How we can transform struggles in business and life into positive and growthful outcomes by embracing challenge and contradiction.
Posted: October 14th, 2008 under The Big Picture, The Best of.
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Thoughts on brand differentiation following Pilobolus’ opening night performance in New York. What does it mean to be different, and why is it important?
Posted: July 5th, 2008 under The Big Picture, Branding Theory.
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During a round of comment tennis at PSFK the other day, I received a verbal spanking from Floyd Hayes that reminded me of a bad habit I and we as an industry have: addressing people as abstractions, as “consumers”, “targets”, “audiences”, “users”, “resources” . . . surely you have your own delightful favorites, eh? I know these are terms of convenience intended to simplify and standardize our working lexicon in a way that makes business communication more efficient and precise. Yet, as I hear these words I feel nothing but coldness and sterility.
These words describe people with no faces, with no dreams, no humanity . . . and tacking on their demographic data doesn’t improve things much. In our quest to become more rational, efficient, and precise we end up undermining our efforts to achieve one of our primary branding objectives: creating meaningful connection with people. ( And may I respectfully submit, if your goal is simply to “sell to people”, a day is coming for your brand where a competitor brand is going to eat your lunch by transacting meaningful and humane brand connections with those same people you now call yours.)
I don’t have a proven solution to this vocabulary quandary yet, but I want to try a few things. Calling people, “people” is a good start. We already create and name personas , but extending the use of these personas’ names throughout our projects is probably even better:
“When Luke visits the site, he’s going to want to _______” vs. “When our user visits the site, he’s going to want to _______”
and
“Julia’s sense of the brand is going to be highly influenced by ______” vs. “Our target’s sense of the brand is going to be highly influenced by ______”.
Did those word substitutions make you feel differently about the people to whom they referred? They did for me. In my mind’s eye (user) “Luke” now has a face, a voice, and a rabbit’s foot hanging from the rear view mirror in his car. (Target) “Julia” has laughing eyes, a dog named Chance, and drinks out of the same Betty Boop coffee cup every morning. I want to turn-on and affect “Luke” and “Julia” in ways that “user” and “target” simply don’t inspire, and inspired work is better, more effective, higher ROI work.
Will practicing this kind of language feel strange at first? Of course it will–anything new does. We’ll get over it, and feel less self-conscious the more we use it.
Another outcome of using humane language is it makes me question my work from an ethical perspective in a way that disembodied terms don’t: “Is what I’m saying to Luke true?” “Is the net effect of what we’re communicating to Luke and Julia going to be positive or negative?” At this stage in my career, those kinds of questions are becoming essential in my practice, and answering them affirmatively is a constant goal. I hope the same is or will become true for you too. We are our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers.
What are your thoughts? Does the language we use to reference people matter to you? What words do you use?
p.s. Thanks, Floyd.
photo credit: Kunst
Posted: March 4th, 2008 under The Big Picture.
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What is a “Brand”? Some intangible abstraction? The ethereal composite of vision, sound, touch, and emotion? Brands are that, but they are more. Recent research in neurobiology suggests that ideas are more than vapor. They are tangible and have physical residence in our brains. And now, scientists (and you) are actually able to see what the physical structure of an idea is.
In layman’s terms, nerves are comprised of branch-like structures called dendrites. Each dendrite branches into twig-like protrusions called dendritic spines–up to 10,000 of them. These spines are formed by your real-life experiences, so that if one is consistently exposed to similar experiences they literally grow and take shape within our brains.For example, from the moment you were first born, you had millions of micro experiences you called “mother”: her touch, her voice, her eyes, her skin, her warmth, her spirit. . . everything good, bad, and indifferent that you have ever experienced about her resulted in a unique dendritic structure in your brain that is the repository of the idea, Mother. When you hear the word “mother”, your brain goes to that dendrite to retrieve “her”. So it is with “love”: a dendrite composed of your joys, your pain, your dreams, your disappointments . . . and, scientists postulate, all other ideas.Including brands.
Exactly how dendrites learn and memorize is still not clearly understood, but great progress is being made. Even at the relatively primitive level of our current understanding, we can apply two basic, yet profound principles to branding and marketing.
Just as we burn files onto CDs, memories are burned into our neurons. But these basic units of memory, “memes”, must be constantly recycled so that the memories remain there. Brand building and retention requires two primary components:
1. Consistent presentation of a branded experience: frequency over time.
2. A consistent experience of the brand: continuity.
Inconsistency in either component will lead to either memory decay, or cognitive dissonance: people will simply forget about your brand, or become too confused about what it means, resulting in dendritic atrophy. Essentially, use the dendrites (and use them well) or lose them.
Of all the brands with whom we’ve worked, none has ever practiced these principles more artfully, intelligently, and consistently than Coke. It is safe to assume that a significant portion of the world’s humanity has a dendrite parked in its collective brain called “Coke” whose branches represent the color red, the contour of the bottle, the burn at the back of the throat, the logo wave, and the emotion of “happiness”– sensory experiences their branding efforts have consistently recyled through our synapses over the course of our lives. I encourage you to practice this same wisdom in a way that is true and authentic to your brand.
Finally, while I’ve been writing here about branding, there is a much larger story being told. It’s the story of the mechanics of our humanity, the awareness of which must be accompanied by responsibility. As marketers and branders, our work does, in fact, truly live in the brains of its recipients. Let’s make the most of this opportunity by growing healthy and positive dendrites in the form of great ideas, imagery, sound, and experiences that feed and enrich–leading to profit for both our clients and their consumers.
p.s. Everything is everything.
Photo composite (L-R) : 1. Dendrite 2. Dendrite close-up 3. An elm tree in winter 4. A street map of San Francisco, 5. Satellite photograph of the Mississippi Delta.
Posted: February 19th, 2008 under The Big Picture, Branding Theory.
Comments: 10
” . . . Had a talk with my old man
Said help me understand
He said turn 68
You’ll renegotiate
Don’t stop this train
Don’t for a minute change the place you’re in
Don’t think I couldn’t ever understand
I tried my hand
John, honestly
We’ll never stop this train . . .”
- John Mayer, “Stop This Train”/Continuum
In business, in life, is there are bigger question? Where are you going? Physically, spiritually, mentally, financially: what is your aim? The answers to these questions ultimately define our destinations. As the first post in this blog, I’ll share a bit of my what’s on my horizon, and invite you to share what’s on yours. Subject to change, and in no particular order, here are my Top 7 Destinations:
Your thoughts?
Posted: August 18th, 2007 under The Big Picture.
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