Brands as People, People as Brands

There is a cultural identity crisis occurring among consumers and brands, with each wanting to emulate the other. The byproduct of this shared admiration is an exponential opportunity for word of mouth and social media marketers to play a central role in the facilitation of this ongoing shift.

Brands as People

Brands are finally starting to realize that they can no longer act like the faceless logos they once portrayed. They now need to establish a persona that is approachable and opinionated. Brands need to strive for relationships with consumers and learn to listen so that a two-way dialogue can be established. They need a face and voice that can fully express their multi-faceted product or service offerings. In short, brands need to emulate people.

Honda and Ford have done a nice job humanizing their brands as evidenced by their respective Twitter handles @alicia_at_Honda and @ScottMonty. These players are learning out how to build personas out of well-known brands that are approachable, distinct, and warm.

Both Alicia and Scott have mastered the art of seamlessly integrating their personal opinions with factual product information to serve as a human element to the historically bureaucratic automotive industry. Accessibility, humanity, and responsiveness are no longer traits people expect from just a trusted friend, it is something they demand from a trusted brand.

Here is how your brand can morph into a person:

Give it a face Pick someone at your organization that best personifies your brand and make them the personification of the brand. Make sure they have a good personality, are drinking the proverbial Kool-Aid, and know how to engage people in meaningful dialogue

Show its warts A brand can build credibility and compassion from its audience by directly addressing areas of feedback or bad buzz while embracing the principles of authenticity and full disclosure

Get personal The person operating as the brand persona should sprinkle in appropriate personal details in their consumer interaction to reinforce the human element

Open up Let consumers peer behind the scenes as narrated by their brand persona to reinforce trust and drive a deeper consumer connection
Be reactive: Brands need to solve the conundrum of scaling their human personas so they can be responsive to consumers and engage in dialogue in a timely fashion

People as Brands

Consumers more broadly are starting to take a cue from Gen Y and accept that in order to differentiate themselves and remain relevant in business and even personal settings they need to build themselves as a brand.

The advertising industry is notorious for spawning otherwise unknown marketing superstars into well-known brand-like figures catapulting careers in the process. What has become abundantly clear is that in order to take the leap into professional stardom, you need to become a “human brand.”

Building a human brand starts with the basics: having a tidy and up-to-date LinkedIn profile complete with relevant recommendations, establishing a valuable Twitter presence, and having a distinct Facebook strategy which clearly delineates personal and business worlds in order to build a professional appearance.

What really sets “human brands” apart though is the ability for the actual person behind the brand to create, curate, and publish relevant and timely content to their networks and become a trusted and reputable entity, much like CNN.

Here is how popular technology bloggers like Robert Scoble (branded as “The Scobleizer”) and Joseph Jaffe (branded as “Jaffe Juice”) are turning into “human brands”

Consistent branding The best human brands drive consistency in branding blogs, Twitter handles, Facebook vanity URLs, and usernames

Creation of content calendars You have an audience just like [social media Web site] Mashable does and you should try to plan your content around key seasonal industry tent poles to remain relevant and top of mind.

Have a point of view “Human brands” need to stand for something and have a strong point of view which permeates throughout their content

Don’t get too personal “Human brands” need to realize they are speaking to a public audience and resist the urge to share too much personal information which could alienate a larger base

Live it This speaks for itself. The best “human brands” like their “real brand” counterparts approach life with passion and creativity.

If you are a brand, think about what type of person you want to be. If you are a person, think about the type of brand you will be. In the end, both people and brands are struggling to be heard and differentiate themselves in an increasingly cluttered world.

Matt Britton is founder and chief executive officer at Mr Youth