Silly Rabbit, Trix are not just for kids anymore.
I recently read this great article, “Brands as People, People as Brands” on the Mr. Youth company blog called “grownup thinking.” It’s a re-post from promomagazine.com. In this particular article, Matt Britton, the founder and CEO of Mr. Youth, writes about how brands are becoming more humanized, because of the high relationship emphasis of the Facebooking, networking consumer generation. He mentions how Honda and Ford are using Twitter to humanize their brand by creating personas rather than simply using company names to Tweet in an approachable manner.
I’ve certainly seen this on Twitter and not just for Honda and Ford. For example, I am planning to attend the Outside Lands Festival this August in San Francisco. Instead of naming their twitter feed “outside lands,” the smart people over in concert-land decided to name this character Ranger Dave, who proceeded to tweet and tease his growing readership with lineup clues until the lineup was released, building excitement for the event and, consequently, ticket sales. Quiznos has made it’s toaster into a character, in a similar fashion, but perhaps with a different message.
Much like cereals once adopted characters to brand themselves, such as Tony the Tiger of Kellogs and Bugs Bunny of Trix, companies now feel the same way, probably because the generation that was raised on the Lucky Charms Leprechaun and Cocoa Puffs’ Sonny the Cuckoo Bird, has finally grown up and we want every brand to speak to us with a real warm and fuzzy character (ok, maybe not too fuzzy).
Since nation branding and public diplomacy are particular interests of mine, I automatically began to think about how this concept applies. So what does this mean? Is the president our brand or is his brand the USA? Which one is it? Does each foreign service officer become a character that represents the country…or maybe it’s every single citizen.
The US Center for Citizen Diplomacy website states that “In an era of increasing globalization, more and more people develop their most lasting impressions through face-to-face, personal encounters, when people visit the United States or when Americans travel abroad. In this context, the ‘citizen diplomat’ is a powerful force in defining the United States to the rest of the world.”
I can’t help but agree with this. My numerous experiences abroad are perfect examples of this very idea. When I traveled to Israel, our group spent time with Israelis. Our interactions with them sparked many questions in a cultural exchange discussing everything from the difference between going to college versus the military at the same age to the differences in relationships and families. Our group was representative of American culture for these young local and they played the same role for their country.
When I studied abroad at Oxford, it was just around primary time in the homeland. Professors and Oxford students alike were extremely interested in hearing our opinions about the elections and our thoughts on each candidate. In addition, the manner in which we acted throughout the trip was indicative to many, who had never ventured outside of the UK, of “American culture” – this was both a good thing and a bad thing (depending on the level of intoxication).
Yet another example, but certainly not the last one, is when I traveled to Jordan on a journalism press trip in 2009. Our group of journalists was approached by a Palestinian family as we were exploring the ruins at the citadel in Amman. “Obama!” someone yelled in our direction. The father then proceeded to tell us that his son uses an American textbook for his 3rd grad math class and then we were asked to get into a picture with his family. This small interaction was one among many, in which we represented “America.” Just a group of 10 college students and journalists…representing an entire country. We were ambassadors of our brand, even if we didn’t realize it.
So what do you think? Can a nation’s brand be a person or is a person’s brand his or her nation? (now…say that five times fast)
Tags: brands as people, Ford, Honda, israeli, kellogs, lucky charms, matt britton, mr. youth, outside lands, oxford, palestinian, quiznos, ranger dave, silly rabbit, sonny the cuckoo bird, tony the tiger, trix, twitter, US Center for Citizen Diplomacy