Brands Are People

P.E.O.P.L.E. Introducing a basic framework for thinking about brands by Ross Popoff-Walker www.annoyingdesign.org/blog

Brands are like living things.

Brands have value and meaning to people.

Companies create their brand’s equity and value from the ground up .

And keep tight control of their brand.

But online… people don’t trust websites from big brands.

81% percent of consumers say they do not trust branded websites. Source: Forrester Research’s NACTAS Q2 2006 Survey

But we do trust each other.

71% of people say they trust the opinion of family, friends and colleagues as a source of information on products and services. Source: Forrester Research

Companies need to listen to what individual voices are saying.

And tap into the conversations that are already happening about their brands.

Brands like Scion get this.

They embrace it by connecting their web properties to user communities.

But many big brands still need to let go. (please, let go)

Because people all over are creating substitutions for what these brands are not providing. Here’s a real example…

Meet Melvin “Melz” Howard
Melz is 17 born and raised in NYC .
He’s a senior in high school, has a girlfriend, lives with his mom, works at Quiznos for $6,000 /yr...

Melz love’s his Nikes
Every week Melz and his friends do “New Sneaker Wednesday”
They hang out and show off their new Nikes
But there’s no conversation between Melz and the Nike brand

What if Nike helped Melz organize their “New Sneaker Wednesdays”… … and for just a day , instead of promoting Kobe or LeBron…

… what if Nike enabled Melz to spread his love of the Nike brand to the world…

NEW SNEAKER WEDNESDAY - Melz, 17, NYC

People are social beings.

It is our nature to congregate around things we believe in . Things we value. Things like brands.

Successful brands of tomorrow will act as a platform for our social nature.

As a sounding board for our voices.

P.E.O.P.L.E. By structuring brands to interact with consumers like real human beings, like people, brands can enable consumers to share and communicate.

P .E.O.P.L.E.
Participate in conversations, rather than just being a subject of them

P. E .O.P.L.E.
Participate
Embrace and accept how other people interact with your brand – never try to censor consumers.

COURIC: And, Mr. Manager, you know, these--these ID shoes are advertised as being about quote, "Freedom to choose and freedom to express who you are." By censoring what can be written on the shoes, aren't you res-restricting someone's individual freedom? Mr. MANAGER: Well, not at all. Again, I think that there are always limitations, to certain degree, of speech. Obviously, again, here's a copy of the shoe itself, and this is where the ID would go. We have no obligation to put on a shoe information that we would consider to be derogatory or defamatory to our company and our product. COURIC: Mm-hmm.

P.E. O .P.L.E.
Participate
Embrace
Open-Up your company’s processes and become a transparent organization

P.E.O. P .L.E.
Participate
Embrace
Open-Up
Become a platform for consumers to communicate with each other, and to express themselves

P.E.O.P. L .E.
Participate
Embrace
Open-Up
Platform
Listen closely to what consumers are saying about your brand

P.E.O.P.L. E .
Participate
Embrace
Open-Up
Platform
Listen
Empower consumers to become advocates, rather than just fans

P.E.O.P.L.E.
Participate
Embrace
Open-Up
Platform
Listen
Empower

Thank You Want to learn more? Drop me a line… Ross Popoff-Walker blog: annoyingdesign.org /blog/ LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/rosspw Twitter: twitter.com/rosspw email: [email_address] Ross Popoff-Walker Interactive UX + Youth Design Analyst

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Brands Are People

by Ross Popoff-Walker on May 16, 2008

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