Human-Centric Branding: Building a brand with a focus on humans
Traditional Branding Strategy
According to traditional definitions, a brand encompasses a collection of elements such as images, names, logos, taglines, etc., to differentiate its products and services from those of competing rivals. A brand also serves as a repository of all the values generated from the programs and campaigns that a business has undertaken.
In recent years, a brand also represents the experiences that a business aims to provide to its customers. Therefore, building a brand plays a foundational role in the business strategy as it becomes intertwined with all the activities the business engages in.
From the branding activities, the concept of “brand positioning” emerges. Since the 1980s, brand positioning has been seen as a battle for customers’ minds. A brand must have a clear and consistent positioning and a set of differentiating points to support the brand’s positioning. Brand positioning fundamentally involves an appealing promise that businesses intend to convey to win the emotions and hearts of customers.
Brand integrity and brand reputation are defined as the fulfillment of what the brand asserts through the distinctive values that the brand brings. It’s about keeping promises to customers and building consumer trust in your brand. The ultimate goal of these concepts is the emotional connection and support of consumers.
Building a Human-Centric Brand
A key factor in the success of traditional branding strategies is consistently conveying brand identity and positioning in a uniform and repetitive manner. However, these elements might not suffice in today’s landscape. With disruptive technologies, shorter product lifecycles, and rapidly changing trends, a brand must be agile enough to adapt to various situations.
Nevertheless, what needs to be maintained consistent is the brand’s personality. These personalities are the reasons for the brand’s existence. When the core values of a brand are upheld, the outward appearance can be flexible. A concrete example of this is Google, which has created numerous variations of its logo (known as Doodles); they have demonstrated their brand as flexible while maintaining their solidity.
Marketing 4.0 encourages engagement and value creation through collaborative spirit, where customers can perceive, confirm, and verify the brand more realistically. Therefore, the authenticity in brand promises will be the foundation for building brand reputation. Specifically, brand reputation is constructed through the quality of customer experience with the product and the values that manufacturers provide.
In the digital economy, customers are enabled and entitled to evaluate and scrutinize brand promises from businesses. With the rise of social media platforms, brands cannot make false promises; they must be transparent in all matters. Businesses can position themselves anywhere, but the brand image is always evaluated and affirmed by customers.
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Building a Brand 4.0
Great artists, designers, and marketers have always known that the connection between people drives actions and changes. This is also true for marketers.
Nowadays, instead of offering consumers something to buy, they provide unique experiences that hold more power than marketing and advertising combined. Think about your favorite brands. Why are they your favorites?
Leading brands today prioritize expressing their brand purpose over showcasing products and emphasize human-centricity in every touchpoint with customers. You should consider the following points:
Branding 4.0 = Human-Centric Brand Building
How can you stand out in a highly competitive world, where most brands look similar in the same industry? Don’t just think about the product; think beyond and establish brand purpose. Consumers don’t just buy products; they buy values and more.
How to create a human-centric brand experience?
In the age of putting people at the center, customers have desires, voices, independent opinions, and their own experiences. Therefore, regardless of the approach taken in marketing activities, whether it’s advertising or public relations, it must create personal conversations between customers. To foster these personal conversations, we should encourage customers to speak freely about you, meaning we should provide means for them to engage.
User participation is a new and important factor in market expansion. Brands that understand customers will feel empathy when engaged in the entire brand journey. They can empathize with the values that the brand brings and ultimately with experiences from friends and other customers. This engagement adds value to the product. This makes a product more trustworthy and transparent.
To determine whether your organization is customer-focused, consider the following 10 habits compiled by Gartner in the digital business era.
Habits of Human-Centric Organizations:
- Always listen to customers.
- Continuously monitor customer feedback.
- Proactively anticipate needs.
- Build processes to enhance customer empathy.
- Respect customer privacy.
- Share internal information with customers.
- Encourage employee engagement.
- Operate systematically to improve customer experience.
- Establish accountability for enhancing customer experience.
- Flexibly adapt to customer needs and circumstances.
What sets apart Branding 4.0 from previous approaches is that the brand is perceived as a sentient entity with thoughts and emotions, rather than solely aiming to increase the value of products and services. At Metta, we help Business Owners understand their brand, guide them through each step of the brand-building process, and advise on strategies that best fit their brand. Contact us at phung.metta@metta.com.vn for a free consultation today.
Written by the Metta Marketing team.
Metta Marketing
Top brand strategy consultant