NORTHERN PLANNER

The problem with paying people to think about brands is all they do it think about brands.

It’s why I’ve always been nervous about brand consultants, they’ve been asked to look at every nook and cranny of something few people in the real world understand or care about.

If you’ve ever had to execute a 100 page tone of voice guide you’ll know what I mean.

It’s not just these practitioners though, marketing departments are paid to think about their brand day in, day out. They know every part of the business is the most minute detail and often fall into the trap of thinking normal folks would care as much as they do.

And then we have agencies. Many of whom, focus on a clear message and take-out, more of whom ache over the smallest detail and actually believe they are making something that will compete in a busy culture with Eastenders, Tik-Tok creators or whatever.

And then we have those who like to think that EVERYTHING has changed since such things as brands became a vehicle for business growth. It’s certainly fair to say that attention is more fragmented and there is even more choice, too much choice. We’re simply making too much of everything. Yet, brands were invented to help people not to think. The name comes from the brands that helped cowboys know which cow was which.

For people choosing products. it used to be way of knowing which product was best without having to think about. Of course, today, it’s hard to buy something truly awful and there are too many options.

Brands are simply a way to cut though the landfill of too much stuff to choose, even more than decades ago, they are a way of helping not to think.

And even then, the brands they choose they don’t think very hard about, that’s the point. Most people who buy from any given company can’t really tell you why it’s different. When it’s search time or buy time, they dredge up a mess of fuzzy associations and memories, so they know what they will be getting without having to think about it….and if they think about much it’s actually the usage experience, more like how it felt than how it actually worked (we remember how we feel a lot longer).

So what you ask?

A reality check, no more no less. Stop asking dangerous questions of your brand. Stop asking dangerous questions of agency partners and, especially, stop asking dangerous questions of real people in research. Stop asking them what this brand means and why it’s different, sweating over the smallest detail. They’ll try and answer but it won’t be true or useful, because it’s not how things work in the real world.

In the real world, it’s really building the right collection of fuzzy associations and memories to help people to (hopefully) buy you without thinking too hard. In many ways, like a soap opera with some sort of editorial theme and feel, key plot lines and recognisable characters, places and, sometimes moments.

Soap Operas started in the 1950s, coincidentally sponsored by brands to build long lasting associations with potential buyers. Content strategy, branded content, whatever you want to call it, like a better way to think about brands these days. It was all done well decades ago. Funny that.

So yes, think less, sell more.