Finding a voice again

Why brands need to speak up

In the centre of Times Square is a completely blank billboard. Just plain black. This is one of four boards advertising the HTC One M8. The other three show the brand logo, a simple shot of the phone and finally some words:

Blah blah blah…

It doesn't matter what we say.

Form your own opinion.

Ask the internet.

Now, for me, this is just an absolute cop out. This simply isn't advertising.

I'm certainly not denying that today, consumers hold the power to form decisions. With so much connectivity and information available to us at any second of the day it is only natural that we can and do compare the experience we have to what others receive. We use these multiple sources of information to derive our own opinion on a brand or company. And we revel in challenging a brand if it doesn't meet our expectations via our many social channels. To put it simply we, the social consumers, are more connected, informed, empowered and demanding — and we have every right to be. We hold the power; we don’t have to listen to brands.

“Don’t ever try to sell me on anything. Give me ALL the information and I’ll make my own decision.” —Kanye West

This idea is now solidified and suitably established after a few years of rationalising and reiterating the concept. Any brand that is failing to adapt to this new consumer-centric, or proactive consumer-centric, marketing is falling behind — and let’s be honest, there are still quite a few brands that believe shouting counts as marketing.

But just because a consumer doesn't have to listen to a brand, it doesn't mean that they won’t.

If what we did before didn't engage consumers, we shouldn't just give up and let them get on with it themselves. We must work harder to earn the attention of consumers and find relevance in their lives. What were once distinct moments between brands and consumers is now one continuous brand experience that fits snuggly into our consumers’ lives. To an extent you could argue that every brand must adapt to become a lifestyle brand.

So certainly HTC has taken a big and important step away from simply shouting at consumers and telling them to buy brands. But it has gone too far in pandering to consumers that it patronises them. And that is almost worse than being shouted at. Not to mention the millions of wasted pounds spent on advertising that doesn't say anything.

In the same way that we want personalised brand experiences, without necessarily knowing that every interaction we make is being tracked, we want to be able to make decisions without being patronised. Brands must learn to create more honest advertising which facilitates informed decisions but doesn't defer to them entirely.

We must remember as brands we still have a voice, we still know more about our product than anyone else which allows us to be one information source amongst many others. To subtract yourself from the conversation entirely is failing almost as much as simply shouting. We can’t stay silent and hope that consumers will like us. To win, we can and should be talking to consumers in a balanced dialogue. Listening, learning and, most importantly, responding, because a consumer will only listen if we can find a way to provide value and relevance.

A brand experience should work as a conversation, where the questions asked add new depths of understanding and help brands support consumers in making their decision. Where every interaction with a brand enables us to grow and evolve — not simply state the same thing over and over again. And by working in this conversational manner, we will learn a lot more about our consumers than we ever could before. We can learn about their lives, their beliefs and behaviours, about the role they want our brands to play and therefore the experience we can create to bring them value.

Working in this way is not just more valuable and transparent, but convenient too. Just as much as consumers need balanced information, they need it in a manner that fits with the way they are already living their lives. We will never earn our consumers attention by staying silent. It will only ever be by being what they need us to be: one part of their lives made of many, many other things.

We can’t dominate our consumers any more or muscle our way into a larger part of their lives. But we can make sure we do our very best to make the one part we play an exceptional experience and ensure every time they come back to us we remember them and grow with their changing needs. By doing this we may find that the one part we play, magically multiplies into many parts.

So thank you HTC for trying new styles of advertising, but by trying to avoid loud empty words, you have actually achieved just this.

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