You know it’s funny how things can catch you off guard. I was watching Arthur with my kids the other morning, and a part of the show struck me like bunk mate with a sock full of rocks! One of the girls had a massive doll collection and the friend she invited over had only one doll. The rich girl was gloating on how many dolls she had, but to the other girl’s dismay, half of the collection was out of place or in some sort of weird order.

The girl with the one doll proceeded to ask, “Why is Cleopatra in a red convertible? She should be near the Pyramid of Geza!” The rich girl replied, “Silly! I don’t care. She’s just a part of my collection. It’s all about collecting.”

The other girl sternly turned to the rich girl and said, “You’re wrong! It’s not about collecting! It’s about connecting!”

Now in the next coming months, brands will hear a TON about Trust and building authentic relationships. At the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about, right? As marketers, we have “built” our relationships by collecting data and using that data to build a better product or conduct a more succinct survey. It was all about profit margin.

Today, the consumer is a cynical, tech savvy,  blogging machine and they know when they are being solicited. They tell their friends when their data is being phished. They inform the blogosphere about the time when a particular brand didn’t meat their expectations or it’s employee was rude to them during a customer service call.

Brand managers and marketers need to concentrate less on tactical list building and more on building authentic relationships with their customers and constituents. What I just said is nothing new. But if brands know this, why are they still plaguing the web with pointless ads and subpar landing pages all to collect a name? Look, I love having a database of names to pull from and message, but that doesn’t mean anything unless a relationship is created.

Brands need to create methods and strategies to CONNECT and stop collecting. A person is more than their HHI and contact information. They have purchasing power, influence and, frankly, feelings. People are emotionally tied to brands that hey love. When they lace on a pair of Nikes to go running, they sometimes think they can actually DO IT. That’s the power of connecting.

In the old days, you created a campaign and gathered some names after 5 tries and a million dollars. Now, you must create AND maintain meaningful relationships with less budget and more gadgets. You have to be where the customer is. And that may be on their phone during the day and XBOX Live or Facebook at night.

In her recent blog post, Liz Gebhardt so accurately described a brand identity as “the unique expression of a deep belief system that must live at the heart of everything that emanates from around that brand identity…” That’s the pure power of the brand. People CONNECT with that. They BELIEVE in that. Whether they perceive it or not.

When brands truly connect, a deeper connection is created. People generate positive feedback and participation without being prompted. They create unforeseen revenue streams and give you the most precious commodity of all, their attention.

Brands that fail to create meaningful relationships will fail. Brands that still embrace unproven tactics with little ROI, such as list building (COLLECTING), will fail.

So what should brands do?






1-    Stop!: Stop collecting data and start connecting with people. People are leery of marketing and advertising. They don’t trust it. Just go in knowing that nine times out of ten, your customer doesn’t trust you. More on the brand apology later. You fix mistrust by creating a meaningful relationship with consumers. Part of that is listening.

2-    Set up a command post: That means listen. Restructure your internal systems to stimulate listening strategies and conversation paths to create a one-on-one relationship with your consumer base.

3-    Respond: In any conversation, even though you’re listening, response is key. People want to know that you hear them and that their conversation or opinion counts. No matter how misguided it may be.

Brands need to start creating audiences of trust and think about restructuring their brand ecosystem.

Lesson: I have a really good friend of mine who collects coffee mugs. Seriously. He has a whole box full of these things. He was telling me a story about a time when his college roommate borrowed a piece of his “collection” for a nice cup of Joe. The roommate cleaned it and placed it back where it belonged. He even went a step further to inform my friend of what he had done. No sooner than he got the apology out, the roommate was ripped a new one. My friend, who has changed tons since then and is one of the most brilliant men I know, missed an opportunity to make a deeper connection with his roommate. He could have told him what the origin of the mug was or why he felt he needed to collect it. He could have connected his roommate with a story. Brands in their truest essence can be the most powerful moving story in a consumer’s mind. People connect with stories. Brands do a good job of collecting them and doing nothing with them. If you want people to connect with your brand, spend more time cultivating relationships than collecting names and numbers.