It’s Impossible To Scale or Sell A “Personality” Brand – Right?
Perhaps not.
In fact, there’s a lot of evidence that suggests “human” brand names outperform corporate brand names.
If you want to see how this type of model works a scale, look at the countless examples of luxury, prestige and lifestyle brands in the marketplace. The vast majority of them were named after a founder:
Guccio Gucci
Louis Vuitton
Coco Chanel
Thomas Burberry
Christian Dior
Hubert de Givenchy
Valentino Garavani
Gianni Versace
Giorgio Armani
Thierry Hermès
Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana
Ermenegildo Zegna
Edoardo Fendi
Ralph Lauren
Calvin Klein
Tommy Hilfiger
Hugo Boss
Jimmy Choo
Mario Prada
Enzo Ferrari
Alfieri Maserati
Ferruccio Lamborghini
Ettore Bugatti
Antonio Ducati
Walter Bentley
Charles Rolls and Henry Royce
Ferdinand Porsche
Sidney Myer
David Jones
Harry Gordon Selfridge
Andrew Saks
Joseph and Lyman G. Bloomingdale
Charles Henry Harrod
Jean-Marc Vacheron and François Constantin
Léon Breitling
Louis-François Cartier
Daniel Swarovski
Charles Lewis Tiffany
Peter Bang and Svend Olufsen
Amar Bose
Carl Zeiss
James Dyson
Leo Fender
It doesn’t take too much research or effort to see that among luxury and prestige brands, the number of organisations that carry the names of their founders are disproportionately high.
All of these founders (and more!) loaned their names and personal branding to the companies that they founded – helping their enterprise to gain trust and prestige in ways that few companies are able to.
This is counter intuitive.
Logically, we assume that bearing a founder’s name would be a yoke around a company’s neck that would constrain its growth. But carrying the name of a founder creates a sense of connection, and promise of quality and trustworthiness, that more corporate names are unable to mimic.
Plus a personality-driven brand can grow and evolve as the personality behind it grows and evolves – in ways that corporate brands cannot.
But what if you’re already branded as a company?…Or it doesn’t make sense to use your own name as your brand?
That’s fine.
Just work to make your brand more “human”.
Highlight key people. Tell their stories.
Throw away your robotic systems, procedures and policies – go back to your ancestral roots – and ask how a tribal hunter-gatherer might have this interaction, without the aid of technology or stuffy corporate protocols.
Engage in conversations with your customers, and be open for them to engage you in conversation too.
Be willing to make mistakes and show imperfections.
And – importantly – show that you’re not just a brand: you’re people, just like your customers are.
Do you want to increase the effectiveness of your brand – and make more sales? Get in touch to find out about the tiny tweaks that can lead to a 12-200% increase in online sales – instantly – for your business.