Always think, “What can I do today to delight my consumer by extending the ordinary to extraordinary?”

Something we rarely do. Think about others needs, wants, desires… How can you give them a sense of importance? How can your brand give them that importance?

Sometimes taking a step back from the minutia of a situation creates clarity and understanding.

When dealing with people, let us remember we are not dealing with creatures of logic. We are dealing creatures of emotion, creatures bristling with prejudices and motivated by pride and vanity. ~ Dale Carnegie

As marketers dabble in data and engagement and consumers begin to inform and engage brands, we are at the dawn of a new consumer-centric approach to branding.

Brands must utilize the physical and digital realities to engage consumers. Then brands become something more; something to support and facilitate the lives of their consumers. ~

It’s amazing how the connections between people, brands and affinities are everywhere. Transit cables, Interweb tubes, coffee shops, and friends all connect us to our personalities and our aspirations.

“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… The ones who see things differently – they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… They push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

Steve Jobs
Co-Founder Apple, Computer Engineer, Industrialist, Creative Genius, Visionary
RIP 1955-2011

Photo courtesy of Flickr – indigo_girl

Over the past decade, the business world has been coming to an impasse. An impasse that emulates a perfect storm of many offsetting factors:

• Defection of consumers is at an all-time high. Defections are caused by increased communications from new channels, real time offers, and new shiny startups saturating the market.
• Consumerism is pushing for transparency and authenticity in corporate brands.
• High energy costs coupled with the economic recession is causing falling profits across the board dropping ad spend and forcing more targeted approaches to outreach.
• A shift in preference from manufactured goods to local and organically sourced materials.

That’s only scratching the surface of the business climate today. It’s time for a Shift // a shift in how we approach what a brand is. Not more “If you advertise they will come.” It’s time we engage our constituency and connect on a deeper level than products, features, or benefits. It’s time we have purpose, ideals, and passion with our brand; ideas that align with our sub-culture community, passions that are shared throughout our communications and engagements.

As we move into the future, brand loyalty, advocacy and passion will drive success and results. Not one-off advertising, but true relationships and engagements which develop the word of mouth that is so powerful in the marketplace. The Brand Shift model is sustainable… what we’re doing now is not.

What are you doing to prepare?

When looking at social media and the popularity of it, we begin to wonder how did we get here? Why is this simple notion of communicating online such an enormous topic of conversation? There are really two overarching themes that have molded this level of communication that creates the perfect storm of communication called “social media.”

Human Nature

It’s in our nature as humans to be social. From the dawn of time to the end of time, we will bond together with individuals, groups, and communities, to socialize about life, the environment around us, and other activities that appeal to us. This need and want to socialize will never change, but what does change is the Human Behavior as it pertains to communication. Our communication behavior shifts every time there is a shift in communication channels. The nature of socializing is, and will forever be inherent, but our communication behavior will always shift with enhanced communication channels. Looking at the past 100 years of communication, we can see multiple shifts in this communication behavior. The reason behind these? Technology.

Technology

With the advent and influx of new communication technologies in our day-to-day lives, we swiftly change the way we communicate. Let’s take a look at some communication technologies that have emerged and changed our communication behavior over the past 100 years:

The Printing Press: Able to spread messages to millions of people across many locations.

Telephone: Allowing us to continue relationships and conversations in real time without the face to face interactions. We started expanding our relationships to farther and farther away geographically as well.

Instant Messenger/Email: A little more recently, we are able to communicate with multiple people in near real time via electronic communication. We can hold relationships with more people spanning the globe. We were also introduced to “dynamic time” communication where we can send a message and allow the recipient to respond on their own schedule.

Enter…Social Media

With the advent of Web 2.0 technologies, we can now have and hold communications online via various platforms. This technology allows us to create, gather, and share relevant information at a speed that has never been seen. With the integration of real-time and dynamic-time communication we can monitor what’s happing in our social groups and engage in the information that is the most relevant to us.

With social media, we are taking a new step in what a relationship can be. Instead of people connecting with people, we can now connect with the small groups, affinity organizations, brands, products, and companies that help make our lives what they are. This type of communication we become more involved in the things that matter in our lives.

As we travel through the past of communication and the behavior and technologies around that communication, we see some great shifts and advances in what is possible within relationships; an amazing transition with the human nature to socialize as the driving force. Building and continuing relationships has never been easier with the integrated mix of real-time and dynamic-time communication if done correctly. We are social beings and want to communicate. So next time you’re talking about your social media strategy, ask yourself, are we using this technology to enhance our human nature need to socialize or simply exploiting it.