Why brands hate people
The world of branding is changing and so is selling them too.
Brands hate people. People love brands. If you doubt the tenacity of this statement read almost any brand statement or corporate statement dreamt up by the internal communications people in any big corporation. Almost universally they will use the cold, vacuous jargon that on inspection comes up empty. “We are here to…”, “Our goal is…”, “Our purpose is…”, say the mission statements.
There was a time when some brands could survive, even prosper without loving their customers. The customers were the unfortunate and difficult people that marketers had to convince to buy their product or service; to buy their brand. The customer was an obstacle. So despite needing them for their very existence, brands hate people.
No more. To prosper in the modern world brands will have to learn to love their customers and love the consumer as never before. The reason for this is the increase in choice and the ease by which competitors can develop and match the product benefits to the consumer.
Brand X washes whiter than Brand Y no longer holds. Advances in technology, the access to information and increasing co-dependence means that an absolute product benefit may have a very small life span.
Perceived product benefit, however, can last a lifetime. It is the intangibles and higher-order benefits that are increasingly important. Love, desire, like, admiration, care and concern all examples of these higher-order benefits that will be essentials for modern branding.
Brands hate this too. It means that they will have to become more emotional, yet still have to do the dirty work of having solid tangible advantage in order to stay relevant in the marketplace.
The challenge for marketers is to make their brands love their consumers. To look at their business anew and to ensure that their brands be and act what they claim. To be what they claim in terms of actions, not words alone. To be interesting enough so as to invite followership.
The future will belong to brands that have beliefs that attract consumers and make them want to belong. To achieve that, brands will have to learn to love their consumers. Become the ideological brand.
Marketers will create demand for their brands by delivering the meaning in their brands that people are seeking in their lives.
Marketing communications specialists like Fuel have an advantage. If they’re good, they begin their plans with consumer wants and consumer motivations; not with categories or statistical analysis. And then connect consumers with the brands. Because, in today’s world of choice, of parity, of ubiquity, unless brands love people, people will not longer love brands.
