There is a great opportunity to forge a more intimate bond with the people you seek to attract to your brand
Brands, today, claim to penetrate the consumer’s psyche in every possible way they can; to the extent that some even asserting that the particular brand can even change their lives!
This might sound to be a bit of an exaggeration but not too far from reality. As brands jostle for mind and market space there is an increasing stridency in their communication. This isn’t just in the most obvious area of new offerings but in other areas as well. There is more overt and often more risque use of sexuality. Issues are depicted in ways that are more extreme. Sports brands, whether TV programs or providers of equipment, increasingly depict sporting contests in a language that is more gladiatorial than just competitive. There appears a greater intent to out-shout and out-shock just to stand apart from the crowd. But when the "crowd" is doing the same, it just becomes a cacophony.|
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| Rupin Jayal |
We live in a climate of anxiety. Yes, the world economy and especially the emerging market economies appear to have left the worst behind them. But any talk of emerging from the economic meltdown is inevitably accompanied by caveats of a W or U-shaped recovery that is expected to be weak and prolonged. Hence it is not a climate of burgeoning and uncontrolled optimism like few years back. There is a sense of everything being very finely poised at the moment with the possibility of everything going belly-up with the slightest adverse provocation.
In such a climate should your brand scream or soothe? Should your brand depict a quiet optimism or seek to out-shout? As channels of communication diversify and the Internet becomes an integral part of the communications mix, there is a great opportunity to forge a more intimate bond with the people you seek to attract to your brand. With such huge challenges facing the human race—economic, environmental, social, demographic, etc., brands need to bring about a meaningful difference in people’s lives and then communicate it in a way using the appropriate channels.
Rather than tell the world that what you are doing is revolutionary, let the world come to that conclusion based on the facts and actions that you present to them. Show rather than tell. Rather than "hitching" your brand-wagon to the latest trend, look deeper into what is engaging, infuriating, exciting, scaring and delighting people and create a deeper and more meaningful connection. If technology is exciting but increasingly bewildering, become an icon of innovative simplicity that enables people to do more with it rather than waste time deciphering it. If people are concerned about the future and economic security, then enable them to find more modest ways to treat themselves to life’s luxuries. If the household budget is straining the wallet as aspirations wrestle with necessities, then advise people on ways the two can be made to work together. Can food companies help people buy bigger refrigerators, can detergent companies help people buy the latest washing machine, and can entertainment software brands help people buy the latest entertainment equipment?
With enough imagination, almost any category can help people counteract anxiety and increase their sense of optimism. This needs to be done using myriad channels of communication and not just doggedly sticking to the usual mass media options.
Brand stridency needs to be replaced by brand engagement. This is not just a superficial shift in terms of communication but in the way brands interact with people. From the outset, custodians of the brand need to ask "In what way, big or small, does this brand make a difference to people’s lives?" Often these custodians are laudably modest. After all how can a packet of chips make a difference to someone’s life? But if that someone is out on a date, it could become that delicious moment when two hands touch for the first time while reaching for the last chip. It could become the moment when a group of friends in heated argument bond again. It could become the means for rapprochement between warring generations. It could become a means for a society that is still very inhibited to momentarily relax and escape from their inhibitions. And this is just talking about a "humble" potato chip!
There is not doubt that different categories play very different roles in people’s lives. However, that does not mean necessarily a lesser or greater role. If that was the case then how could a component in a computer become more famous than the computer itself (Intel)? How could an "engine" that merely helps you search for stuff on the Internet become an iconic brand? How can tea try and awaken a nation from growing ennui? How can underwear create a covert sexual revolution? And how can a deodorant help the underdog gain confidence?
The fact is that the real stridency in the everyday lives of people is the daily challenges that they face. Life-changing events are relatively few and thankfully mostly far between. An altercation on the road over a trivial infringement can ruin someone’s day. Forgetting an anniversary can rock a relationship. A special, unexpected ‘thank you’ can lighten the load of a strenuous time. There are infinite ways in which brands could invest in those moments and sooth or celebrate the stridency that they generate. "Daag achche hain" turns a moment of horror for a mother into a moment of warm bonding without needing to scream the benefits of the washing powder. This creates a far stronger bond than communication littered with meaningless acronyms and pseudo-scientific claims. It turns a harsh moment into one of humanity and thus creates an unbreakable emotional connect.
The fundamental change of direction is to make the exclamation a response rather than treat it as a stimulus. It is rather like when, in a given context, a person can evoke a wave of laughter
with a witty one-liner. Sure he can also behave like a joker all evening and elicit a similar amount of laughter; but whereas in the former instance he will be remembered for his wit, in the latter case he will merely be seen as wacky. Similarly, in times of trouble there are those who go into paroxysms of grief and others who just quietly come to your aid;which would you rather have by your side? There are those who blanket you with concern and others who you know care about you and are available whenever you need them without the extra drama. In our lives, meaningful connections always win over stridency. And long term brands are usually ones that have discovered their own language and ability to surprise, leaving the delighted exclamations to their customers.
When Steve Jobs (conferred with "CEO of the decade" by Fortune magazine) presents the latest wave of invention from Apple, his slides are a tribute to minimalism. He does not leap and bound around like a brand dervish but instead with wit, knowledge and insight engages with his legions of believers. He understands the difference between vibrant and loud. He gets people to say "wow" instead of screaming it himself. The difference is between stridency and stimulus.
Perhaps greater faith in your brand and the products and/or services that it encompasses will reduce the need for stridency. The danger is, as the immortal bard Shakespeare puts it "The lady doth protest too much, me thinks" leading to communication that is "full of sound and fury signifying nothing". Your brand deserves better.
The author is Director-Strategic Planning at M&C Saatchi.
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written by hiphone, September 13, 2010
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