what we mean by “human branding”
If only we were able to put ourselves in the shoes of others,
to the point of feeling others as if they were us,
we would no longer need rules nor laws.
— Pëtr Alekseevič Kropotkin
One of the most common tasks we are given during workshops is “define yourself with one word”. It represents one of the most essential - and sometimes efficient - ways to introduce someone to an unknown audience. People tend to go mad trying to figure out how to describe themselves with just one adjective. We have (rightfully) been brought to think about ourselves as extremely complex entities and absolutely no-one likes to think that just one word can describe us as a composite human being. Whitman would say: “I am large, I contain multitudes”, and he is right - we all contain multitudes.
The first time I found myself in this situation, I strived to look for adjectives that would give the others an idea of me being a superhero. “Ambitious,” I would say, or “stubborn”, or “determined”, “purposeful”, “brave”, etcetera. Truth be told, those words did in no way display the person I encountered each morning in the mirror.
It took me a while until I found the courage to walk into a workshop and to present myself as “fragile”, which is the only word I can truthfully use to describe myself.
This instantly caught my classmates’ attention and put me directly on a higher level in the eyes of the facilitator, who recognized me for my honesty.
I am extremely fragile, indeed. More than ten years ago I was diagnosed with a mild form of depression, struggling on a daily basis with anxiousness and panic, I’m unable to be alone for more than a couple of days, I’m claustrophobic and therefore terrified of airplanes, elevators and skyscrapers; the list of things that scare me is infinite and my main concern during an average day is death, mine and that of those I love. Pretty fragile, yup.
Fortunately though, some years ago I had the occasion to work in a job that required me to listen to people and slowly I found out that most of those I was meeting had similar fears to mine.
Mine might be a striking case, but people are fragile. Not just some of them, not a group of them, but all of them. We-are-fragile! This is what makes us human and, most of all, alike. Mainly because we are all afraid of death by nature and all that comes with it, but yeah, we’re all pretty much feeble, also. Truth is that life is a mess! Living is hard and the world is confusing. So yes, we are quite entitled to our own fragility. Put that on your notebook, facilitator!
Complex creatures, as we were saying.
We cannot be defined by just one word;
The words which describe us cannot only aim to a successful image of ourselves: failure is (a beautiful and crucial) part of the game.
Though when it comes to defining a brand’s character, we’ve come to believe that we might synthesize its essence with just one word out of a choice between 16 possibilities (or less).
A brand can be analytic, diplomatic, executive, adventurous. And the same goes for the brand’s audience. Imagine that you are an actor who is about to start working on the role of Romeo and the only information the director gives you is: “your Romeo is an advocate”. How could this be enough?
But most of all, any description you’ll be trying to make about the brand’s character will have two inevitable traits:
it will look like yourself (especially if you are the brand’s founder);
It will be invincible, since it is part of the idea you want people to have about yourself
and is everything an entrepreneur wishes for its brand: to be successful.
So, our question here is: how can a consumer empathize with a brand that doesn’t possess the main trait that he or she might identify with? How can I identify myself and my needs with this John Wayne character, this fearless, heroic, cocky, testosteronic prick who will always grab his balls to overcome life’s challenges? Let me be clear: this idea of success is darn old and belongs to the last century, it has no place in the contemporary world. And this goes for humans as for brands.
During the first wave of the pandemic, the brands’ entrusted social media influencers with the most part of their communication, and this has punished companies heavily.
What they have learned, the hard way? (continuing)
3. A brand’s tone of voice is not be substituted by their influencers’;
4. A brand is not the people who work in the company: that is the company. A brand is an independent character with a personality and a tone of voice of its own. Otherwise the brand’s character will be perceived as schizophrenic.
In a world where commerce is running through increasingly rapid clicks and swipes, we cannot allow brands to lose their humanity. Not only to strengthen their business, but especially for moral and ethical reasons: commerce is urged to restore its assets due to the true needs of customers, especially for sustainability reasons. The more human a brand will be, the more it will look for friendly choices towards its communities and environment. Bad solutions can hide behind a logo and a payoff, humanity can’t.
This is the research we intend to conduct through this Observatory: to look for human identities behind the companies’ institutional blazon. We’ll dig deep into humanistic approaches to commerce and marketing and review them as best practices for new and old companies to adopt. Because this is what we firmly believe:
We need brands with heart,
We need brands with fears,
We need brands with actual feelings,
We need brands with purpose,
We need brands with humanity.
We need brands like us,
Frightened like us,
Fragile like us,
Happy like us,
Complex like us,
Imperfect like us.
We need human brands,
Now more than ever.
first appeared on Human Brands Observatory on October 18th 2021
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