Humanizing Your Brand: Why You Need To and How To Do It

The need to humanize

In the summer of 2017 Halo Top stunned the industry as it became the best-selling pint of ice cream in U.S. grocery stores. A mere 5 years after its 2012 launch, Halo Top was suddenly outselling longtime leaders such as Ben & Jerry’s and Haagen-Dazs. Halo Top’s story, while unique, is in many ways unsurprising. Think about all the brands we interact with regularly today — Uber, Airbnb, Fitbit, Tinder, Spotify — that were brand new or non-existent just 10 years ago.

Consumers no longer just roam the aisles picking up products from the same brands they’ve always known. While the importance of brand trust is on the rise — a third of consumers rank “trust in brand” as a top 3 reason other than price to shop at a particular retailer — a brand’s longevity is no longer the sole driver behind whether consumers trust a brand. People care about whether brands are good corporate citizens, whether others have had good experiences with them, and whether they’re offering more than just the product (e.g., impressive customer service).

To read more about what drives consumer trust in brands, and how to apply these lessons to your own branding efforts, check out the full piece on The Research Insighter.