Leading from Identity
9 Observations on A New Type of Interference in Brand Behaviour
Right now we have a fantastic playground for creating brand experiences. A circus of activity. So much so it can be hard to see the wood for the trees. Its certainly not going to get any quieter, with the Ferris wheel spinning faster and faster. So how to cut through the candy floss marketing and sinister brand clowns is of real importance. Requiring a mix of good old fashioned brand management, down to earth authenticity and captivating creativity or as we call it ‘Interference’.
I didn’t come up the title ’Leading from identity’, but I haven’t changed it, it’s made me think. Earlier in the year I was invited by Jonathan Reams & John Richard Hanssen, in Trondheim, to give this lecture at the city’s innovation hot-house DIGS. As well as the inspiring award-winning author, business coach and philosopher Bonnitta Roy. As I was in the company a highly regarded professor of Leadership, management consultant and author, I was driven to reflect how we consider ‘leadership’ in brand development and management — how do brands cut through the noise, build loyal and loving fans, and have a sustainable impact?
Many clients express their ambition of becoming a leading brand, but I can’t think of a single client who’s ever asked just that alone. Creating a leading brand is first and foremost about addressing a human need or desire. So instead of focusing directly on the characteristics of leading brands, I strated by simply listing some of the pressing questions from clients on my desk at ANTI.
— How can we persuade people to carry, and use, a lifesaving device when they’re scared to do so?
— How do we get people to value and readopt a slow, old-fashioned daily routine?
— How can we get people to invest in quality journalism when they expect it for free and don’t want to see any advertising?
— How do we promote collaboration between large corporations, moving under one roof?
— How does a company maintain pride and job satisfaction at a time of redundancies and cutbacks?
— How can hotels compete in an AirBnB world?
— How do we make the city-centre a sustainable space for communities and businesses?
— How do we get male victims of domestic abuse to ask for help?
These questions present the diversity of problems (new & old) and opportunities, shifting contexts, fluctuating markets, and changing behaviours we address on a daily basis. One thing is for certain; the idea of a brand’s identity is dynamic.
As an organisation, for you to truly understand your own brand identity it’s essential to ask your audience, and it depends on who you’re asking. Its also important to remember that not everyone’s idea of your identity is real, or valuable… good relationships are essential to have a strong understand of your brand, and when I say ‘good’ I mean ‘honest’; thats why you should never ask your mother.
Here are ‘9 Observations on A New Type of Interference in Brand Behaviour’, as I see it right now — based on a mashup on old and new, personal inspiration, professional insight and a bit of left field referencing. These observations are for brand creators and managers of all sizes and positions, they’re just pixels on a page, not chiseled stone!
9 Observations
1. Your questions shape your identity
Leading with a question engages your audience, its not about telling people, and its not about asking people; its about sharing your quest. Brand existence in a post-postmodern world is very much about accepting temporality and embracing possibility… or simply put ‘rapid innovation’.
AirBnB uses this in their mission statement — ‘We asked ourselves, “What is our mission? What is the big idea that truly defines Airbnb?’ AirBnB draws us in to buy into their culture of curiosity; leading us to their current incarnation ‘Belong Anywhere’. It’s really very good, the questions AirBnB ask aren’t explicit in their communication, they’re implicit. Ultimately this is a core part of their innovation culture that has reframed the industry, generated a game changing hospitality business and globally leading brand, all in a very short space of time.
2. Your audience should be at the centre
Industrial design has been banging on about this since Henry Dreyfuss, et al in the 50’s. But this isn’t just about product, service or communication design; this is about absolute integration, placing the customer at the centre of all things, activities, thoughts, actions and sense of corporate identity.
I’m sorry to use Apple as an example, but its simply an obvious choice. Back in 1982 Apple wrote these words… ’We will truly understand their needs better than any other company.’ This simply-put mission statement generated an innovation culture founded on user empathy that has ultimately lead to a brand cult of freakish desirability. However, its also one to watch, where is it now headed, do we still feel at the centre? Is the audience-core of Apple starting to rot? We shall see if the rise and fall of the greatest millennial brand comes down to allowing its audience to slip away from the centre of its vision.
3. Purpose gives a compelling narrative
We all want to believe in others, we search for the ‘reason’ in all new and long standing relationships. For example, an amazing employee relationship isn’t founded on salary, we don’t love the company we work for just because of money. Money cant feed motivation, at least not on its own. We’ve all had jobs for the money, but the jobs we jump out of bed for are those where we find purpose and the same affect occurs with a brand’s audience. Purpose and identity are one and the same, and identity without purpose is contrived, devoid of value and unsustainable.
For example, like Apple, Nike started with a simple statement to inform their culture and brand experience; ‘To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete* in the world. *If you have a body, you are an athlete.’ Or as we now know it… ‘Just do it’ or ‘Find your greatness’.
This is very serious stuff, brand’s truly need to soul-search, existentialism shouldn’t be a big word in branding. So like Nike, presenting what your brand truly believes in, its purpose on this earth, is a very powerful relationship builder.
4. Your identity lives through your fans
This idea is rather obvious, however this is too commonly associated with brands where the idea of ‘fans’ is quite literal, from FC Barcelona to the Rolling Stones. But don’t underestimate the potential of your relationships, its not Keith Richards or Lionel Messi that generate real fans. Its all about community and the power of brands in forming connections between people.
I’m inspired by the African philosophy of Ubuntu ‘I am what I am, because of who we all are’. Stay with me! The idea, evangelised by Mandela and Tutu, is all about ‘togetherness’. In the Western tradition we too often approach brands with an individualistic mindset; ‘I think therefore I am’. This is nonsense to the whole idea of branding and leadership. You’re brand is founded on how people perceive you and the community that emerges around collective experiences. So consider your brand identity as something that exists beyond the board room, between people (B2B, B2C, C2C).
As it has become the norm for us to ‘show off’ what we experience in real time; from a hotel stay, to a new business partnership, etc. brands are increasingly reliant on network and collective narrative. Brands that succeed generate content and opportunities for their fans to ‘own’ and ‘share’.
5. You’re defined by what you give
The author and former government advisor on innovation, Charles Leadbeater, wrote ‘In the 20th century we were defined by what we owned — In the 21st century we will also be defined by how we share and what we give away.’ Our social-media-behaviour is influencing us in the everyday; in every way. For example, its standard practice for us professional’s to ‘profile’ what we know, instead of hoarding our IP we flaunt it as social currency (the irony is not lost on me). As such brands are expected to behave in the same way. An example that highlights this iceberg-sized-hole in the side of the 20th century business logic, is Elon Musk’s realise of Tesla’s patent protection in 2014.
“We felt compelled to create patents out of concern that the big car companies would copy our technology and then use their massive manufacturing, sales and marketing power to overwhelm Tesla. We couldn’t have been more wrong.”
I recently visited my local Mercedes dealer, interested in a new electric car, the dealer proudly lifted the hood and announced to me that the car was ‘full for Tesla technology’… Mercedes, proudly showing off a competitor-brand’s automotive innovation — If this anecdote isn’t a case of brand leadership I don’t know what is!
6. Innovate how you share — Let influence in
So, if its becoming standard brand-behaviour to believe ‘your identity lives through your fans’ and ‘you’re defined by what you give’ how can a brand cut through the noise and lead? Neither of the last two observations can still be classed as innovative. But its the combination of these two ideas that offers the sandpit for interference.
ANTI’s fashion brand ANTI Denim profiles the simplicity, beauty and impact of interference in the sharing-space of brand identity in the project “666 Frames”. A tribute to the growing influence of dark aesthetics in fashion, music and art; a HD film, made of 666 fames, a community of dedicated and passionate fans, and a concept of trust and shared creativity. Artists, fans of the genre, were offered to customise one frame of which they had absolute freedom of artistic expression, the frames where then put back in order and a unique film produced. However, the real effect came in the distribution of this experience… the story (value) of being a part of the project.
666 artists, with an average of 500 social media followers each (666 x 500) = an audience of 333 000 people. If just 10 in every 500 followers shared one frame, the audience grew to 3 330 000 people!
Each of these artists had a local following, from Tokyo to Buenos Aires, New York to Jakarta; this small Norwegian brand now had local relevance all over the world.
The story had relevance outside of fashion, picked up in the music, art and design media. The artwork went on to become merchandise and the beginnings of a book.
The most important aspect to it all was offering a space for expression, valuing the passions of the fans, and allowing them to design and own their association with the brand.
7. Identity is experienced in shared space & time
‘The creative act is not performed by the artist alone; the spectator brings the work in contact with the external world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualifications and thus adds his contribution to the creative act.’ ― Marcel Duchamp
In the context of branding Duchamp predicted our liberation from marking the absolute tangible (the ‘branded’ arse of a cow) to the (added) perceived cultural value of an object or experience.
For example, think of brands as bands…
In the beginning we watched the performance — an orchestra-pit between us and the stage, passively receiving what was handed to us; we had no rights, no ownership.
Then we wanted to be the performers — screaming with arms stretched onto the stage, following the fashion, talking about our generation; we found expression, freedom and connection.
Now we are the performers — our backs turned from the DJ, doing our own thing, without convention, but in a shared space, riding the beat and tempo to however we want; we no longer accept convention but expect to shape our own experience from what is given.
So think of ‘your brand’ as a ‘your band’… your product or service as your music; there is no convention, no expectation to how or where it should be performed.
Now your audience is part of your brand — we are all now the bank, the taxi, the hotel, the media… your brand strategy is your band rhythm, the beat and tempo for your audience’s experience.
8. Identity is strengthened through synergies
If you work with sponsorships, this is really important for you, because brand-2-brand relations is a lot more exciting and radical than boring old sponsorships.
Much is said of the turmoil and devastation within traditional ‘fast’ media; print news, etc. However, this is where we can find truly exciting innovation and new forms of customer engagement. In the struggle to stay relevant long standing media brands are redesigning their business models and forging brand connections that both present relevance for today, and literally subsidise the day to day.
The Guardian has become a leading news brand from the old guard of the print media world. Their Partnership Zone is an example of where previously stood a flaccid corporate endorsement, now an intelligent, meaningful and upfront relationship. Essentially The Guardian needs money, they have a respectable news brand with a strong culture of CSR. Brands such as VISA, Unicef, UPS, Microsoft, Facebook, etc. sponsor the creation of independent journalistic content in an area the brand has an interest to be associated with ( #questions #purpose #give #sharedspace ). From user finance, child protection, small businesses, education, to social media, etc.
Naturally we can be quick to be cynical, but this mode of thinking is in the mind of every great brand management team. No longer thinking ‘Who do I want to be seen at the party with?’ but rather ‘Who can I team up with to make a great party?’
To lead through brand identity it is impossible not to share goals, objectives and problems. Brands are best placed to address their challenges with the support of other brands approaching things from their point of view and expertise — sharing questions, connecting purpose, audience centred-ness, innovation through co-learning, and creating new possibilities.
9. Be responsible for your community
Brand’s that generate a committed following, hold a position of influence. With influence comes power, and brand power can be a self destructive force for its community’s health — for the brand itself, the fans, its local economy and environment. There is a very simple but very powerful counterweight that all brands must apply with influence; responsibility!
Some years back I met Bruce Lloyd, Emeritus Professor of Leadership from South Bank University London. He presented a simple idea that has helped me understand and explain many problems when it comes to a brand’s floundering reputation. Its really quite simple — draw two lines, a vertical line we shall call POWER and an intersecting in the middle horizontal line RESPONSIBILITY. Each has a ‘high’ ( + ) and ‘low’ ( — ) end — you now have four areas
— Lots of power and not much responsibility = brand megalomania #MakeAmericaGreatAgain
— Not much power and Lots of responsibility = brand stress & frustration #YourLocalGrocer
— Not much responsibility and not much power = brand dropout #itsNotaBrand
but…
— Lots of power and lots of responsibility = ethical, effective brand leadership #yourBrandHere?
So, its simple, you have to stand for something more than your brand’s own self interest. The health of the community is intrinsically connected to the vitality of your brand. To lead with identity is ultimately about being a ‘good’ citizen.
Magic happens in the space between us.
