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Jon Canter writing in The Guardian gives a knock out blow to the fairly recent trend of giving corporations individual and very human personalities..

"For some reason, we - and now I mean the human race, not just Bastable Advertising - want companies to be like individuals. We want them to have a personality. Over the years, these corporate personalities have become more extreme.

In front of me I have a packet of Marks & Spencer Cheese Tasters. On the back, in the top righthand corner, is M&S's version of "we believe": "We believe passionately in good food." Wow! Passion! It was all I could do, when I first read those words, not to snog the packet. M&S, it turns out, are the Mills & Boon of food. Or are they? Does everyone in the company believe passionately in good food, even if they, as it were, work in knickers? Or is it just the Cheese Tasters division? At the interview to be a Cheese Taster taster, are you required to cry?

This is not the M&S I grew up with and thought of as a nice person. (Oh yes, despite writing that brochure, I'm as prone to the corporate pathetic fallacy as everyone else.) M&S wasn't passionate. It was a balanced person with a firm handshake and a neat parting, a person I'd be happy for my daughter to bring home - unlike that vulgar and chaotic Woolworths, who I always suspected liked a drink."

He's suggesting that some brands are straying to far from what's reasonable and expected and the net result is a brand that's trying far too hard for its own good.

Obviously, this was fine when only a few companies were engaging in this type of behavior, but it becomes weaker with ubiquity.

It's clear that big corporations are now trying very hard to be appear small and friendly because they are worried about the success of the "others" column in the market share data, which shows the share of mass brands being eroded by dozens of tiny brands.

So what's a giant corporation to do?

1. Bring its employees to life and make the brand personally accountable
2. Hire personalities and give them autonomy
3. Create small internal divisions that have autonomy and a vested share in success and make this clear to people

How about the small company?

Obviously, the worry here is that the charm and personality of the small company is being eroded by all the other pretenders. Clearly, these players have only one choice; prove their passion. It's no longer about pack copy, but instead they need to be delivering actions and ideas that bring the folks behind the company to the fore and doing these things in ways the big corporations could never do. Think flaws and character.

Thanks to Simon Kendrick for the tip...




Posted by Ed Cotton Clay Shirky makes a great point in this short interview about the focus of agencies on producing everything to the highest quality. The single-minded focus on production excellence ends up being alienating to consumers because it doesn't invite dialog.

The finished piece of high production work is a statement that isn't looking for answers or questions, it's simply a command. Clay's point here is about how agencies and brands can become more human by looking a little less perfect. This is something 2.0 companies know only too well. The idea of being in a perm-beta state is inviting in itself.




Posted by Ed Cotton