Introduction

I am doing what I’m doing because I believe that the concept of “brand” is integral to the success of any business and more importantly, to any person who interacts with the world.

And I think it’s necessary to have intimations of what I call “brand” for humans to optimally function at all.

We used to call it culture, tribes, and clans. Now we call it ideologies, political parties, countries, races, colors, and ethnic cultures.

As the physical walls of the world came crumbling down, the metaphysical walls arose taller than ever. And those walls were strengthened by the fall of religion and the rise of quasi-religious credences.

Integral to business

I say it’s integral to business because in the sea of complicated jargon, tactics, pushy ads, and fake “gurus”, customers who are jaded about it all need a true brand that cares for them and that they understand. A brand that will be part of their life and part of the source of meaning in their life.

The aspects of business can be plentiful and it can be simple. Though less necessary with large-scale B2B businesses, you still need to translate your business to your customers. Brand is the humanization of a business. We don’t connect with businesses, we connect to humans. We don’t even connect to animals, we connect to what makes them human. We infer human-like characteristics from them.

Integral to humans

I say it’s integral to any person because as a brand is part of the source of meaning in your life, it won’t be your only source, you’ll have other aspects in your life as well. But, granted that a person’s life is pretty monotonous, they’ll need to be able to trust that a business can consistently deliver and over-deliver.

The only real reason why a human will even interact with a business is to get something out of it, something they need.

We are deeply social creatures, not so much because we like it but more so because we need it for our survival. Our culture is the orderly structure that protects us from the dangers of the unknown. More specifically, the psychological unknown, but that doesn’t exclude physical chaos.

And Businesses are part of that culture. The problem is, especially with today’s plethora of novel business tactics, strategies, techniques, models, and schemes, customers will not be able to understand the value a business provides. Even worse for businesses, human brains have evolved to create, but most importantly, to look for shortcuts in recognizing and perceiving the world. So if businesses are too complicated, customers will either have difficulty understanding them or they’ll willingly refuse to do so.

Appealing to Human Nature

We brand animals to identify which belongs to whom. But even before that, we’ve been doing it to ourselves. Through our clothing, language, tattoos, hair, and even through how we act. Why? Because it helps us feel like we belong in something.

Do you know the feeling you have when your computer just refuses to work and you start swearing and maybe even throwing things at it? That instinct isn’t new. We’ve evolved to inhibit it better, but we can see the same in monkeys now. Monkeys have developed certain cries and shouts to warn other monkeys of danger. A specific cry for snakes, foxes, etc. And that same instinct is in us, though inhibited and more adapted. This instinct is in the oldest part of our brain, the Brain Stem.

Now the same goes for our instinct for culture and order around us. We used to live in tribes, in groups. Typically these groups would war and feud for resources and territories. And they branded each other. To be part of a tribe meant to bare their marks, to wear their colors, to sound their cries. During and after which you belonged, you were safe under the protection of your people, and you also had fulfillment because those people depended on you too.

But millions of years later, today, we’ve adapted to modernity. But we still manifest primal tribal traits in similar ways today. Why do you think we have identity politics and the gender identity crisis? Businesses, organizations, movements, groups, brands, and tribes, are all semantics for what we all crave for: Belonging, to be part of something.

2 Ways to Connect with Customers

The reason why I laid out some evolutionary history around cultures and tribes is so that we can better understand how we can position ourselves (as a personal brand) or our business (as a business brand) within that meta culture or tribe in today’s world.

As a brand, you can be one of 2 things within that meta tribe. There are also different ways of having both methods interact with each other.

1. Provide the culture

2. Be a major participator in a culture

1. Provide the culture

More commonly known as “creating your own niche” or “owning the market”. In other words, being a pioneer and keeping the status of “leader” in that space. Essentially being the hub of the culture that you’re tribe will thrive in. The caveat is that it’s difficult if you’re starting out. Unless you have the financing, expertise, and sheer luck backing you, it'll be a major uphill battle to build your own culture. And even harder, sustaining it. But if you get to do that, you control the standard. No more relying on zeitgeist or fads.

2. Be a major participator in a culture

Being a pioneer is almost virtually impossible. Why? Let’s backtrack a bit.

Coming up with a truly original idea is virtually impossible. Someone has thought up something that you have at some point in time. That’s a harsh realization in and of itself. And when coupled with the fact that there are people out there who are more intelligent than you, it's devastating.

But that doesn’t mean you stop trying to come up with ideas. And so being a pioneer, by definition requires you to come up with good, original, or at least innovative ideas. It’s almost impossible. BUT participating in an already established culture in a way that brings in something novel that is relevant is easier than starting a new one. Think of Notion.

There had already been hundreds, probably thousands of note-taking, second-brain, information-organizing apps before Notion ever came to be. But that didn’t stop Notion from becoming arguably the BEST hybrid of anything you can ever need in note-taking, information organization, and even project management.

But Notion isn’t the best example of being a major participator in a culture. The best, I’d say, is Chris Do and The Futur as a whole. They pivoted from a motion design studio called Blind, then pivoted into the education space through an education venture called Skool. Then Chris pivoted into the best design education platform now, theFutur. They’ve now taken the world of graphic design education by storm and we’re all here for it.

StoryBrand Disagreement

The famous book by Donald Miller titled “Building a Storybrand” posits an idea I DISAGREE with.

The idea is that a brand should be the guide in the hero's journey while your customer is the hero.

I very much disagree. Primarily because a brand can be the hero WITH the customer, it can be the hero to the customer. The brand can also be a leader who leads the hero (customer). There isn’t a one size fits all template for what a brand can or cannot be.

I don’t mean that you should constantly take the limelight and leave your customer in the dark. Nor should you rain on their parade. But you shouldn’t fit your brand into a box and only be that thing.

Conclusion

Regardless of whether you choose to go with being a pioneer or a participator, or something else entirely, you need to know the basic psychology and evolutionary history of brand I outlined above. These things are known by the advertisers and marketers that manipulate us to be consumeristic. Now, you can use it too. Hopefully, not to manipulate but to guide, foster meaningful experiences, to lead.

Brand has gone by different names and different synonyms. But one thing’s for sure: It’s here to stay regardless of technological advancements.

What are you going to do about it?