It made me reflect on the larger idea of brand. Specifically, if brand is a perception in the mind of a consumer, what are the factors that are influencing the perception? Three broad areas immediately came to mind

1. Experience: Voice-enabled interactions bring out new possibilities of brand engagement. The same goes for Augmented and Virtual Reality. In the latter, there is tremendous potential for tactile marketing. Brands such as Merrell are already playing with this. The touch-points of brands are exploding beyond traditional and even standard digital into whole new territories.
2. Expectations: The demands from brands are no longer limited to a good product and experience. It goes way beyond the rational and emotional need states. The brand’s stance on issues that affect society in general is now a key factor in managing perceptions. From sustainability to LGBTQ rights, everything is a factor. And if consumer activism weren’t enough, there’s employee activism as well. Ask Google!
3. Example – Xennials:  I confess that I really wanted something that started with “ex”, but I didn’t make it up! Xennials are my tribe – between Gen X and millennials (born in the late 70’s and early 80s) – and probably the first example of the point I wanted to make – micro-generations. Thanks to rapid advances in technology and changes in behaviour and society, the gap between generations is ever-shortening. The taste graphs are evolving rapidly and what works one micro-generation need not work for the next. What happens to product lifecycles and S-curves?

In an era of limited touch-points, standard expectations and fairly stable consumer cohorts, the idea of brand could be built on consistency. But with brand new variables, is that even possible? For a while now, I have advocated cohesion – in narratives and experiences. The fundamental reason for that is the exploding number of contexts – imagine the combinations of scenarios made possible by mixing the three different factors above.

To give a more simplistic explanation, think of the FB-Insta-LI-Tinder meme – the same individual in different contexts tweaks his/her looks, behaviour, language and so on. When media and experiences were one-way communications – as with traditional media, it was simpler. When it’s a conversation, the brand has to work harder to be true to itself and yet be relevant to consumers in that context. To package its DNA in vastly different settings. In such a scenario, cohesion based on values might be a better solution than consistency because of the contextual flexibility it offers. More on that later.

Meanwhile, I am particularly interested in identifying more broad factors. If you thoughts, do share in comments.

#UnfollowSachin – that was the trending reaction on Twitter to Tendulkar’s Rajya Sabha nomination. (and acceptance) It reminded me of a couple of excellent related posts I had read recently.

First, Seth Godin’s post post. Could also be titled “Why I have comments disabled”. Ok, that was just jest. I’d rather he focus on writing these than fighting trolls too. He uses two simple parameters to disqualify a person from being listened to – lack of standing, and no credibility.

The other post, which in many ways could be seen as quite complementary to Godin’s post is from what’s quickly becoming one of my favourite sites for some daily makes-you-think posts. I’ve not completely watched the video here, but the quote that connects is “Stuart Firestein’s insight on the importance of ignorance in exploration and growth”

In our culture, not to know is to be at fault socially… People pretend to know lots of things they don’t know. Because the worst thing to do is appear to be uninformed about something, to not have an opinion… We should know the limits of our knowledge and understand what we don’t know, and be willing to explore things we don’t know without feeling embarrassed of not knowing about them.

A fallout of not adhering to this is opinions on everything. Self publishing has made this almost a norm. (Is that an opinion right there?) Godin’s framework works well for brand management. But social platforms and brands’ nervousness towards it make the implementation difficult. Theoretically it should work well in organisational decision making as well. But it doesn’t, probably because organisational decision making is rarely objective. It leads me to my earlier post on empowerment. Between the noisy crowd and organisational hierarchy, what’s a brand custodian to do?

until next time, any opinions?