cf #89: NOBODY cares about your brand

...so what can you do about it?

You are reading contentfolks—a monthly(ish) blend of sticky notes, big content ideas, and small practical examples. Thank you for being here! ~fio

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Hey there 👋

Here’s a simple question: when’s the last time you were having a nice time with folks you love, enjoying a day out, or happily practising your favourite hobby, when all of sudden you found yourself thinking fondly of a brand and its products, purpose, and mission?

I’m pretty sure the answer is never—perhaps with the sole exception of the brand you own or work for.

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Your perception is skewed

If you’re reading this newsletter, you likely spend a significant amount of your time thinking about the brand(s) you work for. You have in-depth knowledge of the audience, are fluent in the right tone of voice, know intricate product details, and can identify it among competitors without even thinking…

…and because you are so deeply immersed in all of the above, your perception is skewed. Slowly but inevitably, you start assuming that your work will be met with the same interest, recognition, and attention you put into it.

It won’t.

There’s a hard truth you, as a marketing person, must face: all brands are of low interest to most people most of the time. Including the one(s) you own or work for, no matter how special or great or unique you think it is.

People are interested in their families, friends, jobs, weekend plans and celebrity gossip - not brands or products. Occasionally, they may rouse themselves to consider which wine to buy for a special dinner. Or which mobile phone to buy for a teenage daughter’s birthday. And everybody has a few purchases they’re unusually picky about - a passion for shoes maybe. But most of us don’t devote much brainpower to buying anything. We’ve got too many other important or interesting things to think about.¹

Here is a scientific illustration of the phenomenon:

(tbh the square on the right is still probably too big)

Facing this fact can be disheartening, but it should turn you into a sharper practitioner. Once you acknowledge that the things you work on for days will be consumed distractedly in ~2-5 minutes and then quickly forgotten, you understand the urgent need to:

1. Find a unique spin so your work stands out as memorable

2. Use distinctive brand assets (think: logo, colours, fonts, taglines) that distinguish your brand from its competitors

3. Do all of the above consistently and frequently: because each new exposure builds on the previous ones, making it easier for category buyers to recognise and maybe, hopefully, eventually, think of the brand when they are ready to be in market

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A practical example

At Float, we know that our customers have a specific trigger point that, once hit, makes them start looking for software like ours: they’ve outgrown the spreadsheets they use to manage their resources, and need a more flexible and reliable solution.

Back in the summer, we decided to play with this concept and turn it on its head: what if the trigger point was hit not by the customer, but by a personified spreadsheet that’s starting to reach its limits?

That was the start of our ‘disgruntled spreadsheet’ LinkedIn mini-series:

1. We found a unique spin that could make our work stand out as memorable ✅

2. We did not, in this first instance, use distinctive brand assets: in keeping it very lo-fi, we didn’t make it distinctive or visually recognisable as ours ❌ But that’s what iterations are for—once we saw that people were amused by the concept, we produced a mini-series by keeping the unique spin and using brand codes more consistently ✅

   

3. We also did not do it very consistently or frequently: a one-off LinkedIn miniseries may be fun for both the folks who produce it and the ones who happen to see it, but it’s unlikely to have any sort of long-lasting impact on people’s memory structures ❌

   Our next step is to update and re-run the series in 2025, also expanding the concept outside of LinkedIn: our brand codes have changed since the summer, so all visual assets need an update anyway—plus, ‘the disgruntled spreadsheet’ is a strong, recognisable, owned theme we can (and will) develop ongoingly across multiple channels ✅

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Final thoughts:

The more you live and breathe your brand and think about its target customers, user personas, and market segments, the more you run the risk of forgetting that real people out there don’t have much time, desire, or inclination to think and care about any of this very much.

But don’t let this deter you! Building a brand is a slow and long process, and if anything, this knowledge should light a new fire under you.

Now that you know, what are YOU going to do differently? 🔥

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1. From Les Binet and Sarah Carter, “How not to plan: 66 ways to screw it up.”
I don’t know why this book isn’t more widely talked about; if you are into brand strategy, it’s full of useful advice. Also, it’s funny! Check out the introduction → “To be honest, we’re not fans of ‘business books’. Like you, no doubt, we have shelves full of them. Most we’ve not finished. Many we’ve not even started. None are actually used.” They are speaking my language!