How can a brand remain human in a digital world?

James Kyd

  • Global head of brand strategy and marketing, Xero
James is the head of global brand and marketing at Xero. Before joining Xero, James was CMO at founder-led global business, Coretex, and before that CMO at one of New Zealand’s largest tech companies, Tait Communications. Prior to that he was with IBM for more than 15 years, where he had global sales and strategic marketing roles including focusing small business markets, along with running Asia Pacific brand and communications.

Some commentators estimate that by 2020, 85 per cent of buyer-seller interactions will happen online through social media and video*. That’s only two years away, and pertinent for any marketer.  

As our world becomes increasingly digital, brands like Xero are investing heavily into emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, to deliver far more value and a better experience to customers at scale.  

But there’s one thing no marketer should ever forget: People are social creatures and will always value the human connection in a brand experience. And for challenger brands that typically look to spend less on traditional marketing, that’s good news. If you can foster those human and social connections, you’ll help build a community that values you enough to advocate on your behalf.  

So as the world becomes increasingly digital in the way it creates and consumes media, how do we remain human?   

Design deliberately where machine meets human  

Our customers are human. But it’s easy to forget that if you rely only on the technology at your fingertips, and the behavioural metrics, persona mapping and other insights that may help you scale at speed. The challenge is to interpret those insights through a human lens, and to design deliberately and create an experience your customers love and value.  

No linear customer journey map can capture every possible customer interaction with your brand. A challenger brand must develop the authenticity to embrace human behaviour and create genuine moments of connection, even when they fall off the model journey map.  

Start from within  

The human aspect of a brand can’t be faked. It comes from within. We work to foster a company culture that values the human aspect. We strive toward a workspace that empowers people and promotes psychological safety.  

If you can build an empowered, confident and impassioned team, you’ll see those qualities flow through to your brand experience and into sales and marketing funnels. Whether it’s via your customer communications, technical support, user community or the product experience, you’ll have a team bringing heart to your brand identity, and customers will notice.  

* Source: TeleSmart Communications

Tags: brand strategy

Show Comments

Latest Whitepapers

More whitepapers

Latest Videos

More Videos

More Brand Posts

What are Chris Riddell's qualifications to talk about technology? What are the awards that Chris Riddell has won? I cannot seem to find ...

Tareq

Digital disruption isn’t disruption anymore: Why it’s time to refocus your business

Read more

Enterprisetalk

Mark

CMO's top 10 martech stories for the week - 9 June

Read more

Great e-commerce article!

Vadim Frost

CMO’s State of CX Leadership 2022 report finds the CX striving to align to business outcomes

Read more

Are you searching something related to Lottery and Lottery App then Agnito Technologies can be a help for you Agnito comes out as a true ...

jackson13

The Lottery Office CEO details journey into next-gen cross-channel campaign orchestration

Read more

Thorough testing and quality assurance are required for a bug-free Lottery Platform. I'm looking forward to dependability.

Ella Hall

The Lottery Office CEO details journey into next-gen cross-channel campaign orchestration

Read more

Blog Posts

Marketing prowess versus the enigma of the metaverse

Flash back to the classic film, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Television-obsessed Mike insists on becoming the first person to be ‘sent by Wonkavision’, dematerialising on one end, pixel by pixel, and materialising in another space. His cinematic dreams are realised thanks to rash decisions as he is shrunken down to fit the digital universe, followed by a trip to the taffy puller to return to normal size.

Liz Miller

VP, Constellation Research

Why Excellent Leadership Begins with Vertical Growth

Why is it there is no shortage of leadership development materials, yet outstanding leadership is so rare? Despite having access to so many leadership principles, tools, systems and processes, why is it so hard to develop and improve as a leader?

Michael Bunting

Author, leadership expert

More than money talks in sports sponsorship

As a nation united by sport, brands are beginning to learn money alone won’t talk without aligned values and action. If recent events with major leagues and their players have shown us anything, it’s the next generation of athletes are standing by what they believe in – and they won’t let their values be superseded by money.

Simone Waugh

Managing Director, Publicis Queensland

Sign in