Welcome to the ‘human age’

“Where is this going?”

Usually, it’s initiated by the party that is thinking more about the future than the other. But sometimes, circumstances make it abundantly clear to both parties that things have to change because the world around you has changed. This might leave you asking questions of each other and, more importantly, trying to figure out what the future looks like.

This is no different from the relationship that a brand has with its customers. In a property context, ‘brand’ can mean a company, a building, a residential development, a retail destination, a town or a city. These are relationships that are traditionally defined by one party ‘selling’ and the other ‘buying’. But that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be genuine and full of the good stuff that make relationships work – like sensitivity, the ability to listen, and, above all, empathy.

In the past six months, we have seen just about every big brand we know take off their ‘brand armour’ and revert to a more human tone that clearly spells out ‘we’re in this together’ (aka, we’re besties).

Now, the cynic in me would say that this is simply different ‘armour’ – opportunistic and even more disingenuous than before. But it doesn’t have to be that way. The relationships brands generate and nurture have a direct impact on their success. People want to do business with brands they connect with. They must show empathy. We should get ready to hear more about brand empathy in the very near future.

But being believable isn’t enough – it has to be genuine.

Successful brands are built from the inside out, and 2020 will reveal who has done this properly. That means a shared sense of purpose, ambition or belief that drives all relationships. And the only way you’ll get your customers to believe you are genuine is if everyone within your organisations believes it too.

The survivors and thrivers will be those that have a clear purpose, act on empathy and have an internal culture that lives these principles – they are the easy-to-spot organisations that grasp opportunity and identify new ways of thinking.

We have lived the ‘information age’, and some say we are in the ‘experience age’, but when you take a step back and try and identify what really matters, it’s the relationships we have with the world around us – whether that’s with people, places or brands. However we label the age we are in, we are still human. Maybe this is the ‘human age’.

So, what next? Strip away the bravado, if there was any. Define what you stand for, get everyone within the organisation united behind it and let that be your brand.

Farhan Urfi is senior creative director at Small Back Room