An anniversary is a time to celebrate the joys of today, the memories of yesterday and the hopes of tomorrow. On the 3rd day of March’2017 when we gathered to celebrate, analyze our journey and plan our future we feel proud of what we have achieved. We credit the success to our understanding the human side of customers and our importance to human-centric marketing. Our quest to unveil the human side of brands that can attract customers is what makes us who we are.

Human Centric Marketing?
Yes… To many it shall be a question until you consider known personalities around us like Sachin Tendulkar, Amitabh Bachchan, Dr. APJ Kalam, the list can be endless. They are Brands in their own selves not because one is a batting legend or an acting legend or a former President of India.
These Leaders, Legends or Brands have six human attributes that attract others to them, even though they have no authority over others. These attributes constitute a complete human being, one who typically becomes a role model. When brands want to influence customers as friends without overpowering them, they must possess these six human attributes.

1. Physicality
A person who is seen as physically attractive usually has strong influence over others. Thus, brands that aim to have influence over their customers should have physical attractions that make them unique, albeit not perfect.
For brands, physical attractions can come from their brand identities such as well-designed logos or well-crafted taglines.

2. Intellectuality
Intellectuality is the human ability to have knowledge, to think, and to generate ideas. Intellectuality is closely related to the ability to think beyond the obvious and the ability to innovate. Brands with strong intellectuality are innovative and have the ability to launch products and services not previously conceived by other players and by the customers. The brands thus demonstrate their ability to effectively solve customers’ problems.

3. Sociability
A person with strong sociability is confident in engaging with others, showing good verbal and nonverbal communication skills. Similarly, brands with strong sociability are not afraid of having conversations with their customers. They listen to their customers as well as the conversations among their customers. They answer inquiries and resolve complaints responsively. The brands also engage their customers regularly through multiple communications media. They share interesting content on social media that attracts their customers.

4. Emotionality
People who can connect emotionally with others to drive their actions are very powerful influencers. Brands that evoke emotions can drive favorable customer actions. They connect with customers on an emotional level with inspirational messages. Sometimes, the brands also connect with customers by showing off their humorous side.

5. Personality
People with strong personality have self-awareness; they are conscious of what they are good at while admitting what they still have yet to learn. They show self-confidence and self-motivation to improve them. Similarly, brands with strong personality know exactly what they stand for—their raise standards. But these brands are also not afraid to show their flaws and take full responsibility for their actions.

6. Morality
Morality is about being ethical and having strong integrity. A person with positive moral character has the ability to know the difference between right and wrong. Most important, they have the courage to do the right thing. Similarly, brands with strong morality are value driven. The brands ensure that appropriate ethical considerations become a key part of all business decisions. In fact, some brands put ethical business models as their core differentiation. The brands keep their promises even though customers do not keep track.

Summary: When Brands Become Humans
More and more, brands are adopting human qualities to attract customers in the human-centric era. This requires unlocking customers’ latent anxieties and desires through social listening, digital research and emphatic research. To effectively address these anxieties and desires, marketers should build the human side of their brands. On promising designs Anniversary today we pledge to help all the Brands managed by us for our clientele to adopt and realize the benefits of these human attributes.

Courtesy: Brand Strategy Insider.