Famine City

The Brand Is Whatevered

by Jason

"Did you just whatever me?" So sayeth the kidz.

Said another way, "Did you just say you don't care what I have to say?" And more and more, the answer from consumers--to brands--is yes. You've been whatevered.

[ed. note: When I say "brand", I mean this.]

Does that mean that they're saying no to buying your product? No.
Does that mean brand development doesn't matter? No.
Does that man you don't need to market? No.
Does that mean the brand is dead or dying? No. It's just less important than it used to be.
Does that mean your advertising/marketing effort is wasted? No, it's more important than ever.

It means that what you want your brand to stand for--or, more importantly, what you spend time and money making sure your brand stands for--is increasingly ignored by consumers.

Now, no matter how carefully brands get constructed, it's just one ingredient among many for the consumer.

The consumer now has a full range of information and experiences to decide what, exactly, your brand is. It's the brand you've constructed + their own product experience + what other people say about it + what other experiences/services you offer beyond your product + the consumer's perception of other consumers who use the product.

There was a time that just doing the first well--constructing the brand--was enough to build a successful business.

To sum up, you still have to decide what you want your brand to be about--pick a positioning, design a logo, buy impressions through media, etc--but recognize that the business of your business is now the sum of all this, and it's no longer driven by what you want to be known as.

What to do? Learn where else consumers are making decisions about your brand, and find a way to influence it. Make the product better. Ask your consumers what they think. Participate in the conversations that are happening. Most of all, recognize that the launch-and-ride era of brand building is over. It's the brand-as-software era, where we'll all have to update as needed.

People Aren't Brands. Ever.

by Jason

A person becoming a brand used to be a complement. It meant they'd become bigger than themselves. Bigger than human.

But today? Calling me a "brand" is an insult.

I respect them and acknowledge they're smarter than me, better (and waaaay more frequent) writers, but...Armano’s wrong. Chris Brogan's wrong (to his credit, he says he might be). But people ain't brands.

I like what I do (I'm an iAgency creative), and believe it to be a valuable, honorable job that can help drive the engines of commerce, creates jobs, etc. But calling people brands is the ego of marketing/advertisers who think our jobs are important. Total bullshit.

My disappointment is that these guys--of whom I'm a fan--are marketing innovators/leaders who tell their clients--and mine--“Let go of the control” , only to sweat and bleed themselves dry to create and then maintain their "personal brand", as if there's value in becoming a brand. They’ve become the marketers they say are wrong.

I think they're righter than they know (that's a compliment) when they advise clients to "let go". They don't need to become a "personal brand." You don't need to "brand U". Or me. Or whoever.

You want to become a media personality and gain a following? Then do what you tell billion-dollar brands to do--deliver a good product (in your case, insights), and create good experiences between you and your audience.

But make no mistake. It's you and your output, not your "brand", that wins us over. Brands, by definition and necessity, are simple. Not complicated. Tradeoffs, not dichotomies. Dependable. Unchanging (for a time). People are the exact opposite.

We aren’t brands. We are what we produce or what we offer, but that changes day by day.

And now, with the advent of interactive messaging with consumers, brands aren’t brands anymore. They’re just companies that make stuff. People like or hate the company or the product...the brand is irrelevant in the face of truth (see Alan Wolk's "The Real Digital Revolution").

The brand is declining. The brand is worth less. The Brand is Whatevered. Look for more from me on my next post.