Why Friendship Is Also Essential For Good Branding

Successful branding is all about connecting to your customer.  A brand must make a promise to a person that is relevant, credible and emotionally inspiring.  It is a highly personal process.  People respond to people, not things.  This is why a brand must define itself like a human personality with personal traits and values that also mirror those of the targeted customer.  Basically branding is like developing and sustaining trustful friendships, and this requires ongoing support.

How Friendships Evolve and then Dissolve

In September David French wrote an insightful article in the NY Times, “The Importance of Being There”, (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/24/opinion/friendship-loneliness.html) where the main theme was “the principal duty of friendship is merely presence”.  The importance of friendship is especially relevant today in light of a disturbing trend in our society – an epidemic of male loneliness, particularly fathers.  Most were married and had children, yet they experience a sense of escalating loneliness which French believes is tied to society’s rise of bitter divisiveness and “furious conflicts”.  Behind this phenomenon is an extraordinary decline of friendship.  According to a recent American Perspectives Survey:

• Between 1990 and 2021, the percentage of Americans reporting they had NO close friends at all quadrupled.
• For men, the number had risen to 15 percent
• Almost half of all American s surveyed reported having only three close friends or fewer.

The origin of close friendships of course varies but most start early in life.  Many begin at school or through work, although these friends usually go away or change jobs.  Parenting is another key source.  Their children get involved in extracurricular activities and you naturally make friends with other parents watching their kids play.  But then they play on another team or graduate, and all of a sudden these friends are gone.

Over time, it’s easier to say “no” to a friend than to work, a spouse or your kids.  A common response is simply “we lost touch”.  But friendships are worth an effort to stay in touch and especially be there when a friend needs support.  Friendships may feel unnecessary sometimes, but these absences can build up and lead to a depressing feeling of loneliness or a loss of belonging.  It boils down to an essential virtue – presence, e.g. “a friend is there when you need him” or “a friend stands with you”.

Implications for Branding

Friendships are also critical for creating and maintaining that important bond with customers in branding.  Personal friendships and brand relationships both require the same critical ingredients:

• Emotion – this connection must go beyond a rational justification; it must be intuitively felt. The strength of such a relationship for both is based on rewarding experiences, affection and loyalty.
• Trust – when a brand makes a promise to its customer, it must be delivered, – consistently and with the same level of quality. Similarly trust in friendship requires mutual support and reliability
• Shared Values – the benefits of a personal friendship or brand relationship are best realized and enjoyed when both sides communicate similar values regarding what is most important to each.
• Longevity –the rewards of enduring friendships and brand loyalty are exceptional and truly worth a diligent effort to continually support, especially during our ever changing life stages and our tumultuous world today. And this is why the most successful brands continue to advertise even when firmly established – as a reminder and to always be present in the minds and hearts of customers.

Friendships should never be taken for granted.  Loneliness is depressing and unhealthy.  Make the effort to keep those friends with you and enjoy the extraordinary rewards.