Duality: Designing a character vs. Being authentic
Lately I’ve been struggling with something and I wanted to share it with you. I’d really like your thoughts on this.
I believe very strongly in designing a brand character that will be useful to your target market at all times.
I know, and I teach, that by analyzing their profile interests, likes and dislikes, media consumption, etc. they’re essentially giving you the road map to the spot in their brain that your brand will live. Everybody has given you the code to how to communicate with them, it’s up to you to decode it.
Here’s the duality of my issue.
The more I work on my own brand character, the less I get.
I’m torn.
Why Brand Character?
I know that brand character works, I use it on a daily basis with my clients. I’m fairly certain that this is one of the only ways that anyone could manage different brands at the same time.
If you’re using your own voice for every client’s brand, it requires you to be pushing products that are an extension of yourself. And let’s face it, there just aren’t that many products that you’re that brand loyal about. Maybe cigarettes if you’re a smoker, a brand of coffee, a certain adult beverage.
Realistically, you’re not the one who’s repping that client. (if you are though, please post a link to my blog, chances are likely you have a better reach than I) So developing a brand character is a tactic you can use to manage multiple voices WITHOUT having to convince yourself that you’re super passionate about a product that you could live without.
What is brand character?
If you’re new here, brand character is something I touch on from time to time. The basic concept behind brand character is that you take your target market’s profile interests and use them to your advantage.
Be Authentic
But then there’s this other camp out there. It says to be authentic. Talk about what’s on your mind. If you have a cat, talk about your cat. Share things about yourself to connect with your audience.
And I believe in this too.
To an extent. I don’t really care about your cat. I do care about what you know that will help me promote my business. But I’d like for that info to come out in a real way…
I think there’s a time and place. And I’m struggling right now, because I’m not sure if I want my blog to be the place where I start using the word “fuck”. Afterall my clients read my blog, and I try not to use salty language around my clients.
At the same time… sometimes… you just really need to say it….
FUCK
It’s confusing isn’t it? I’m more comfortable interacting with other people’s content than I am writing my own. Tell me, I’m not alone here.
In fact. I’m certain that you struggle with this duality too. If you hadn’t, you wouldn’t have checked out the post.
In the end, I’m not sure what the right answer is.
Because there isn’t one.
If you’re trying to do it right, you’re doing it wrong.
I suppose there’s a balance, just like all things, and I just need to find it.
Tell me… what are your thoughts on this? Do you suffer from duality?
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
I struggled with this for quite awhile. When I initially created my “RealLifeMadMan” account, I thought that I could make it character-based. I tried posting witticisms about how we don’t do marketing like they show on Mad Men, how I’m a woman in a man’s world, etc. And then I would intersperse meaningful content in there. What could be better than fun + informative?
Things started to turn around for me when I started doing chats, which forced me to talk as myself and ditch the idea of a character. I think characters work if they have already been established – I’m sure the Geico Gecko has about 3 million Twitter accounts – but in the end, people don’t want to interact with a parody, they want to interact with a person. That’s the biggest lesson I’ve learned.
I’d say you could play with aspects of your character, but I enjoy talking with you, as in, you. I would try that and see if it helps your moral dilemma
Thanks Marjorie,
That does help. Really the idea of character is to attract like minds, once they’re attracted, then it’s easier to get real.
You inspired me to blog about this…check out my John Lennon post
Thanks, muse!
I agree, Tommy. There’s a definite juxtaposition between lots of brand’s social media presence and their traditional media presence.
Your concept of a brand character is something I’ve never heard of before, but something that makes profound sense. Here’s my take on it:
If you’re an individual, take Marjorie’s advice (above): just be yourself. Use the features offered by the social media channel to express your own character. After all, you’re as individual as anyone, embrace yourself.
Using social media for a brand is more complicated. If the brand is consumer product or service, there’s a “brand character” that people will expect. Do your research on the brand’s target audience, do a SWOT, write a creative synopsis on how the brand should be portrayed, and develop a character. Sir Kensington’s Scooping Ketchup does an incredible job at this (check out their Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/sirkensingtons?ref=ts).
If you’re tweeting for a marketing agency, let your personality come through more. After all, everyone knows there’s a real person behind the twitter handle.
The main difference between a brand and individual social media presence is the resources a brand has, especially your fellow employees. Executing creative social media content is infinitely easier the more minds you can enlist.
I love your concept of a “brand character,” you’re definitely on to something, keep it up!
Thanks for stopping by Morgan!
I’m glad you like the concept of brand character… I’m actually designing a program around it right now so I can teach how to really create it. If you’re interested, enter your email address above the “Mind Hacking” image and you’ll be one of the first to know about it.
I think you are on to something here too.
While I don’t want to divulge all of the nitty gritty details of my personal life on my blog, I do think it’s important to have an element of realism. At the same time… people also respond to larger than life personalities, so I think the balance here is to amplify the good but still keep it human.
Because we’re 90% text and images online, you have near complete control of how you’re perceived.
>>But then there’s this other camp out there. It says to be authentic. Talk about what’s on your mind. If you have a cat, talk about your cat.
That may be authentic, but it’s not likely relevant to your audience.
Be real, and really useful.
It’s the real part that I’m finding now… but the useful part-I have a whole post on just that.
http://tommy.ismy.name/and-these-are-my-thoughts/be-useful
and I think I just peed a little…thanks for commenting Brian!
I think people are getting confused about the whole brand-character-authentic thing–and making it more of an issue than it might be.
First, I think your brand personna evolves and emerges over time.
Also, we all have different aspects to our personality that we adapt to a public image/professional image according to our audience.
You’ll have to come to terms with that with your audience–and you can let them brand you–which is what I think is the most authentic.
Doing it yourself is more like marketing, at least in my book.
Also, I don’t think a character (or a role) is different from authenticity if_it_is reflecting part of you–but that it is also more complex than that.
People are so busy talking about “avatars” or “online presence” or “personal brand” or “personna” that I think the bottom line is getting lost in translation.
You attract an audience that resonates with you in a lot of ways–so ponder that and just why they are attracted to you.
You can even ask them! *Gasp!*
But also think about referrals.
If someone wants referrals from me, I would not be comfortable referring my clientèle to a brand-business-person who doesn’t use professional filtering because it also reflects on me.
In my business practice, I certainly wouldn’t use profanity with clients nor divulge a whole lot of my private life because until that relationship develops to that level–it probably is irrelevant and I like some privacy too!
Would I share if it created a connection?
Depends, sometimes yes and sometimes no–discernment is a good thing.
So, then you have to think about the bigger picture too. Would your grandma want to see you write (or say) “FU** in public or in private?
No? Yes?
Do you care?
Now I know you are expecting a baby soon, so when he or she grows–will it matter to you what they see presented?
Maybe that seems irrelevant but I look at my reach–it merges out in the world for all those who know me–that is authentic.
So, I might have rambled a bit but it is an interesting dilemma.
However, I also think that if you have to think about too hard as a business person, I’d err on the side of caution.
Thank you Diana!
I think you’re absolutely right when you say that the brand character/ being authentic/ target market thing has gotten too convoluted, but I think the main reason for that is there hasn’t been a real method or technique to date that really helps define any of the parameters.
For the most part, the technique has been “envision what you want your ideal customer to be like” and while that works (kind of) for some, it’s still wishy washy at best.
I think my trouble right now has been stemming from corporate branding vs personal branding and that’s what’s gotten me caught up in the duality of it all.
I’ve been taking a corporate branding approach with my personal brand, and while it’s helped me create some pretty good content, I feel like it may have stifled me along the way.
Case in point, this is by far one of the most commented on articles on this blog, and I was just sharing a genuine thought on what was going on with me. Part of that just might be because I asked too
As far as referrals, I think you raise a very valid point. And where my business has solely relied on referrals it’s something that I consider more than just a little.
Here’s my thought:
As a whole, no, I think it’s horrible to have post littered with “F this and F that”
I think that salty language has it’s time and it’s place, and in the instance of this post, it was to make a point.
As far as my grandmother is concerned… not sure I really want to get into the details of that here… it’s not really congruent with my public image…
But your point really was driven home with my baby. As a point now, I’ve really tried to clean up my language, even if it is subbing out salty words for “fudge” and “fluff” (should have seen the look on my girlfriend’s face after the first “What the Fluff!”)
But I do maintain that colorful language does have it’s time and place, but only if it’s to make a point. I certainly wouldn’t be dropping bombs when talking to a new client, or even on a call with a bunch of other professionals. It all depends on the room I’m in I guess.
LMAO “Fluff bomb” I brought up g’ma to illustrate a point–that you have to consider the wide effect that your interactions in public have.When it comes to comments, I think you are hitting that critical mass point due to activity (we shall see though now, won’t we?) .I just scanned through my entire archives and was looking at the posts that got the most comments and I need to look more closely at it.But a recent Facebook Note from my blog got a whole passionate line of comments going–go figure. But I aired a complaint and concern and people went crazy.I think part of it is that when you tackle something that others have not OR that hits a chord that either rocks their world or shakes their very foundation–the comments are always better because it gets people motivated to spout.Just keep plugging along. I think you are on a roll…
I read character, and stop to think, and “caricature” is what sticks in my head.
Diana mentioned persona. I like that word. I think it fits.
Each of us has many personnas – the one we use at the office, the one we use with our grandmother, then one we use out-with-our-wild-girl-friends-when-we’re-pretending-we’re-still-single-and-on-the-prowl-and-scaring-good-looking-young-men…
*blinks*
Uh yeah, maybe we don’t all have that last one. That could be just me.
Anyway, the point is that none of these are less authentic, they are just different for different needs and different situations.
That is as it should be.
Brand character? I’m no little green gecko, Clara (Where’s the Beef?), Snoopy or Snoop Doggy Dog.
Personna? Yeah, I got that.
*smiles*
you know… I started with the whole “brand character” thing because I wrote a post about “brand persona” first and the /brand-persona url was already taken on the blog.
It’s really what I mean by it though. It’s that part of you that you share with the internet.
I think for me, authentic is about staying within my realm of enjoyment. It’s not about talking about your cat if you have one. That’s being off topic (unless you can mold it to ON-TOPIC).
I actually don’t struggle with it, but I know how you feel because at one time I did. And really what I struggled with was “do I do what I like or what I think others will like?’. I learned enough others like what I like – and so I can just be me.
BUT – if it’s ona s pecific topic on a blog I keep it within the realm of that blog – which actually helps me produce content because I’m only allowing certain things to go beyond ‘hey I should post that!’.
I think and I feel like this is what I’m moving towards… so thank you for sharing this… it’s good to have that sort of affirmation.
women do this all the time – almost seamlessly. The woman who cleans the bathrooms is not the same one who climbs into your bed at night….if she is smart. If you are smart the guy who cusses and belches and scratches watching ‘the game’ with ‘the guys’ is not the same man who wakes up next to this woman in the morning….really, it is not duality but plurality – and good manners.
{ 3 trackbacks }