The desire to be liked leads to the death of the brand
There are people who don’t like my digital self. They make no secret of it. They don’t like me on Facebook, don’t become followers on Twitter and don’t read my Blog. After a brief period they dislike me, stop the RSS feed, and cross me off the twitter list again. Or simply don’t read the next blogpost. But my digital self also doesn’t like being disliked. After all my digital self (especially my blog) is also a window on my convictions as a brand consultant, my professional basic convictions. My digital self defines, to a great extent, the vonlobenstein brand. Blog post too long? Theme boring? Reasoning incomprehensible? Too difficult? Was it detrimental? I also scrutinise my digital self constantly. And with exactly these two questions: do I want to deliver other content? Can I deliver other content? Result: I could, but I won’t. Because in my blog posts I write about my basic convictions. And just like my personality, they are not arbitrary negotiable quantities. They are the basis of the brand vonlobenstein. The same themes, but written in German? Obviously. Other themes, just to please, to get more readers? Certainly not. And certainly not when my brand is watered down by this and loses the clear profile that I want for it.
Every brand has potential fans that absolutely don’t want to like it. That’s not nice. After all, you could sell so much more if you were to become more liked. And because of this brands scrutinise themselves constantly through market research. What they often hear there sounds something like the letter to the band (and brand) Greenday, from a mother who had obviously become incensed about the album “Insomniac”, who doesn’t merely criticise but rather makes concrete suggestions for improvement (found again in one of my favourite blogs http://www.lettersofnote.com):
If it the customer had had their way, then Greenday would have only played “When I come around”, or at least songs which sound exactly the same, since 1996. And of course with good lyrics, and a positive vibe. They could have done that. And would in case of doubt not only made this mother and her 8 year old son happy, but made many more current non-buyers into eager customers. But Greenday just weren’t interested in that. Greenday were, back then, more of the opinion that their music and the band behaviour hidden within it is not a negotiable quantity. Here is the no-compromise response from Billie Joe Armstrong, lead singer of the band:
A clear edge: “I don’t write for parents. I don’t write for eight year old boys. I write for myself. It helps me to know you won’t be buying anymore of our records.” Clear edge in terms of brand business? Not really. For that you firstly have to be convinced that a long-term sustained brand profile creates loyal fans of the brand and therefore more loyal customers. And not to allow yourself to be hounded into arbitrary actions by day to day events. For that, secondly, you have to know what the brand that you are responsible for stands for, and what in this is not negotiable and doesn’t allow itself to be dissuaded by market research. For that, thirdly, you have to have the courage to not only not want everyone, but to clearly signal this to those whom you don’t want. Or to put it another way: you have to recognise that it is more strenuous in the long term to bend constantly to the point where the brand is not recognised, rather than remaining true to yourself and your convictions. Fake takes energy, real takes courage. A desire to be liked, in the short term, leads to success, but in the long term leads to the death of the brand.
