New Trend: Make Your Business Personal (in the Sense of Communication)
By Anita Eglīte @BlueCatEdit
There was a time when designing a company logo seemed useless, when websites seemed a short-term trend that will blow over, and a company’s colour palette – a minor detail. We are now witnessing another shift for representation of a business – it is given a personality.
The audience is changing. Always and endlessly. So are the habits, social norms, and the way we perceive things. The new generation of currently active consumers is used to a saturated market, overwhelming offerings, and abundance of everything. Against a previous belief that this will be the most impersonal and anti-social generation of consumers, we see that they might be, in fact, the ones making this world more humane and personal.
Besides high tolerance towards the different and a deep-rooted care for the nature, they also have a distinct way of choosing companies they buy from.
This is the most educated audience there has ever been. They know so much! Moreover, they can sense things that are not obvious, read between the lines, guess the implied attitude, and feel the honesty and depth behind a brand. If put in front of a similar choice, the new generation consumers will often opt for the brand with shared values, high standards on sustainability and a personality that resonates with their own.
This is not a beast your company should fear and avoid. This is the one you adapt to. From the angle of communication this means the end of an era of brands who are soulless legal entities. Companies already have a face (logo and colours) and brains (employees). Now they will have a personality, too.
It is great news for us all, although it is hard to predict, where this will take us. I can only imagine that this will open a door to an amazing, colourful, diverse corporate world. Just like the social transformation we have already gone through in the global history. If the best option is to BE YOURSELF, and preferably – stand out from the crowd, we might see a lot more of authenticity and daring to be different also in the corporate world.
What Does It Mean to Give Your Business a Personality?
It means making an image or portrait of your company (like that of a person) that your team and your audience can associate, resonate and build relationship with.
The right place to start is for the owner or CEO to decide what vibe do they what this company to have, what image should it create and what kind of relationship should it build with its audience. If you have a brand book and you had an attentive expert making it for you, you should have at least a general idea of who your company is or who you want it to be.
For smaller companies it is common that the personality of the company is the same as the owner’s, founder’s personality. Or even this person’s wannabe personality. That is a good place to start. You should take your time to outline the desirable personality as precisely as possible. And write it down using actual words – the image you have in your head or the feeling you have in your gut is not enough.
Just imagine – if your company was a person, what kind of person would it be? How would this person look? Talk? Dress? Behave? What songs would be on this person’s playlist? And so on, and so forth.
Why Should You Put It on Paper?
Detailing this part of your business means being strategical. It ensures a continuance. New employees will join your team, many will leave. Telling your story in such a detail takes a lot of time; it is inefficient and there is a good chance that important facts might be left out.
Having it written down in clear, easily understandable words and making your people read it will ensure that every person representing your company is on the same page as you – exactly where you want them to be. An actual document (or even a video) containing words is the best way to transfer a message with the least room for interpretation. This is one of the basic onboarding materials and one of the first filters for potential team members.
Having a detail outline of your company’s personality together with other communication principles and guidelines, is a framework for a high-quality communication for your company. Moreover, those give your team and your external agents a focus and – in its turn – a shortcut to a desired result for you.
How Does It Happen?
There is hardly anything you cannot do yourself nowadays if you have an internet connection and the right way of thinking. Yet, to do this properly and comprehensively, you need an analytically and strategically thinking copywriter and an expert in brand representation.
The process might differ depending on an agency. Some of our clients describe it as a psychotherapy session for their company since it involves a lot of thinking, talking, listening, and contemplation.
The first step is knowing where you stand. For that you ask your team, partners, or even your audience to describe your company if it was a person. Analyse the answers and draw conclusions. This should give you an idea of the size of your battlefield.
Besides the outline of your company’s personality, you should describe also your company values, culture and specific brand’s language and tone of voice. Basically, everything related to internal as well as external communication.
The secret ingredient for this all to work, bring your communication to the next level of quality and bring monetary value to your business is devotion in ALL levels of the company. From owners and superior management to freelancers and external partners. This can only work if implemented strategically and holistically. And if induced in the everyday life of your people.
Although, the idea of a personality for a company might seem some kind of voodoo nonsense for the more conservative and traditional type of entrepreneurs, numbers speak for themselves – brands with a defined personality (or even a soul, if you can handle such a powerful word) own the key to a chest of hidden treasure. It is waiting for you. It’s all yours. Tell me when you’re ready for it, and I will lead the way.
I hope this helps! ❤
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Are you managing a company; are you the owner, strategic manager, HR manager, or a communication specialist?
Then you are my audience. I need your hand for raising the level of quality of communication in companies. Together we can accomplish so much more.
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