With the advent of AI many companies are seeing opportunities to utilize AI to handle things more efficiently. As someone who has always been an avid believer that science and technology can improve our lives in many ways, I certainly see the value and promise that AI provides. However, it's important to note that AI is not a substitute for human creativity and expertise in branding. While AI can assist in the process, ultimately, it's humans who bring the nuance and creativity to a great brand.
There are many definitions and perceptions of what a brand is, so let’s define what makes a brand. Branding is more than your logo; branding encompasses everything that people think, feel, or believe about your company. There can be both positive and negative traits associated with your brand whether you like it or not. Think about a familiar brand such as McDonald’s. McDonald’s is well loved by many and for them the brand evokes feelings of good food, warmth, and family. But for others, the brand may conjure up crowded restaurants, calorie intense food and sugary drinks. The point is the consumer holds the power to define your brand, and they will if you don’t take care to craft it expertly. Positioning is the process we use to craft and define for the consumer how we would like them to perceive your brand. While there are many AI-powered tools that can assist in the creation of a new brand, positioning is an intensely human and creative process that is hard to replicate simply with data and analytics alone.
While there are many aspects to what makes a strong brand, here are three core qualities of a great brand that require human creativity and expertise.
Your brand must be authentic. That is, your audiences must be able to believe and experience not only the rational, but also the emotional attributes you promise in the brand positioning. Consumers will cite rational reasons for why they like or hate a brand but are often reluctant to express their true emotional beliefs about the brand. Uncovering these feelings requires expertise beyond data and analytics. It is critical in brand positioning to know these feelings to properly craft an authentic brand. Understanding and having the ability to interpret the emotional thinking of your audiences requires a human touch.
Your brand must have saliency with your audiences. The brand positioning must present in a way that consumers have a desire for the brand above others. Because consumer thinking is never purely rational, saliency often relies on highly emotional connections. Since one of the most important jobs of your brand is to connect with consumers’ emotions, reliance on data and analytics alone limits your ability to consider these aspects.
Finally, your brand must be likable. A good friend once explained it to me like this—brand positioning is simply doing and saying what you can in a way that people like you. While it’s true that some brands have groups of consumers with a somewhat love-hate relationship with the brand, great brands have a plethora of consumers who truly love the brand and advocate for it. One of the goals of brand positioning is to move consumers up the brand loyalty hierarchy to become advocates for the brand—and most often, this type of loyalty is strongly rooted in human emotion.
Do you have a brand in need for a little human touch? I hope you’ll reach out, let’s figure it out together.