Be Human

Brands can learn to be more like brokers.
-bigwidesky

Why should a brand be more like a human? Because humans are naturally brilliant at maintaining vast and powerful networks that broker, or share, knowledge in organic ways.

We used to visualize knowledge systems like a waterfall: information starts at the top and trickles down in a fairly orderly way until it reaches bottom. But in reality, information disseminates much more organically. Knowledge spreads in a disorderly fashion, often jumping from node to node in unanticipated ways. Interestingly, this is how living systems work. It’s (sort of) how computers work. And, most important, it’s how the human brain operates.

Until now, we marketers have assumed the best way to get our information in front of the right people was to aim our message in a specific direction, broadcast it with earsplitting volume and frequency, test to see if anyone noticed, rinse and repeat.

The old method can work, but clumsily. And, its most painful outcome is that it significantly dumbs down marketing and makes the brand-to-consumer relationship feel cheap and adversarial. If you treat people like targets, they’re going to duck, right?

The new way to market brands – the human way – is to incorporate new tools that are based on how humans interact with one another. Instead of pushing out messages to some abstracted audience, the tools allow us to see into the organic network, recognize people as individuals, and connect with them in the ways and locations where we will be viewed as useful, not annoying.

Here’s something important: while traditional marketing tools will still be a vital part of this new approach, the new tools won’t fit into old top-down thinking. That’s why the marketing world is in an uproar right now. They may not know why, but they are going to have to change.

Brands are changing too. They have to understand that they are just one influential node in a system of many other influential nodes. They are going to have to learn to provide value, and to grow their influence by being lovable, findable, empathetic, useful (and successful) brokers in the new system.

They’ll be more human.

  • Lovable
    be Lovable

    To be loved, be lovable. Is your brand worthy of love?

  • Findable
    be Findable

    Can your brand be found in all the right places?

  • Empathetic
    be Empathetic

    Does your brand honestly understand the people who use it?