Recently I heard someone say that their company lacked a souland it wasn’t the first time I’ve heard someone say that. I’ve found that when people express such a sentiment, they don’t mean that the company is heartless, but rather that the company hasn’t articulated, communicated, or helped their employees embrace the emotional aspect(s) of their brand promise. In short, in their effort to create and build brands, these companies have forgotten to address the human element of the brand.

Just what is the human element of the brand? It encompasses identifying the emotional aspects of the brand, building a brand promise based on them, and ensuring that your employees understand this promise and how to deliver on it. Because we are human, the strongest brand connections occur at an emotional level. We are loyal to brands that satisfy an emotional need – confidence with Nike, pleasurable air travel with Jet Blue, safety with Volvo. Consumers tend to have weak loyalty to brands that lack an emotion-based brand promise. Think about the brands you love most or are most loyal to – I guarantee you, it will be because the brand meets one (or more) of your emotional needs. However, brands are inanimate; the emotional connection is solidified through the consumers’ experiences with the brand, which are conveyed by company employees, the stewards of the brand.

When employees understand the brand promise and execute on it, it creates a richer brand experience for consumers. The most obvious and tangible manifestation of this is in customer service, but it occurs across the spectrum of product or service development and delivery, from the moment an idea is generated through to purchase. Apple is a premier example of this concept. They have infused their promise of innovative, elegant design and ease-of-use into every aspect of the brand – including their products, product packaging, product documentation, website, and stores – elevating them from a product company to a consumer experience company.

So how can companies best integrate the human element whether they are creating a brand, re-launching a brand, or just wanting to re-energize a brand? Consider the following:

1)    Examine the emotional aspect of your brand – What emotional need does your brand’s prospective customer have prior to purchase? Is the need articulated (Volvo, I want to feel safe when I drive a car.)  or unarticulated? (Cisco – I’d never tell anyone this, but I know I’m going to get fired if I pick another brand of IT hardware and it fails.) How does your brand satisfy that need?

2)    Determine how the emotional component best fits into your brand promise – Are you seeking to overcome a negative emotion or enhance a positive emotion?

3)    Develop (or refine) your brand messaging around the revised brand promise and align the message with the key emotional touchpoints with your consumer within the constellation.

4)    Communicate the brand promise to your employees before you launch it to the public – Educate the employees on how they can (and are expected to) contribute to effectively delivering on the brand promise.

In my next post, I will share more about how the employees are critical to delivery of the brand promise, highlight more companies/brands who are doing it well, and cite some of the perils of doing it incorrectly.

• Tweet