their consumers, or when I consider other companies that have made meaningful connections with their fans, my answer is this: the most successful brand communities are grounded in deep emotion.

According to Mintel, Millennials are more likely than any other generation to snack four times a day or, in many cases, more often than that. And 94% of Americans are snacking at least once per day. Snacking now accounts for 50% of all eating occasions and America's consumers say that snacking is essential to meeting their daily nutritional requirements.

For the many years that preceded social media, marketers relied mostly on engaging with their consumers in one-way communications. This included television, radio, direct mail, billboards etc.

If you spend any time in CPG product innovation, you're likely using a"Jobs To Be Done" (JTBD) approach. Created by Harvard Business School professor and disruptive innovator Clayton Christensen, the JTBD approach simply suggests people don't buy products, they hire them to do specific jobs.

Advertising is ultimately an exercise in shaping the memories and associations that consumers hold of a brand. And memory, as we know from neuroscience, is a lot more complicated than we originally thought. The old model of memory oversimplifies the much more complex processes that occur in the brain when a consumer interacts with the many touch-points of a brand.