Brands Are People Too

I receive Seth Godin's daily posts to my inbox each morning, it's the first thing I read when I start checking email. He always shares his perspectives in unique ways that make me think. And today was no exception (Aug 5 Post: Posing for Selfies). It made me think about the role of brands in our capitalist, highly politicized world. While I always encourage brands I work with to show authentically with humanity, unfortunately we often see ignorant or straight up bad actors getting rich. It's time to rethink how brands operate in this world, to take responsibility and show up as good people. So, here are my thoughts...

We live in a world where there are brands - these larger than life entities that create things, talk to us, usually at us. They sell us things we need, tell us why we need them. Sometimes they’re aspirational and give us something to dream about, yearn or crave. 

Then there are people. We engage with people everyday from our friends and family, colleagues to the neighborhood barista or cashier, and even those traveling in the cars alongside us and crossing the street opposite us. These people teach us things, about ourselves, about the world, about their own experiences. Each interaction is an opportunity to create connection, shift perspective. We are interested in and engage with people when they show up in the world as who they are. You connect with their energy, you can feel it radiate. And as Seth writes, we trust people who don’t pose, those who are authentically themselves. 

These people also make those brands I talked about. But somehow, when the people get behind the brand they forget that they’re people after all. They sit in conference rooms (now on zoom), send emails, and shape messages to tell people what they think they want to hear or better yet, what they want people to hear. They pose. 

What if, people remained people even when they’re behind a brand? This way, brands become people too. With honest stories to share that lead to authentic engagement with consumers. They stand openly and wholeheartedly for something. They show up understanding their responsibility in this world as citizens, just like people. Because in the end, we trust people who are authentic, intentional, consistent and committed - the posing is unnecessary.