City & Gild: We clamour for the individual touch at any price – and brands can answer the call
Rich or poor, there’s one thing that everyone is striving for – individualism. While one woman’s individuality comes via a limited edition un-badged Hermes bag, another person’s comes from a Coke bottle with their name on it. The former unassuming but showy (or “knowy”) and bespoke, the latter showy and, well, also bespoke. Each answers the same need.
Personalisation, bespoke-ness, individuality – label it whatever you want, but the common desire is to feel like you have something uniquely yours, tailor-made to meet your needs and no-one else’s, and that is admired by friends, peers and on-lookers. It is a need unfulfilled by the mass-produced structures that surround the rest of our lives, which is why at every level people are seeking an answer that works for them, whether in luxury holidays or personalised chocolate bars.
Brands have moved via osmosis into this space with grace and fervour. Of course, bespoke is not new. But the reality is that at a consumer brand level the power of this individualistic approach is now much stronger and impactful that than we might think.
For many, consumer brands are our only shortcut, mainline-into-the-veins way of accessing any real type of individualism. Tri-party British politics, homogenous housing stock and high streets, cookie-cutter format television, radio, and music – there might be more channels for everything but what is served up is largely the same.
While brands have long celebrated the tribe, the gang or the in-group, they can also celebrate the you, the unique “they broke the mould” you. When everyone desires a slice of individuality shaped and inspired by the structure of our lives, brands are able to offer just enough of an individual kick to help itch the restless scratch.
And this makes sense for brands, too. Sure, having your name on a bar of chocolate or a bottle is fun and having a bag, car, yacht the way you want it is amazing but just as important is what such experiences say about the brands by which they are delivered.
Oscar Wilde said that what individualism battles against is “monotony of type, slavery of custom, tyranny of habit, and the reduction of man to the level of a machine”.
The call to arms for brands must be to meet this challenge through continued imagination and ingenuity and not just mere manufacturing or print possible offerings – homogenisation with a wink is a short term game to play and doesn’t influence ongoing brand loyalty and love.
Individualism is neither a curse nor a direct link to selfishness, it is the essence of creativity and a currency to be embraced. It is our duty to leapfrog the pack and ask what we can do to deliver for individualism – we are facing a new dawn in which a brand’s power is about true creative expression and empowerment, way beyond just seeing yourself reflected in the thing you bought. It is our job to inspire customers to come along for their own ride.
Craig Wills is the executive strategy director of strategic branding consultancy The Gild, www.the-gild.com.