Humanizing Brands in a Digital World: Part 2

In the first half of this two part series, I explained the concept of the humanization of brands, why brands are looking to do it, and presented a case study of  how it can reinvigorate and revolutionize a brand.  This post will review four humanization methodologies currently being used by big brands as well as a process for businesses to use when evaluating the best way to humanize their own brands.  Both posts are based on a presentation I gave last month at BrandsConf 2010.

How are brands are becoming more human?
As we exit a phase during which big brands were in ‘experimentation mode’ with humanization and social media, it is important to take stock of the successes experienced by some major brands.  With these success stories in mind, marketers can now be more strategic about how they choose to humanize their brands.  The four major models of brand humanization which have emerged are presented below, with a case studies for demonstrative purposes.

Corporate Personality: This model of humanization is likely the most conservative of the set.  Many brands lack a distinctive personality—and developing one tends to be one of the lowest risk ways for companies to change.  Corporate personality can permeate every part of the way a company does business.  For many companies, associating a brand with a cause or with an inherently social idea (one that is worth talking about), proves to be a popular and longevous path to humanization.

For Dove, humanizing its brand with corporate personality meant changing the way the company talked about and portrayed beauty.  In 2004, Dove launched its Campaign for Real Beauty and it has only gained speed through social media since its launch.  Through the campaign, Dove has moved its focus away from its product attributes to talk to its consumers about something that is important to them—society’s perception of beauty.

By leading a parade that its consumers could get behind and rally additional consumers (troops) to, Dove has amassed an impressive following of consumers who regard their soap brand not as a transactional vendor, but as a company that resonates and stands for innately human values.  Today, Dove continues its campaign through new and more timely extensions, like the more recently launched Movement for Self-Esteem.

Internal Crowdsourcing: With the rise of social media has come the rise of socially-powered decisions, widely known as crowdsourcing.  When brands put their trust in other humans (their consumers) to suggest ideas and make tangible changes to the company and its products or services, it resonates with consumers as human.  What generates even more of a human touch is when companies gather together internal staffs (whether it be a social media team, troop of product managers or group of average employees) to begin to respond to the concerns, compliments and demands of average consumers.  Marketers call it internal crowdsourcing and consumers call it human.  The other advantage to having a crowd as the human face of a brand is that it’s not as noticeable if one or two come and go every once in a while.

Best Buy calls it Twelpforce, a set of 2,200 Blueshirts (store employees) who have amassed a following of 31,000 customers with burning questions they want answered.  Everyday, the Twelpforce (on Twitter as @Twelpforce) answers consumer questions ranging from how to program a remote control to whether time travel still exists.  In the process, Best Buy acknowledges that it has grown a lot closer to consumers and that it’s made the Blueshirts themselves better at working with customers in-store.

Individual Empowerment: Perhaps the riskiest avenue of humanization, individual empowerment can also be one of the most economical ways for brands to humanize themselves.  This method involves the empowerment of one employee within a company to become the brand’s face, voice and everything else.  The key to success with this method starts with finding a social media savvy employee who can live and breath the brand in question.  It is also important to identify a brand representative who will be able to identify with the brand’s target audience.

AXE is a great example of a brand that has taken that leap and experienced measured success.  Jennie (or @AXE on Twitter) is a member of the brand’s marketing team and acts as the public face of the brand, ranging from overly scripted videos on YouTube to a section on a brand Facebook Page to some pretty impressive activity on Twitter.  One thing is for certain—AXE has picked someone who resonates with its audience (men) and who has the intensive training and oversight necessary to do what needs to be done on the brand’s behalf (Jennie actually works for the PR team at Edelman).

Avatars Personification: If brands can swing it, one of the most sure-fire ways to humanize a brand is to create a human-like avatar (often based on a logo) and make it the company’s mascot.  One of the major benefits to this avenue of humanization is that the brand invests in an asset that has no risk of leaving (like individual employees do).  Instead, avatars are forever loyal, easy to manage and hardly ever stray from strategy (without a brand manager’s permission).  Further, the avatar can be developed and designed to live on social media sites or in real life, with ease and without binding a company to reliance on specific people.

As Travelocity has explored with its Roaming Gnome, the mileage (no pun intended) a brand can get out of a resonant and relevant avatar is never ending.  From his more traditional presences on Facebook and Twitter to his experimental adventures on Chatroulette, the gnome’s cute personality and irreverent tone allows him to do and see a lot more than a human ever would… plus no labor laws restrict his hours.

Strategic Framework: OPARES
So how do companies wade through the sea of options they have when choosing an appropriate way to humanize their brands?  OPARES offers a straight-forward, step-by-step paradigm for brand humanization:

1. Objective: Don’t start any humanization initiative until you have an objective. Is the brand setting out to shift brand perception, better customer service experiences, generate additional brand awareness or something else altogether?
2. Profile: Get your marketing team together and profile what a human version of your brand would look like. What would be the person’s name, what would they look like and how would they talk?
3. Assimilate: Consider the four major ways to humanize brands outlined above.  What’s the most practical way to assimilate the human personality you just profiled into your brand?
4. Resources: At the end of the day, who is fueling this humanization effort?  Will it be an individual, a group of crowdsourced employees, customer service representatives or a big team of people who can speak as your avatar?
5. Engage:  This is where the rubber meets the road.  Engage your new humanization program and optimize as you see the public responding to the effort.
6. Sustain: Any time a brand is getting ready to become more like a human with an initiative, lifespan is an important consideration.  How will this effort expand over the long term?  Can a brand plan on a certain individual always being its public face?  What happens when certain members behind this initiative leave?  Can the humans behind the humanization have their own life, as well as sustain one for the brand online?

Humanizing brands may seem complex—and it is, because humans are complicated beings.  But setting out to make your humanization initiative a success the right way is worth it.  Learn from the likes of the brands mentioned in this post and, by all means, follow a strategic framework like OPARES to ensure your brand doesn’t miss an important step along the way.  Once your brand becomes more human, don’t be surprised when you start to get closer to your consumers and they (and their wallets) begin to get closer to you.