I trust we can all agree now that branding doesn’t center around logos, advertising, and whatever else Mad Men conveyed to our friends and families. Branding is everything a business is and does, its reason for existing, and most important for our conversation here, the contribution it makes to society. And I don’t mean the good-Samaritan-kind of contribution—I mean any and all contributions.
Good, bad, product-related or not, how a brand behaves (everything from how it hires and speaks to what it innovates and produces) affects the way the world sees itself and its future. Which means we all have a pretty big responsibility on our shoulders, regardless of whether we’re responsible for social media or mergers and acquisitions.
And yes, I am that person that will tell you every social post is important; the kind of person that treats the role of a sales associate the same way she does that of an executive leader. Because I believe in everlasting ripple effects and cultivating an eye for the things that don’t change. The foundational rules that many forget. The things that help brands stay strong and focused amidst the daily news, weekly trend reports, and other distractions. The learnings that help you develop your wisdom, so that you may always be the one who “knew better”, come what may.
I call these the natural laws of branding. And this new series will explore several of them in detail.
Let’s begin.
Today’s topic? Sensationalist campaigning.
Many business and creative leaders tap into the natural behavior spawned by sensationalism, without realizing that the resulting reactions are not conducive to brand building. They’re so focused on “triggering emotion” that they forget to assess how sustainable that emotion is, which is ironic because a fleeting emotion doesn’t do anything but generate an equal and opposing force. (Remember that? Physics.)
Let me explain this in a way that feels more personal. Most of us fall into the trap of sensationalism in our own lives, we just don’t see or admit it. Something incredible happens to us, for example, and we allow ourselves to freefall into that enjoyment, distancing ourselves from our more balanced, day-to-day flow.
I challenge you to observe what happens the next time you dive into that state, and be honest with yourself. Not only will your exhilaration quickly begin to feel fabricated and forced, but you’ll also end up experiencing a moment of the completely opposite emotion—a darker state, if you will. It’s only natural as your mind, body, and soul attempt to regain their equilibrium.
This may seem extreme, but it’s actually a metaphor for what happens with brand engagement. You leverage colors, sounds, gifts, fireworks, anything you can to get your audience excited about what you’re offering, and you feel good when they immediately engage in large numbers. At that moment you don’t realize (or perhaps a lack of long-term thinking renders you disinterested) that the exaggerated experience you’ve manufactured is bound to produce a similarly exaggerated negative reaction—not now, but whenever your brand ends up doing something that feels a bit off in consumers’ eyes.
In other words, your audience will overreact negatively just as quickly and strongly as the positive reaction you’re proudly witnessing in the moment. And they’ll jump ship to another brand because of it, not because they’re fickle but because you’ve literally created the superficial relationship that led to your demise. You happily accepted their shallow engagement in the short term, yet complained about their lack of loyalty in the long term.
It’s a bit hypocritical, don’t you think?
And given that brands are everywhere, in everything we interact with, we’re also continuously educating the world that this kind of surface-level extremism is acceptable. Today’s brand campaigns are so driven by sensationalism and the audience’s irrational reactions that people simply continue acting like that, leaving brands with anything but a stable or loyal following.
So, not only is it wrong from a moral, societal level, but it’s also just bad for business. And I don’t think it takes so much “long-term thinking” to see this—it’s right under our noses during every strategy session, every planning meeting, and within the first few seconds of a launch.
Powerful alternatives to sensationalist campaigning
What’s the alternative to a sensationalist approach to brand campaigns, you ask? Leveraging emotional storytelling to stimulate and educate the audience on a deeper level instead. Each of the following steps is reflective of one or more natural behaviors that can lead your brand to a more durable result:
Teach to court
Tap into your personal life and experiences once again, this time thinking about relationships. Have you ever noticed how much you enjoy spending time with someone that teaches you things? Hollywood may reduce this to the overplayed scene of a boy teaching a girl to play pool or hold a minigolf club, but that doesn’t make the effect any less true.
It’s also not reserved only for romantic relationships; our friendships are the same. We associate the most—and the strongest—with those that help us improve. That’s why we bring out our most interesting tidbits of knowledge when trying to court someone, be it for a romantic, friendly, or even business relationship.
Share your how
The question you might be asking yourself now is what do I have to teach? I always surprise brand leaders by stating very bluntly that what they do is not unique. Same goes for why they do it (nobody wants to be the only one saving the ocean). No, like every brand, business, and human on the planet, it’s HOW they do things that makes them unique.
When deciding what it is you have to offer, you must think in terms of practical guidance. What is it about how I do things that I can share? The answer is everything, unless you work in an industry that really has legally-protected intellectual property (e.g., patents) that cannot be openly discussed. The rest of the “intellectual property” you’re keeping for yourself—your secret sauce, proprietary method, or whatever you might call it—is doing you no favors by remaining hidden.
And should you find that you don’t understand how you do things well enough to express it in a way that other people can find useful, then that’s your sign to stop focusing on triggering emotions with your campaigns and start homing in on how you get things done instead. Not only will it solve your need for presenting something useful to others, but it will also stabilize your brand and business overall.
Be emotional yourself
“Do unto others as you would have them to do unto you.” You want higher customer lifetime value? A cohort of buyers that you can depend on long term? Strong relationships with your clients? All of those require emotional connection, which isn’t going to be fostered by employees treating brand communications as checkboxes on an editorial calendar.
If your organization doesn’t feel emotional about what you’re offering, then it will not translate into something emotional for the viewer. So, if you’re not passionate about what you’re doing or selling, change approach—or even business. You must leverage emotions for people to be interested in the beneficial content you’re now producing, and not just engage with but use, remember, and share it.
Foster personal growth
This is the reason why you should obsess over making your brand a utility rather than a commodity. When you teach somebody something useful in a passionate way (the 3 steps mentioned thus far), you bring them to an “aha moment”. This is one of the best feelings a person can have. They’ve realized something, understood something, clearly and forever—something they can not only apply but also tell their friends and colleagues about (be it for pompous or altruistic motives). Something that makes them feel better, smarter, and more prepared.
And guess what? That aha moment happened in relation to your brand! You want to associate your brand with moments of personal growth, for it’s one of the surest ways to strengthen customer relationships down to the core. And with the right intention, you can create those moments for people and watch that kindness be repaid in engagement, sales, loyalty, and every other metric you’re looking for.
You don’t need a trend report to tell you that this works because it’s based on natural laws and behaviors that don’t bend at the sight of tech advancements, political upheaval, and other types of uncertainty. No matter what’s going on out there, you have the opportunity to generate longer-lasting relationships with your audience by tapping into one of the most pleasant experiences there is—the aha moment.
The beauty is that once they get it, they get it. And your brand is the one that got them there.
Not only will people feel it, but they’ll immediately associate it with your brand. It will make them fall in love, just as you would with someone that brings interesting topics to the table, supports your growth, and is clearly dedicated to understanding what you need.
So, whether you’re crafting a personal, corporate, community, or national brand, invest in generating THAT sensation for your audience, and you’ll see how customer loyalty starts to last forever. Not to mention that it will protect you should your brand flounder at any point in the future. Rather than overreacting as everybody else does, your followers will listen and comprehend the way you’ve taught them to. Because they trust that you have their best interest at heart.
At a time when everything seems to be catered towards dumbing our populations down, do the opposite. Be a part of that equal and opposing wave that the Universe will undeniably create to rebalance the scales. This is one of the reasons why I always say, “If everyone is looking right, look left and see what’s there.” It’s not a natural law per se, but it is something I practice in my life regularly—and it has brought me undeniable success.
Cover image: Iurii