Meaning, Relevance, And The Consumer-Brand Connection: An Interview With Martina Olbertova

This is an interview done with Seth Grimes in preparations for my talk at his CX Emotion conference on July 22, 2020. The interview appeared in Customer Experience Magazine.

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Meaning is what a brand signifies or implies to the consumer. It is central to brand promise, and it contributes to expectations against which customer experience is measured.

Dr. Martina Olbertova puts it succinctly: “Meaning bridges the gap between brands and people.” Martina is an expert on meaning and cultural relevance in business, the founder of UK/European consultancy Meaning.Global. She phrases the business goal as “to help brands and businesses stay relevant, meaningful, and profitable amidst global culture change.” Her work explores the changing nature of “concepts such as well-being, purpose, spirituality, diversity, gender, identity, trust, loyalty, luxury, consumption or post-truth, to understand how today’s global cultural context reshapes the meaning of brands.”

While these concepts are readily understood and their importance is obvious, it takes a combination of art and science to systematically address them in…