How Materiality Can Strengthen Brand and Communications Strategy

Do you really understand what matters most to the people you are trying to reach?

Many organizations think they do – but when it comes to understanding what investors, employees, customers and communities care about, it can be challenging. And operating based on assumptions can put your company at risk.

In an environment where audiences are looking for authenticity, transparency and accountability, effective communication starts with understanding what matters most.

Rather than broad corporate messaging, your audiences want to understand how your organization’s decisions, priorities and actions affect their investments, jobs, supply chains, communities and daily lives. They’re hoping for communication that feels relevant, grounded in evidence and connected to issues that genuinely matter to them.

That’s where materiality comes in.

Materiality is most often associated with annual reports, accounting or sustainability disclosures. And while that’s certainly true, materiality is really about something much simpler and more essential: understanding what matters most to the people who influence an organization’s success.

In the context of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) reporting, a materiality assessment looks at which issues are most important to audiences and most relevant to the organization’s performance and long-term success. It helps identify where expectations, risks and opportunities intersect. If you want a deeper dive into the ESG and reporting side of materiality assessments, take a look at our previous blog, Double Materiality Is More than a Matrix.

Double materiality assessments take this a step further by helping organizations understand not only which issues create risks or opportunities for the business, but also how the business impacts people, communities and the environment.

From a communications perspective, the most interesting thing about materiality isn’t reporting; it’s storytelling. By helping organizations understand what truly matters to their audiences and what is uniquely true about who they are, what they do and why it matters, materiality creates the clarity needed to shape stronger narratives, clearer positioning and communications that resonate.

Finding the stories that matter

A brand is the impression people build of an organization over time. It’s shaped by the themes you repeat, the issues you emphasize and the experiences you create. When that story feels clear and consistent, people know what to expect from you. When it feels vague or scattered, the brand does too.

Materiality helps organizations avoid contributing to that noise in the first place by prioritizing the issues, stories and messages that hold the greatest significance for both the business and its audience.

“What do we want to say?” is an important question, but it carries a lot more weight when it’s informed by the answers to the three questions below.

• “What does our audience actually care about?”
• “What issues are most connected to our impact and identity?”
• “How does what we do make a difference in their lives?”

These are big questions, but they lead to stronger brands and more meaningful communications. The best brand and communications strategies aren’t built around treating every topic equally – they’re built around clarity, focus and relevance.

Why this matters beyond reporting

Moving beyond their origins in accounting and reporting, materiality assessments can reveal the themes and priorities that shape an organization’s identity.

Every organization tells stories through its website, social channels, campaigns, executive communications and visual identity. These distribution vehicles need stories, and materiality can help you tell the stories that matter most.

The audience input generated by the process for identifying material topics can help organizations:

• Identify the themes that should define their brand
• Develop messaging frameworks grounded in audience priorities
• Inform communications strategies
• Create more meaningful stories rather than simply promoting activities
• Strengthen trust and differentiation
• Better understand how they are perceived by different audiences

These kinds of insights can be especially valuable during periods of change, whether that’s a brand refresh, a website redesign or a broader communications transformation.

Organizations that build their communications around issues that matter to audiences are often better positioned to respond when things don’t go according to plan. Trust has already been established, making responses feel more credible and authentic.

A strategic foundation for authentic communication

One of the core benefits of materiality is prioritization. Storytelling is as much about what organizations choose not to say as what they choose to emphasize. This is increasingly important as audiences become more critical of messaging that feels overly polished, inconsistent with an organization’s voice, performative or disconnected from reality. They want more than intentions; they want evidence of impact.

Grounding communications in material topics and audience priorities can help organizations create messaging that is more focused, strategic, transparent, consistent across channels and credible with audiences.

Materiality won’t write your brand story for you, but it can help you figure out which stories are worth telling and what your audiences want to hear.