Benetton Got Its Groove Back

I grew up with Benetton. I remember back in the 80s and 90s all their controversial campaigns, featuring any political, racial, social or other event. Every time they did a new campaign, their name was all over the media, being criticised by their move.

Then something happened. For the past few years Benetton went quiet. It's not that they didn't do anything controversial, they didn't do anything at all. At some point I wondered even if the brand still existed. That was until last week, when they launched their Unhate campaign.

In one day, we were back in the 80s and 90s. Benetton got its groove back and everyone was talking about it. People have even used the ads as their profile pictures in Facebook. From a brand perspective, they stood up for something again, instead of being just another clothing brand.

The key thing to learn from this is that you need to stand for something even if that is controversial. It's better to be brutal and talk about your beliefs, than play it safe, be mediocre, careful and as a result forgotten. Stand out from the crowd, using whatever suits you and your brand.

Posted by Harry Mylonadis 

The Science of Disbelief

A few days ago I was reading an article titled "The Science of Why we Don't Believe Science". It's a long article and definitely worth reading when you have the time. While reading it, I kept feeling a very strong connection between what Chris Mooney was describing and we practice on branding.

This part specifically hit me:
"And that undercuts the standard notion that the way to persuade people is via evidence and argument. In fact, head-on attempts to persuade can sometimes trigger a backfire effect, where people not only fail to change their minds when confronted with the facts—they may hold their wrong views more tenaciously than ever."

Even if you read this part outside of context, it can be applied to anything. Whether it's branding, marketing, change management, business or anything else. What's important is that it's very difficult for people to change their minds. Even if you present them with all the facts and figures, and build very strong arguments, they will resist.

The only way to get them to accept new evidence is by presenting it into a familiar context. If it feels foreign to them then they will go on the defensive. So you need to use emotions and storytelling to create experiences that seem familiar to them. Your aim must be to create an emotional connection and then present any arguments at the right time. This is specifically relevant to new companies with new products, that try to persuade people to buy them based on the improved features. Unfortunately people won't believe you, even if they get a chance to try it. You need to speak to their emotional side and only talk about the features if they are really interested.

Always try to connect emotionally with people, whether it's via your presentation or brand communication and advertising. One of the best ways to achieve this is by telling stories. Stories give you the opportunity to bring in characters, successes and failures, and these elements always have an emotional impact. Once you've told your story and people have connected with you it will be a lot easier to get them to believe you.

Posted by Harry Mylonadis 

Stand for Something

What does you brand and/or company stand for?

This is a critical question. This will make you different from the crowd and bring you the customers that believe in you.

When you answer this, you then need to keep to those beliefs and values. They need to be the same at every interaction with your brand and they need to be well communicated.

What you will gain from this, is that the people that agree with what you stand for will gravitate towards you. It will give you the opportunity to become a leader in your niche. Take it.

Posted by Harry Mylonadis