That is, how sympathetic to, reflective of and relevant to the human condition is your brand’s online presence?
Brand misspelling: Remembering URLs is one thing. It’s another to remember their correct spellings. For example, how do you spell Google? Googel.com? Luckily, in this case, it doesn’t matter. No matter what combination of letters you use when spelling your way to the world’s most popular search engine, you’ll end up at Google. Is this a coincidence? No way. The people at Google know their company’s name may not be easy to spell for everyone. It may present non-English speaking visitors with particular problems. So Google optimises traffic by allowing for a range of spelling variations.
Brand humour: Humour is human. Creating brand relationships is all about being human. Forget the corporate speak, company jargon and insider acronyms; talk to your customers the way they talk to you. And don’t filter humour away from your site. I recently saw a Virgin Atlantic aircraft with ‘BA — No way’ emblazoned on its flanks. Knowing ‘BA’ is British Airways, Virgin’s biggest competitor, I couldn’t help chuckling at the open joke. The airline shamelessly and good-humouredly jokes with its competitors — and customers love it.
Google has been outrageously courageous in employing controversial humour which some of us love and others absolutely hate. Try typing in ‘weapons of mass destruction’ and tick the icon ‘I’m feeling lucky’. An error window will open and explain, ‘These weapons of mass destruction cannot be displayed. The weapons you are looking for are currently unavailable. The country might be experiencing technical difficulties, or you may need to adjust your weapons inspectors’ mandate’.
Brand error: How often have you received an error message telling you either that the link is down, that your search inquiry was wrong, or that you forgot to fill out a field? In situations like these, we tend to be annoyed — irritated at ourselves for having provided inaccurate information, and annoyed at the brand for being tiresomely incapable of reading our minds. You can turn such tense situations into positive experiences by using humour. Change the grey error boxes to branded error boxes. Make fun of the situation. Give your customer something to enjoy in your error notice, so much so that they look forward to activating it again.
Brand legalese: We all have this and I reckon we all hate it. But legal disclaimers are a fact of life. Ask yourself how many people actually read them. Not many, I bet. Setting aside the legal necessity of the disclaimer, they’re a waste of traffic time and energy — unless you use this component of your site to further express your brand. Turn the legalese into easy reading, perhaps add a twist of humour. Imagine you had to deal someone who obliged you to digest a 40-page contract before business could begin. You’d be none too charmed. But if the legal documentation was actually enjoyable to read and comprehensible and relevant, you’d develop an enhanced view of the brand concerned. The courtesy of a well-written document adds to a brand’s human-friendly image.
The art of professional branding lies in making brands as human as possible. It’s no coincidence than some brands receive fan letters, just like pop stars. These are the brands that people find to be human.
Martin Lindstrom is the author of Brand Sense
