The Power of Brand Humanization

It can be said that Gerard Hoff succeeded in his purpose to share his manner of thinking towards branding in general and how he managed to put this into practice by illustrating the respective concept with a case study of a Human Resources company.

Consumer attitudes towards brands have changed during the past decade (again).

“Show me who you are and I decide whether I like you or not” is the quote that describes this attitude best. They expect brands to add value to their lives and to who they are. If not they are rejected (or there is no choice or just no differentiation).

The rise of Social Media has put a turbo on this attitude. It forced companies to be open, honest and transparent on every level of doing business (internal and external). It forced them to become more ‘human’.

Hoff calls this the ‘humanization of brands’. It is about the soul. That is the core of Absoulute Branding, defining the soul of a company and use that as a filter for everything they do. The soul has two powerful elements:

1. Purpose
2. Personality

This humanization of brands in the social media is the logical next step and it is important for companies to act on this change, especially in this digital age of status symbols, online reputation and Word-Of-Mouth (WOM).

A positive WOM sells, the opinion of friends has a great effect on which brands or products people choose (or don’t!). The Nielsen Company (2009) can confirm this analysis throughout a survey they had and where it shows that 90 % of respondents trusted “completely” or “somewhat” recommendations from people they know.

Hence companies must consider it of great importance to invest in Customer Relationship Management, with the emphasis on relation.

The closer this relation, the bigger the change of buying and the bigger chance he or she becomes an ambassador. Obviously, the importance of WOM is in line with that thought, so a positive attitude of the body of a brand can be created.

An interesting method Gerard introduces, in order to reach people’s attention, is ofcourse the one of ‘Absoulute Branding’. He implicates that a company must define the soul and use this soul as a filter throughout everything the company does.

In addition it must reach consumer’s emotions, because they want to know why they would choose this product and take part in their lives, not what it can do.

Another interesting topic is Flow. Flow is the mental state of operation in which a person in an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity (Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi).

This scheme can also be used for the ‘humanized’ companies in creating such a flow state for their employees and their brand. Operating in this ‘flow’ state of mind generates a huge amount of energy (intrinsic, extrinsic, creative,…).

The Flow state is the perfect balance between the high perceived skills and the perceived challenges (examples are Starbucks, Albert Heijn).

When discussing the case of the Human Resources company, it was notable that the vision focus must stress on ‘employer branding’. Employer Branding, in the vision of Gerard, is not just a nice way to attract people.

It is the strategy to establish relationships with the current, the desired (future) talent, as well as an additional channel to build the brand.

It optimizes the way a company works, innovates and acts through their employees. This new way of thinking are essential for companies to differentiate or even to survive in the market.

The way to do that, companies have to involve and inspire the existing group of people and attract new people to realise the promises made to the market, based on the brand soul.

Instead of ’people are our greatest asset’ the motto changes into: “We are an asset to our people”.

NO SOUL, NO GLORY