Om Malik
Storytelling and humanism as a feature, not a bug.
“The great brand is the one which is honest.” Om Malik
Om Malik is someone who I have always looked to in order to make sense the impact that technology has on the world. He has an uncanny ability to bring a very human perspective to some of to the technology that so often seems to be cold and inanimate.
I had the pleasure of speaking with Om on the Branded Podcast recently.
Heres what I learned:
Storytelling as a tech skill: Stories are a way to fire up our imagination. Behind every piece of technology, every piece of data is a human being and human beings all have a story to tell. We would be better served by always asking ourselves “What can technology do for the human being?” when we think about communicating new tech in a story.
Humanism a feature: We need to start thinking about how the technology will actually be used in peoples lives, instead of assuming that everyone is just going to start using it most effectively. We have had a very simplistic notion in society as technology as a tool, we have to become more open to society influencing technology itself.
The evolutionary process of thought: Writing as a means of thinking out loud. Words on paper can actually help you undertand what's going on in your head.
The difference in writing as a job and writing as a way of life is writing with an end objective in mind vs writing as “method of sharing my mind with you” a way to expand your thinking. Not just how many times your were right, but how many times have you changed and have you evolved your thinking.
The investor imagines the evolution of the problems in the world: Every product exists to solve a problem, but problems like people are not static, they evolve over time.
The story supersedes the service: The longer the story the better the brand, it is about the consistency and longevity of the narrative. In that sense, the product becomes a representation of the brand's story. Which is not in the tactics of blog posts, or copywriting, it's about when someone sees your product, can they understand what your brand is all about, your unique point of view? For example, Madison Reed — you don’t even have to be their customer to know their brand story.
Emmergent communities as a brand's true power: Word of mouth as the basic unit of trust and brand power and the ability for a product to inspire a meaningful personal narrative. Real branding is just that, when people have a positive emotional memory attached to a product or service. That is when you have these emergent communities arise, like with Peleton Bike
Luxury comes from rarity: Your time is very rare, your family, your experiences. One of one. Let's not conflate cost and money with luxury, the rarity makes things luxurious in its true sense, not the price.
For much more and the full episode, you can listen here.
