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I'm brandless - doesn't anybody want me?

November 11, 2009 As I read through an article titled, "Why We Join: A Sociological and Psychological Analysis of Brand Communities" by Jenny Lee, PhD, I look around my desk and down at my clothing and realize I am brandless.  That's right; there is not a single brand that has my loyalty at this moment.  Starbucks, once my tried and true coffee, has now given way to whatever's the most convenient. My sweater is cashmere from a consignment store. My jeans came from some big box store last year.  My shoes...comfortable.  My mountain bike...eBay.  I am typing on a PC, but I also own a Mac.  I consider myself a loyalist of neither.  The only community I'm currently a member of, besides Facebook thanks to the convenience factor, is the outdoors.  If I walk into a store, I'm the perfect candidate to get swayed by whatever the rep wants me to buy.  As a 40-year-old woman, I should fall into a large community full of brand allegiances, but I somehow fell outside of them all.  How can that be?

Reading through the article about why we join communities and how cult brands are built, I am figuring out why.  I'm a skeptic and no company has been able to push that aside.  None of the brands I see every day has:
1.  understood my needs where their products are concerned. 
2.  can tell me why I should pick their brand over their competitions (there has to be another reason besides price)
3.  keeps a consistent message for me. I'll be honest, I'm in marketing and I still get confused when brands switch from their company's tagline to a campaign slogan.  Which is it?  Most lose me and I'm not alone.
4.  Ask me my opinion.  Ok, so I am wishy-washy and many companies don't know I exist, so the feeling is mutual.  But in my own mind I'm the center of the universe and I have money in my wallet...doesn't anybody care about that?

In this day and age, more and more consumers are falling into this camp.  Every 2 seconds we are hit with an ad, a message, a slogan, a quick fix, a commercial...to bring order to this choas we shut down.  That's typical behavior for every person in every nation.  So what's a company to do?

Stand for something.

That's right.  I said it.  What do you stand for? Unless you're a non-profit, you have to make payroll.  In order to make payroll, you have to sell a lot of goods. In all the rush for the next sell, many companies are focusing on the tiny, itty bitty black speck at the end of a very long kaleidascope.  Along the way all the opportunities to make a difference in the community and the world are lost.  Not one brand has come along that makes me want to do something.  You know, become a fan of theirs on Facebook.  Walk into their store.  Buy their product.

Not.one.brand.

I am open to developing brand loyalties though.  Here's how you can gain my allegiance:

1.  Stand for something that is important to the world around you.  Children in your community, a cure for cancer, a food kitchen.  I don't care what it is quite yet, but I know I need to associate your brand with something good (Otherwise known as cause marketing).

2.  Tell me you're doing something worthwhile.  Quite frankly, until I'm in the market for the merchandise, I could care less about features and benefits.  What I do care about is how you're acting when I'm not shopping. Understand the lifecycle of my buying behavior and I can be swayed (What's your moral responsibility?).

3.  Do your employees like you?  If they don't, chances are I won't either.

4.  Be good citizens of the community.  Greed = my not buying your product. I may be a small voice, but I just have to tell one person, who tells one person, who tells three at Bunco group on Tuesday nights, who tells four people over cocktails around the BBQ on Saturday night...you get the picture. Companies have to grow a profit; I understand that, but I learned something very valuable today in a very large, local bookstore called Tattered Cover Book Store in Denver, Colorado.  The business books; the ones full of knowledge about how to run a company, are located on the same rack as the True Crime section. Very subtle jab at the state of our affairs.  I couldn't agree more.

Posted by Suze Bragg on November 11, 2009 | Comments (3)