You know that sinking feeling you get when you ask someone how they are… and they actually tell you? Like you really needed to know about their haemorrhoids in all their graphic and somewhat unsettling, weeping detail? Right. Well, that’s what it’s like when the focus of your corporate communications is the product or service that you’re ultimately selling. People just don’t want to know. You want to tell them of course and, ultimately, you will. But for the most part, people don’t buy products. They buy brands. And they buy brands, because in the main, brands are far, far, FAR more interesting than the products or services. We don’t wear Nike trainers because of the molecular density of the plastic tread polymers or the abrasive resistance quotient of the lace tensioning receptors. We wear Nike trainers because… they’re COOL. Because we want our friends to think we’re cool. Because Michael Jordan wears them. Because we want to ‘Just Do It.’ We wear Nike trainers for a hundred and one reasons and very, very few of those reasons have anything to do with the function of the product – which is protecting our feet and keeping them warm. At a pinch they’re for running. But there are any number of products we could use, so why has Nike been so popular? Because Nike has a brand that we want to be part of. The examples are harder to find in the B2B space. In the main, that’s because most B2B brands are shit. And they’re shit because of the commercial world’s obsession with product (and/or service) functionality. In the IT world it’s speed, power and size (big and small). In financial services it’s interest rates, performance and security. In manufacturing it’s materials, quality and price and for professional services it’s skills, resource and experience. Well whoopee doo. Inspiring they are most certainly not. Most companies, most of the time focus on entry-level, ticket-to-the-game, product features that are, at their very best, ordinary. Ok, you’re fast, or big or clever or whatever. So what? So are all your competitors. So why am I going to choose you in preference to them? Because you have a flux capacitor on your widget? And it’s green? Well I might buy that. But only because you’re all as shit as each other. Given the choice, I’d much rather engage with or buy from a company that reflects my own view of myself – my attitudes, my personality, my values, my life – in work and at home. BANG! Suddenly it’s all very personal and it’s all getting very emotional. That’s a good place to be. Emotive response is very hard to replicate by competitors and it’s almost irresistible to customers. Best of all though, it’s… wait for it… creative. Hoorah! So, ok, you’re a flux capacitor, you’re big, you’re fast and you’re green. But now, at long last, you can start to show your emotions. Maybe you’re funny, or bright, or intellectual or loving or arrogant… – you (the corporate, product, service ‘you’) have a personality. Thank God. And once you recognise that your brand has a personality, you can start to communicate that personality in more human and engaging ways. There’s nothing human or engaging about product shots of the latest ‘GB7400Mk3/457olator’. There’s probably a place for the product shots and the data sheet and the specification charts, but they’re way, way down the food chain buried somewhere deeeeep inside your website where only the irrepressibly anorak people visit during their lunch hour. Most of your audience, most of the time will respond more favourably to creative concepts – whether you think they will or not. We know this because Birddog delivers creative communications every day and have the results to show for it. You don’t need to understand it, you (personally) don’t even need to be good at it. You just need to recognise the potential of capturing your audience’s attention and imagination with an idea that’s bigger than the product part number you’re currently expecting them to get excited about. So out go the pack shots, product features lists and businessmen shaking hands images, and in comes a brand experience. A style and tone and look and language that allows the most important part of your business (your customers) to experience what it’s like to be part of your gang. There’s a loyalty and passion associated to brands that simply defies all normal behaviour – why else would people wear club football shirts to go shopping in? It’s not functional and it certainly isn’t a fashion statement. The passion isn’t engendered because your product ‘works’. Functionality becomes a secondary by-product of the association – that’s certainly the case with relegation football teams whose supporters are every bit as fervent as the league leaders. The loyalty to the brand is because they’re proud to ‘belong’. That valuable sense of belonging will differentiate your brand, it’ll create competitive barriers, it will attract attention and it’ll improve your business. It’s hard, if not impossible to achieve those increasingly commercial imperatives from the latest release of the widget v5 or because you happened to be established in 1805. And how do you achieve all that? Well, it all starts with a good ‘idea’ and not necessarily a good product. Haemorrhoid Cream. Good idea, but really, truly, not a good product… Scot McKee Managing Director Birddog Ltd. www.birddog.co.uk