What Consumer-Centric Brand Building Really Means in 2026

For years, disruption was treated as a phase. A crisis to navigate. A storm to wait out.

But here’s the reality we now have to face:

Disruption is no longer temporary. It’s permanent.

And that single shift changes what it truly means to be consumer-centric in 2026.

Two recent global reports, State of Marketing Europe: Past Forward and

 State of the Consumer: When disruption becomes permanent, one looking at the future of marketing, the other at how consumers behave when uncertainty becomes the norm point toward the same conclusion from different directions:

The old marketing playbook is no longer wrong. It’s just no longer enough.

The illusion of “going back to normal”

From inflation and geopolitical tension to climate anxiety and algorithmic overload, consumers have spent half a decade adapting to instability.

What’s interesting isn’t that people feel uncertain. It’s that they’ve normalized it.

Consumers today:

• feel pessimistic about the world

• continue spending anyway

• trade down in one category and splurge in another

• seek value and comfort at the same time

This isn’t confusion. It’s adaptation.

The problem is that many brands are still interpreting this behavior through outdated frameworks, rational choice models, linear funnels, or overly neat segmentations.

Meanwhile, consumers have moved on.

What’s really changed in consumer behavior?

The most important shift isn’t what people buy. It’s why and how they decide.

Three fundamental changes define the permanent-disruption consumer:

1. Emotion now outweighs optimization.

People no longer buy based on a single logic like price, quality, or sustainability.

They buy based on:

• emotional reassurance

• perceived fairness

• usefulness in real life

• how a brand makes them feel in a specific moment

This is why sentiment and spending are now decoupled. Consumption has become a coping mechanism, not a confidence signal.

2. Contradictions are no longer a weakness

Consumers are comfortable holding opposing behaviors at once.

Saving money and buying small luxuries.

Caring about sustainability and choosing convenience.

Wanting less stuff and better stuff.

The demand for “perfect consistency” has disappeared.

What remains is a demand for understanding.

3. Convenience is assumed, meaning is not

Speed, access, and personalization are no longer differentiators. They’re hygienic.

What people notice now is:

• clarity

• tone

• restraint

• whether a brand respects their reality

In other words, how brands show up, not how often.

Meanwhile, marketing is having its own reckoning

On the marketing side, something equally important is happening.

After years of performance obsession, fragmentation, and tech-first thinking, marketing is being pulled back toward its core role:

Building trust, emotional relevance, and long-term demand.

Not as nostalgia. But as a necessity.

What we’re seeing across Europe is:

• renewed investment in brand building

• a return to full-funnel thinking

• growing awareness that efficiency without meaning erodes value

At the same time, AI is accelerating everything.

And that’s the real risk.

Because AI doesn’t fix weak brands. It exposes them.

Without a clear brand idea, AI doesn’t create relevance; it creates sameness at scale.

So what does “consumer-centric” really mean in 2026?

Not more data. Not more content. Not more personalization.

Consumer-centricity in 2026 is about emotional proximity, not control.

Here are five principles that define the shift.

1. From target groups to emotional states

Stop asking only who the consumer is.

Start asking:

• What are they navigating right now?

• Are they seeking relief, energy, reassurance, or meaning?

• What role can our brand realistically play in that moment?

The most effective brands will map states of mind, not just segments. (spoiler alert: this has already been included in the Outdoor Archetypes in Above The Clouds Future Series NXT Reports.) Let me know if you would like to dive into outdoor archetypes and the consumer mind map of:

1. Occasional Outdoor

   Outdoors as an activity, not identity

2. Outdoor as a Lifestyle Layer

   Outdoor as part of everyday life and urban style

3. Core/Embedded Outdoor

   Outdoor as identity and value system
   

   

2. From personalisation to respectful relevance

Consumers don’t want brands to know everything about them.

They want brands to:

• understand enough

• not overstep

• earn attention rather than assume it

Relevance is no longer about precision. It’s about judgment.

3. From purpose statements to trust behaviour

People are tired of lofty narratives and moral pressure.

Trust today is built through:

• consistency over time

• transparency when things aren’t perfect

• brands knowing their limits and their role

It’s not about saying the right thing. It’s about doing the same thing again and again.

4. From always-on speed content to stronger ideas and formats

AI will flood culture with content.

Only brands with distinctive, emotionally anchored ideas and formats will cut through.

In 2026, the strongest strategy won’t be producing more. It will be deciding what not to say and how to say what you want. (another spoiler alert is that the Above The Clouds Storytelling Playbook got updated for this direction at the beginning of 2025 already and has been tested based on the five pillars of content storytelling with formats and KPI's.)

5. From consumer-centric marketing to consumer-centric culture

Consumer-centricity is not a campaign framework.

It’s an organizational mind-set.

When brand, product, communication, and experience are aligned around the same human truth, marketing becomes relevant and trustworthy and not performative.

The real opportunity ahead

Permanent disruption doesn’t mean permanent crisis.

It means people are looking for:

• clarity instead of noise

• usefulness instead of aspiration theatre

• brands that respect their trade-offs rather than judge them

The brands that win in 2026 won’t be the loudest, fastest, or most optimized.

They’ll be the ones that help people navigate uncertainty with dignity.

That’s not just good marketing. That’s how strong brands are built for the long term. If you want to learn more about my consumer-centric approach to insights and strategy or Concepts and Activations, or maybe you feel ready for Creative & Strategic Sprints. My shortcut to the winning game strategy. Happy Reading Fredrik