How Do You Brand People?

Yeah, I know. People might Google this blog thinking it’s about tattoos or some other form of self-illustration. Or worse, that it has to do with hot irons and skin.

No, I’m talking about branding a service business as opposed to branding a product business. With a product you have an intended audience. You have a need or desire that the product fulfills, an actual object that can be depicted in words, imagery, even music; and a host of other aspects that figure into the brand. It’s a blank canvas and whatever paints you choose.

But how do you create a brand when the product is people?

Exactly the way you brand anything else.

First, you have to understand that the goal of a brand is the same no matter the organization or business: to make a lasting connection with people. Whether you’re promoting amber lager or an insurance provider, that goal doesn’t change. You’re plugging into the public to make a mental and emotional connection.

How do you make an emotional connection with an insurance provider? You start in the same place as you would with a product: self-discovery. And that means determining your archetype.

Look at Allstate Insurance. When you read the following words – “You’re in good hands with Allstate” – whose voice did you hear? It probably wasn’t your own. It was the deep, distinctive, reassuring voice of Dennis Haysbert. Feel better? Now, who protects you from mayhem? Allstate. By casting actor Dean Winters as “Mayhem” in a series of wincingly clever commercials, Americans have been made to feel that without Allstate insurance, we aren’t safe. The company’s brand gurus have taken one of the most mind-numbing experiences, that of sitting with an insurance agent for an hour or two, and turned it into a positive experience. That’s because the company realizes its archetype – Caregiver – and has embraced it and promoted it to the nth degree.

The same is true when branding a nonprofit organization. The product is people, precisely service from people to people, and the goal is the same – make a lasting connection.

Think of the American Red Cross. What do you see? Disasters, most likely. And people rushing in to help. People who care. Carrying a child. Passing out food. Searching a pile of debris. The images may be awful but the feeling is positive, emotional, satisfying. So when you hear of the next major earthquake, tornado or flood, what is the first way you think of helping, even from a thousand miles away? By donating to the American Red Cross. Their brand sells people and everything associated with their organization.

Whether you’re promoting a service or a product, the heart of your brand has to be the same – and it has to beat from within. Because if you don’t know who you are, no one can communicate your message for you.

Not even Dennis Haysbert.