The Hidden Psychology of Social Networks: How Brands Create Authentic Engagement by Understanding What Motivates Us by Joe Federer

Author:Joe Federer [Joe Federer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: McGraw-Hill
Published: 2020-09-14T16:00:00+00:00

WHEN BRANDS FAIL TO MAINTAIN THEIR KNOWN TERRITORY, CHAOS ENSUES

In order for this strategy of controlled novelty to be effective, we need to have established a foundation of brand credibility and consistency. We can’t surprise and delight a furious customer, nor can we create a moment of novelty when our audience is wading around in the unknown. Changing our branding, tweaking our logos, and launching new campaigns are all points at which we’re tossing our audiences into the unknown and hoping that their right brains are able to bridge our old and new selves. When a brand makes a change—even a small one—it introduces a bit of chaos to its audience. And whether that change is the equivalent of a new haircut or facial reconstruction surgery, it’s important that we tell an open and honest story to our audience about the changes. If your friend just got a nose job, and she tells you it was because her back hurt, you’re probably going to piece together your own narrative because hers didn’t make sense. Too often, we try to put a glossy sheen on the rationale behind a rebrand or new campaign without being truthful to our audience—and in the Internet age, they can tell.

The Gap made the mistake of “evolving” its iconic logo without explaining why, and most of you probably know exactly where this is headed.12 When its customers reacted negatively to the new logo, The Gap changed its mind and told people it was all part of a crowdsourcing exercise to find a new logo, asking people for submissions. Then, after backlash from designers who saw the value of their discipline diminished by a major brand asking for free work, The Gap reverted to its original logo. That’s a whole lot of chaos, and while I wasn’t in the building for The Gap’s branding conversations, it seems clear that there was as much chaos internally as there was externally. A clear vision was never communicated to its audience, and when the audience reacted negatively, no explanation was provided. Now that’s chaos.

When British Petroleum (BP) decided to update its branding with a new logo and company name, people were initially skeptical. The broadly familiar BP logo was a simple green shield on which sat the serif yellow type “BP”—a logo the company had used for nearly 70 years (although its most consistent version wasn’t finalized until 1989).13 With all the tone deafness a single company can possibly muster, BP changed its logo in 2000 to a “Helios”—a symbol named after the Greek sun god—and declared the company’s new name: Beyond Petroleum. It’s the perfect rebrand for the company because the initials remained the same, meaning it wouldn’t have to clean up anything it’d previously left behind. (Zing!)

BP declared that the rebrand represented its transformation into an eco-friendly company—it was going from being “part of the problem” to being “part of the solution.”14 Did you get the warm fuzzies? Me neither. Logos can do some powerful things, but turning a petroleum company into a champion for the environment is not one of them.

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