This was a document I wrote up about branding for the social web when I was at Crush+Lovely. I’ve always had an aversion to marketing and branding strategies because they feel somewhat dishonest, so I tried to write something that felt as natural as possible. I still think it’s pretty neat.

The internet was never meant to be all that social. It was built by engineers with the utilitarian purpose of relaying data. Attempts at making the internet social and more human have approached the task with the same mindset as a marketing campaign.This approach often falls short. Rather than create a more human web, they have created an immersive, romantic marketing experience.

The voice of “progressive” web 2.0 sites is often informal and inclusive (the Panic site is a great example), yet there is still an eerie disconnect between the voice of the brand and the voice of a human being: at the end of the day, all this informal, friendly languageis a sales pitch. We’ve tried to utilize a social, humanist approach to achieve a business goal. We are attempting to create a natural, human dialogue between a human being and a marketing campaign.

The way a marketing campaign communicates with a human, versus the way two friends communicate, is fundamentally different. Marketing makes promises about the relationship between the consumer/user and the brand. These promises are often absolute, infinite, and unconditional. Promises to always stand behind a product, or to always make the user feel a certain way are the tactics of a marketing campaign. These promises often come across as hollow and insubstantial to the user. Friends understand that life is in a state of constant flux, and that both parties may change at any time. People change and grow, brands do not.

There is also a more obvious difference between the relationship between a brand and that of a friend. at the end of the day, regardless of how friendly the copy is, or how bright the colors are, or how shiny the graphics, the brand is attempting to sell you something. However, as designers, are in the unique position of not having to actually “sell” anything. We are in the business of impressing people. We are able to create a friendly, social brand that more closely resembles a user’s relationship with a friend rather than a user’s relationship with a marketing campaign, and the method is pretty simple: don’t try to brand an organization as a business, a campaign, or a company. Brand it as a human being.

Humans brand themselves subtly. They venture outside of their favorite colors and imagery, and instead focus on concepts when deciding what to wear, what to purchase, and how to depict themselves to others. They convert their experiences (“At what moment did I feel the most comfortable with myself? When did people respond to me in the way I liked best?”) into tangible via clothing, belongings, and behavior.

We must abandon the idea of creating a brand entirely, and instead focus on creating a personality for an imaginary human being.

If our brand was a person, how would you describe them? Would you be their friend? Would you help them move? Would they help you? How do they feel about themselves? How do they speak to others? Instead of asking “What typeface represents this brand best?” ask how the brand would write their own name. How does this new entity define themselves? Answer that, and the branding becomes clear.