Brand BFFs
Humans are hardwired for connection.
We are a social species. In the absence of connection, we suffer.
Connecting on a human level is the #1 key to building a successful brand. Brands that build strong human connections have happier, more loyal customers, grow faster, capture more market share, and are more profitable. According to McKinsey, that looks something like 30% higher revenues and 60% higher shareholder returns.
How do they do it?
Brand Friends
Back when social media was shiny and new, I remember being struck by the concept that you could ‘friend’ a brand on Facebook in exactly the same way that you could ‘friend’ a friend. This construct reinforced what I’d already seen in my work, talking to consumers about household products or retail items and discovering that they had deep, emotional connections with the brands they used. People do essentially form friendships with the brands they care about.
A brand is a relationship between humans. A promise, built on understanding and self-awareness, like friendship. You don’t choose a friend because of how well he dresses or how fast she throws a baseball. Likewise, when you’re buying a product, you’re buying the promise that it offers and how that makes you feel.
Participation not presumption
The world’s most successful brands listen to their customers and understand them well. “Shut up and listen” was the personal motto of John Legere, former CEO of T-Mobile. He was obsessed with understanding the customer experience, inviting consumers to participate in the innovation process rather than presuming to know what they wanted. He took that obsession and doubled the user base and quadrupled the stock price.
Good branding advice is the same as good relationship advice. Listen. Respond. Try to understand. Show you care. Build trust. Be generous.
People not product
Normally when people think about marketing, they think about product attributes. It can be even harder to market something that has a real technical benefit, because it’s so tempting to describe all the features.
When Apple launched the iPod, they could have said, “get 1GB storage on your MP3 player.” Butthey didn’t. They understood that what you were really buying was “1000 songs in your pocket” and how cool that made you feel. Instead of “here’s what our product can do” they focused on “here’s what you can do with our product.”
Brands are a fundamental building block of the modern human experience. They create experiences that connect deeply with customers’ emotions.
As a result, we expect a high level of personal interaction with our favorite brands. We seek out shared values and beliefs. We are drawn into brand stories. For brands, this presents an opportunity to connect with customers and build meaningful, lasting friendships.