Being human

Brands, we all (at least all of us in marketing and advertising) like to believe, are like people. They have personalities, values, they behave in a certain way, have ambitions and relationships. But really, if you stopped and thought about it, could you say with a straight face that brands really are like people?

People have conversations. People have fun. People have hobbies. People have passions. People have relationships. People feel pain and express it. People feel joy and share it. People go through ups and downs. People are confused. People have clarity. People make up their minds. People go around in circles. The thing is, people change all the time, do different things all the time, and are, to put it mildly, highly unpredictable.

 

How many of these things can brands claim to do or be? When was the last time you heard a brand ask someone “Do I look fat in this dress?” When did you last see a brand feature in a photograph against a funny scene that it then went on to share among its friends and receive at least one “LOLLZZZ” in the comments? When was the last time a brand lost a beloved pet and shared its angst with its friends? Come to think of it, when was the last time you heard that a brand had a pet, beloved or otherwise? When was the last time you heard a fabulous vacation story from a brand?

And yet, in an intricately-linked ecosystem where brands are as integral as other beings in it, brands are not stepping up to the plate in being human, as much as they may delude themselves into thinking they are.

The social network (enabled by technology or offline) is made for conversations - that thing that people have when they talk to each other. And yet, how many brands do you know that have conversations with people? And while on that, people don’t have world-changing, epiphany-inducing, enlightenment-creating conversations all the time. Inanity, profanity and banality are the hallmarks of a majority of conversations. But whatever the tone and content, conversations are the lubricants of interaction, of socializing, and hence of everyday life itself. But brands, when they do converse, seem to think that frivolity is beneath their dignity, that if they don’t offer meaning and solution at every turn of phrase, then conversations are pointless. As the saying goes, if only brands would pause for a minute and think, “What goes of my father if I had a silly conversation this once?”

It’s a rare Zoo-zoo or Dos Equis Man that stimulates and engages in conversation with real people. [While on that, did you notice how tolerant people are of beings that don’t even have real names? I mean, when was the last time you met someone called a “2000 Flushes Man” (2000 Flushes is a real brand, by the way)?] The thing is, while people are unpredictable, they’re not really complicated. What they are is really flexible, going with the flow, doing things on the fly. Versus brands that prefer to be regimented and structured in their lives, governed by brand books and templates. Perhaps it’s time for brands to throw some rules out of the window. And just live a little. Like real people.

The author is National Planning Head, Dentsu Marcom