Personality not Included: Why Companies Lose Their Authenticity – And How Great Brands Get It Back

Citation

Kilian, K. (2010), "Personality not Included: Why Companies Lose Their Authenticity – And How Great Brands Get It Back", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 27 No. 3, pp. 295-296. https://doi.org/10.1108/07363761011038392

Personality not Included is a fabulous book, only its title is not. I do not think the title really gets across what this excellent book is all about: how to build an authentic company with a great personality! In my opinion “The Heart and Soul of Personality Branding” or “Personality Matters” (a subtitle in the introductory part of the book) would have been more appropriate. Bhargava's book captures more than just “why companies lose their authenticity” as the first part of the subtitle suggests. “Personality not included” really is about “how great brands get authenticity back” as the second part of the subtitle implies. To accomplish this, Rohit Bhargava provides plenty of new and interesting insights, concepts, and approaches as well as various, mostly recent, brand success stories, such as Bugaboo, Dole, Innocent, Moleskin, Trader's Joe, and Virgin.

In the introduction, Bhargava starts out with THE brand personality icon: Apple. When launching the iPod Shuffle in the USA in 2005, there were four words added at the end of the instructions that read “Do Not Eat iPod” – a four word disclaimer that was irreverent, different, and nontraditional – and one of the ingredients that turned the iPod brand into a personality and inspired customers to talk about it with others. The example makes clear that “Marketing Is Not about Selling”, as Bhargava points out. If selling was the focus, providing answers to product features, benefits, price, and availability to take action would be enough. Bhargava thinks differently. His book and the advice he provides in it is for companies – and the personalities behind them – that want to be loved instead of liked, organizations that want to be iconic, not ordinary. What these companies and their brands have in common is an authentic identity that their customers get passionate about, one that inspires loyalty and belief. Believe it or not, that is what personality is all about. It is about “the unique, authentic, and talkable soul of your brand that people get passionate about” (p. 6). According to Bhargava, we have just entered a new era, the era of social media “where all forms of media are portable, personal, and filtered – where brands have fewer secrets and have their identities shaped by perception as much as communication” (p. 8).

In Chapter 1, Bhargava explains how and why organizations lose their personality and turn into faceless corporations. Three factors are responsible for this. One is being ordinary (and profitable). The second is focusing on policies rather than logic. The third is silencing employees. The latter once worked fine for three reasons: To replace employees was easy when no one knew who they were, controlling messages was far simpler if one controlled who spoke for the company, and finally, the ability to be an effective spokesperson was determined by communication skills rather than by brand passion. The reasons “Why Being Faceless Used to Work” are as follows:

1. 1.

   Adding layers inspired consumer trust.

2. 2.

   Advertising defined a company's identity.

3. 3.

   Consistency was a successful business principle.

4. 4.

   Risk management was the first policy.

Nowadays, facelessness is not functional anymore. The four rationales above have been offset by direct contact, Web 2.0, individuality, and openness, as the second chapter points out.

Chapter 2 is all about the people who can and should deliver the brand message. Instead of trying to attract new customers in the classical way, Bhargava suggests turning current employees and customers into ambassadors and providing them with the right tools to tell the brand message to potential customers. To accomplish this, companies do not have to give up control altogether, but they need to share it with their ambassadors. Among others, they should make use of “The Accidental Spokesperson”. You have to understand “How Unlikely Voices Are Shaping Your Brand” because they have what it takes: natural authenticity. In general, spokespeople humanize brands in order to combat facelessness and raise profile. Typically, this can be accomplished by one or several of the following types of deliberate spokespeople:

1. 1.

   The Founder (e.g. James Dyson).

2. 2.

   The Character (e.g. Tony the Tiger).

3. 3.

   The Authority (e.g. an expert).

4. 4.

   The Celebrity (e.g. Brad Pitt).

5. 5.

   The Enthusiast (e.g. Jared from Subway).

What we see today is “The Uncontrollable Rise of the Accidental Spokesperson”, be it loyal customers, dedicated partners, or vocal employees. However, these spokespeople are not just relaying official marketing messages. They are instead authorities in your field, vocal enthusiasts about your brand, and willing to tell everyone they know and everyone who wants to listen, read their blogs, or interact with them in social networks what they think about your products and services. You cannot control them. So embrace them. They typically do not only come from outside but also from within, from any level of your organization. They are the unexpected voices companies used to work very hard to silence. Today, they are breaking out, and by doing so, they humanize companies. They are passionately writing about job‐related subjects, building a following, and becoming visible, turning into influential voices, and eventually into deliberate spokespeople. Gaining them as spokespersons can be achieved in two steps. First, identify them and then, in a second step, embrace them rather than ignore these “accidents”. This embrace, however, is not about ownership but rather about giving them the content, attention, and access they need to tell a compelling story – their story. Finally, there is also something like “The Dark Side of Accidental Spokespeople”. These are determined detractors who are passionate about how much they dislike your brand. According to Bhargava you should try and change their perceptions, and if not possible, at least counter their arguments.

In Chapter 3, Bhargava makes clear what the message should be. He explains “How to Define Your Organization's Personality”. According to the author, fake messages do not work any longer as they can easily be forged, carry little weight without context, and are no longer unique or personal. Instead, messages should be just that – unique, authentic, and talkable (called “UAT Filter” by the author). Uniqueness can be achieved by finding uncontested space, by positioning yourself, by creating a twist, and/or by thinking outside your region. Authenticity, in turn, can be based on a credible heritage, on passion and belief, and it can be accomplished by fostering individuals instead of people, and/or by having motives beyond profit. Talkability, finally, can be created by offering something of value that is limited, by having a hook – something that makes your brand interesting and worthy of discussion – that is shareable, and by getting out of the way of your customers who want to share their opinions and discuss things that are important to them. Once you have successfully gone through all three levels of the filter, a unique, authentic, and talkable brand personality will most likely be the outcome. Three core principles then help putting this personality into action. First, talk like a real person. Second, admit you are marketing. Third, have a sense of humor.

Chapter 4 is all about “Crafting a Backstory People Care About”. It is about characters, challenge, vision, conflict, and triumph. It is about the passionate enthusiast, the inspired inventor, the smart listener, the likeable hero, and the little guy vs. the big guy. All in all, Bhargava points out that the stories told should focus on the people behind the products and services. They are the purpose of the company's existence, they make it happen, and they provide it with an outstanding personality.

“Getting Your Organization to Embrace Personality” is not an easy task, as Bhargava points out in

Chapter 5 suggests that, for some companies, creating a personality seems like a risky idea as it requires embracing accidental spokespeople. It involves sharing control with customers. It requires more than just using brainless policies and standardized corporate language. It necessitates companies to be open, honest, and transparent about what they do. It mandates firms to overcome a “culture of fear” which prevents them from thinking differently and/or from innovating. The four main barriers to change are success, tradition, precedent, and uncertainty. The latter, for example, can be overcome by reframing the question. Instead of asking, “What will happen if we act?” companies should ask themselves “What will happen if we don't?”

Chapter 6, finally, helps in “Finding and Using Personality Moments” that can be used as triggers to build (or lose) relationships with customers. According to Bhargava, personality moments refer to dozens of small occurrences. Their smallness does not make them insignificant but easy to miss. They are pivotal moments in which companies have the full attention of (potential) customers and in which they can build customer loyalty and stand apart from competitors. Getting attention can be achieved by sex, shock, and relevance. However, only relevance turns sex, shock, and other attention‐getting devices into a benefit for your brand as people are more selective today. Besides, marketing spends the bulk of its time, effort, and budget solely on the first phase of the buying cycle: research. In contrast, purchase, interact, and share are handed off to other departments, to fulfillment, customer service, and technical support just to name a few. In these three stages of the buying cycle, however, companies have almost the undivided attention of customers. They provide great moments to demonstrate your personality. Use them!

After reading the first part of this book one is inspired to give his (corporate) brand back its personality. But not only that, Bhargava also provides systematic insights in how to do it. For this purpose, the book is divided into two parts. Part One is an easy must read though the six chapters described above. Each chapter ends with a “Sellevator Pitch”, three to four lines nicely selling the idea of the chapter in the length of an elevator ride. The first 181 pages make clear why companies lose their personality and by what means they can get it back. Part Two then helps “Putting Personality Into Action”. This is accomplished in two ways.

First, Bhargava provides brief introductions to ten “New Styles of Marketing”, each four to five pages long. They are all well structured into the following five sections: “What is it?”, “Why does it work?”, “When should you use it?”, Who's doing it?”, and then the technique is explained “Step by step”. The 10 techniques described are Curiosity Marketing, Karmic Marketing, Participation Marketing, Un‐Whatever Marketing, Sensory Marketing, Anti‐Marketer Marketing, Fallibility Marketing, Insider Marketing, Useful Marketing, and Incidental Marketing. Not all techniques mentioned are new, but the way they are introduced, brief and well structured, makes their understanding easy and their application likely. One can quickly pick the right technique(s) for his business and implement them. Karmic Marketing, for example, is about doing something good without any expectation of reward, while Incidental Marketing recommends talking about a small incidental element of your business and marketing it.

Second, Bhargava provides a master list of “Guides and Tools” that accompany all six chapters of Part One. So, if you do not want to read through the first 181 pages, these brief summaries with tests, tables, figures, and, e.g. five steps on “How To Make Your Brand More Likeable” provide you with a quick overview of what the book is all about and, more importantly, what to do next. In my opinion, what you should do next is read this book! It provides plenty of facts (as described above) and is fun to read. It has “Personality included!”