A brand as a person, not just a personality

Imagine if a brand was a person. Not just the caricature of a person, a brand personality created and draped over an organization or product - but a real walking, talking, breathing person. A person with dreams, values, networks and knowledge.

When we think of a brand as a personality what lies below the surface can seem inconsequential. Brand personalities have become the business equivalent of changing your name via deed poll. So what if the product fails or the organization lies; just change the brand personality, and bingo, a new brand is born.

Example: Unilever’s campaign for real beauty in Canada (Dove)

When we think of a brand as a person the game changes. Trust, loyalty, word-of-mouth, these are new metrics for a brand but they’re old metrics for people. People may be aware of Richard Nixon, but would they trust him? People may recall Lehman Brothers, but would they recommend them? The answer is no. Because the true measure of a person, or a brand, goes much deeper than a personality.

Example: Unilever’s campaign for skin whitening in India (Pond's)

The game is changing. Social media is giving consumers the power to pull-away brand personalities and reveal what lies beneath. If what lies beneath your current brand personality is a legacy of previous brand personalities, product failures and marketing misrepresentations, then your business has some tough questions to answer. After all, who really cares how many customers are aware of you, or can recall your latest logo? If they don’t trust you, and aren’t loyal to you, then you’re in a pretty bad place.

Trust, loyalty and recommendation aren’t the measures of a good personality; they’re the measures of a good person. If organizations are serious about embracing these new metrics, and seriously growing their business, they need to start thinking about a brand as a person, not just a personality.

For more information on building a brand beyond personality, check out this previous post and presentation.

Insight without borders: Interview with Ginger Grant PhD

Ginger Grant PhD, is the Managing Partner of Creativity in Business Canada, a consultancy that specializes in creativity and innovation with both individuals and organizations.

Part of the teacher/trainer group from Stanford’s GSB “Creativity in Business” program, she is the only Canadian on the team.

Creativity in Business is a philosophy whose focus is the passion of people and the ability to deliver world-class performance. Ginger is also a highly respected speaker, writer and academic. The author of Finding Your Creative Core (2009) and ReVisioning the Way We Work (2005), she can be found on twitter or contacted through her website: http://www.mythsamongus.org

Question 1) Describe your area of expertise: What is it, how did you get into it, and why do you keep doing it?

Ginger Grant: My passion is story and studying mythological and memetic systems. Prior to shifting my focus, I specialized in due diligence and competitive intelligence in mergers and acquisitions for several stock exchanges in Canada, the US and Europe. My mid-life crisis took me back to school where I did graduate work at a school founded by Joseph Campbell, Pacifica Graduate Institute.

After completing my PhD in mythology and depth psychology, I then completed post-doctoral studies at the Stanford Business School in the Creativity in Business program. I have written extensively on Campbell’s Heroic Journey model, using it as a tool to promote psychological change. My work is my passion: I love what I do every day and isn’t that a job description that many of us desire?

Question 2) What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learnt in the last year of business?

Ginger Grant: Our current economic woes stem from a variety of complex issues, one of which is the focus on short-term profitability in North America. Our business schools lean towards models that view long-term planning to be a five year process.

In our dealing with companies in Europe and the Asia-Pacific, long-term can be as much as 100 years, the lifespan of four or more CEO’s. Such an emphasis keeps your strategic intent towards sustainability for the organization. Our businesses need to not only think more creatively but also more sustainably with regards to human capital retention.

Nick Black: Interesting perspective. This idea has also been shared by Prof. Geert Hofstede who dedicated his career to studying dimensions of culture. He found that US culture was highly short-term orientated, verses cultures in Asia, whose “time perspective was more about persevering and overcoming obstacles with time.”

Question 3) What major trend(s) do you see emerging in Canadian business?

Ginger Grant: Canada has a built-in competitive advantage, as our country is founded in multiculturalism. You are encouraged to be both Canadian AND country of origin. This richness in diversity will continue and can provide a foundation for innovative practices. Creativity comes from diversity in thinking.

A challenge that is upon us is retaining intellectual capital and knowledge transfer in organizations. In most companies, over 30% of the workforce will soon be eligible for retirement and in some cases, the numbers are much higher. We need to re-vision retirement (which is the topic of my next book!) in order to retain valuable human capital.

Innovative organizations are also focusing on the executive development of women in their workforce, who have been under-represented in the past at a senior level. Many organizations are also creating their own university systems, as our business schools do not support innovative thinking.

Question 4) What major trend(s) do you see emerging amongst Canadian consumers?

Ginger Grant: Canadian consumers are becoming more discerning and are demanding not only an excellent product or service but also an excellent experience of the product or service. That is difficult for many organizations as experience is an emotional construct. Any organization that wishes to excel in the marketplace needs to focus on its delivery experience. Price matters yes, but experience matters more.

With the demographic shortages in the workforce, employees are also becoming consumers and will stay with an organization that provides an excellent working experience. I see no difference between external and internal marketing anymore – delivery on the brand promise is mandatory.

Without an emotional link to the product or service, lowest price will prevail. Without an emotional link to the organization, employees will move at will and frequently to wherever they can obtain the best working conditions. Consumers, regardless of what type of stakeholder they may be, are now driving your brand.

Question 5) Insight, strategy or innovation – Which is most important, and what role does it play in Canadian business?

Ginger Grant: What a question! In my view, insight matters most as it drives strategy and therefore innovation. North America is in love with quantification – numbers drive strategy. Europe and the Asia-Pacific start with qualitative means – the insight required to make decisions. If you don’t know where you are going and why you are going there, it doesn’t matter how much money you throw at the problem.

Insight first always. Then measure your results! In order to increase our competitive advantage, we need to quit playing with numbers (I usually phrase that much more rudely) and move towards the vision and values that drive our decision-making.

Question 6) Pick a successful Canadian product, service or brand. Why did you pick it, and what can we learn from its success?

Ginger Grant: One of my favourite examples is Cirque de Soleil. Canada is considered a conservative country but every so often, we surprise the world and deliver something incredible. Cirque de Soleil understands the value of experience, the emotional link to a brand promise.

They never fail to delight. They never fail to deliver. They live their brand – each performer – every day. They have re-visioned the entire concept of a circus while at the same time, paying attention to global issues and concerns such as treatment of animals, etc.

Their attention to detail is legendary but here is a little known example. The children of the performers travel with the troupe. In each new location, their school is built yet again, providing the children with a consistent “experience” in their education. Same room, same walls, same desks. When the troupe moves on, so does the school.

That is consistency in experience and provides an emotional anchor for those children regardless of location world-wide. Do you think that such attention to the children of their employees contributes to the delivery of world-class performance? You bet!

Question 7) If you had one piece of advice for a foreign business or brand attempting to enter the Canadian marketplace, what would it be?

Ginger Grant: Don’t underestimate the intelligence of the Canadian public. We tend to be a conservative nation and keep a low profile. Deliver on your brand promise and you will be rewarded. Once you have captured our hearts, our passion and commitment are legendary.

Family, Food & Fun: Research on family meals

Back in January 2009, Concerto Marketing, on behalf of the BC Dairy Foundation and the BC Ministry of Healthy Living & Sport, completed a research project exploring the topic of family meals.

The existing facts on family meals had already established a link between eating together and a multitude of mental, physical and social benefits. However, in order to properly understand the topic, there was a need to move beyond facts and explore the feelings behind family meals.

Through our research, we found that meals involve much more than food and function, facts and figures.

Meals bring together nutrition and emotion in our minds. Meals are about love. Meals are about friendship. Meals are about fun, and, most importantly, meals are about family.

Below is a presentation that shares some of our research on family meals, and the insights it uncovered. If you’d like more information on this research, or tips on how to reconnect family, food and fun, you should check out Better Together BC.

Market Research: Family Meals

View more presentations from Nick Black.

Interesting Vancouver 2009

If you live in or around Vancouver, you may like to check out Interesting Vancouver 2009. It’s a multi-disciplinary conference that’s being held the evening of Friday October 23rd at The Vancouver Rowing Club. According to its founder Brett Macfarlane, the objective of the conference is to “share new knowledge, things you’ve never known, or thought about.”

The evening has attracted a pretty eclectic mix of speakers, including journalists, creatives, foodies and researchers. At some stage during the evening, I’ll be sharing some research on the psychology of trust (how trust builds for people and brands).

If you’re interested in attending, you can get tickets here. This is a not-for-profit initiative, so the prices are pretty reasonable.

How Brand Trust affects New Products & Services

In a recent North American study on brand trust, Concerto Marketing and Research Now found that when people trust a brand, 78% will give its new products and services a chance.

Why is this statistic important? Because according to Prof. Gerald Zaltman, from Harvard University, “approximately 80% of all new products or services fail within six months or fall significantly short of forecasted profits.”

Reducing risk for companies and customers

New products and services involve risk. They involve risk for companies who must develop and launch their new product or service, but they also involve risk for customers, who must gamble their salaries and satisfaction on the promise of something new.

According to the innovation expert Robert Cooper, success is all about managing this risk, in fact, “if risk is to be managed successfully, the uncertainties of outcomes must be deliberately driven down as the stakes increase.”

This is where brand trust can play a role for companies and customers, because brand trust helps manage risk by reducing uncertainty.

For example, the brand trust built by Apple, reduces the risk and uncertainty of buying a new MacBook Air. Similarly, the brand trust built by Google, reduces the risk and uncertainty for customers when they buy a new online advertising service.

Increasing new product and service success

When it comes to innovation, companies and customers have a lot in common; they both want something new, but neither of them wants to take a risk. This makes brand trust important, because when people trust a brand, 78% will give its new products and services a chance.

So if your company wants to improve its innovation success rate, or help prepare the market for innovation to come, perhaps you should start by building brand trust.

(Note: If you'd like more information on measuring, building and tracking brand trust, please feel free to give us a call).