Your brand is a friend – not just a person.
We all like visualising our brands as people with attributes and traits. But I want you to go further — I want you to imagine your brand as a friend.
You have friends – well I hope you have at least one – now think about why you’re friends with that person. They have certain qualities that make you enjoy their time and company. Now apply this to your own brand – whether its values, marketing or social media.
Is your brand the kind of friend who..
- stares blankly back at people when spoken to?
- demands authority and control of voice?
- who contributes to your other conversations?
- demands that you listens to them at their house only?
- stands you up?
- lets you down?
Sure, it’s great if your friend is ‘about 30, white collar etc’ but what about how they relate to you?
Here are my Monday morning tips — and I want you to walk away and think about this with your content, advertising, response, social media. ANYTHING that communicates with your audience and or clients.
- Respond to comments, queries and feedback in an open, public and transparent way
- Let your readers have their say in the same place you speak to them — don’t shunt them off site somewhere.
- Where else are your readers and audience talking? How can you add value to their other conversations.
- Make your content as shareable and accessible as possible
- If you promise your readers a group, forum — then make sure you don’t leave them hanging in there by themselves. Contribution and dedication are key.
- If you build these tools/platforms (whether social media, marketing, forum, onsite, off-deck, ondeck) then make sure you continually add value and show them that you’re not a short-term relationship person. Show them that you are committed.
Your audience isn’t concerned when the advertising dollars run out, or when you get bored of them, or when you switch agency.
Value you them, and their conversations, how you want them to value yours.
Related Links:
Your Brand Is Not My Friend: Web 2.0 Unmasked – Part 1
4 Comments
what about brands that can’t play in this space. do you want to be friends with sorbent toilet paper, heinz ketchup, michelin tyres etc?
I think this premise is valid for higher involvement brands or aspirational brands or brands that have cultural significance for those who subscribe to them … but most brands don’t play in this space.
Hey Ben,
One size never fits all and this is just one side of how companies should communicate with customers.
I’m sure Sorbent and Heinz are working hard at looking at new ways to communicate brands values and ideals. Well I hope so anyway.
Hey mate – I don’t agree brands ‘should’ be communicating in this way.
It’s a sweeping comment but I think the idea of a brand as your ‘friend’ is a utopian ideal that isn’t practical for most marketing challenges.
As Jye said, one size never fits all. But for brands that are endeavouring to play in the online space, reaching out via social networking etc., this is excellent advice. It may not be a friend to friend relationship but they should be trying to develop a relationship, play their part in that online relationship through participation, reaction, communication, time-spent, effort, discourse and information sharing. Someone wrote “most brands don’t play in this space”. As someone who has had many conversations with people working for a wide variety of brands that do want to play in this space (from alcohol to corporate to telecommunications and beyond), I think Jye is offering some sound advice here. If you’re going to try and engage in the online community especially, you’ve got to commit to that community.