How Humanism Drives Brand Success

Until recently, brand centricity was the accepted marketing strategy. However, when trends shift, so do branding and marketing strategies. People now frequently want more individualized connections with companies. As a result, in order to focus on their clients or consumers as unique persons, 21st-century commercial tactics have embraced humanism. Indeed, prominent marketing teams, such as those at Apple and Nike, have modified their marketing strategies to be more customer-centric. Their success demonstrates, over and again, why businesses ought to prioritize people.

From a branding standpoint, this entails treating your potential customers as people first and knowing their wants, values, and problems. Some of the best-performing B2B organizations, such as Shopify or Accenture, have made it their express objective to prioritize the human experience in their branding strategy. This has proven to be a big potential in terms of increasing social media engagement and creating trust, all of which have resulted in a competitive advantage and, eventually, a higher ROI.

According to insights, firms in our study across nine industries average a dismal 47% in humanism. Humanism is scored based on a variety of human-centric indications found in the language, story, images, navigation, and how they are communicated on various elements of the website. Low humanism rankings may explain low interaction with your brand on social media, as well as a lack of human language, named team, and people images. Furthermore, failing to prioritize people when developing your brand and online presence may result in a bad user experience.

These statistics may improve if you use a humanist approach to branding, resulting in both great experiences for your customers and business success. As a result, we think that businesses must prioritize people by putting the human experience at the heart of their customers’ decisions. As a result, humanism is one of the eleven branding KPIs at the heart of Elevate.

In this write-up, we discuss the importance of humanism in branding and give some tips for improving your human-centric approach.

What is humanism?

The importance and agency of human beings, both individually and collectively, are emphasized by humanism, a philosophical and ethical perspective that emerged throughout the Renaissance and Enlightenment. It is recognized as a key movement in modern Western thought, the driving force behind practices like education, psychology, politics, and ethics. Its three primary pillars are reason, compassion, and empathy.

Understanding and empathizing with the clients’ viewpoints is referred to be a humanistic approach in branding. By clearly understanding a clear understanding of their customers’ wants, needs, and motivations, humanistic brands aim to engage customers on a deeper level. Brands may create confidence and allegiance through proving that they care about their customers beyond merely generating a profit. The following are some essential humanism in branding tenets:

Transparency

By eliminating gimmicks, exaggerations, and hollow promises, human-centered companies strive to be upfront and honest about their beliefs, goals, and activities. Instead, they concentrate on establishing genuine personal ties with their clientele.

Inclusivity

Humanism-inspired brands strive to be inclusive of all people, regardless of their backgrounds, identities, or views. They avoid prejudices and biases while doing so, and aim to establish a welcome and inclusive atmosphere for everybody.

Purpose

Humanistic companies have a goal or vision that corresponds with the values of their customers and try to have a good influence on society. This means having a clearly defined goal other than profit.

Responsiveness

Human-centered branding is driven by being sensitive to their clients’ wants and concerns. These companies respond to customer input by addressing concerns or improving their products and services.

Sustainability

Sustainable business practices and environmental stewardship are priorities for humanistic brands. They work hard to reduce their environmental effect and encourage sustainable practices. This topic is covered in full in our essay on the influence of ESG on brand success.

Businesses may differentiate themselves in a crowded market and create enduring relationships with customers by using these ideas.

Conclusion

Successful branding strategies must evolve towards humanism in order to engage with today’s consumers, by first identifying your audience as humans and knowing their beliefs, pain areas, and requirements. Humanism-centered brands are honest, inclusive, and serve a clear purpose. They are sensitive and devoted to their basic beliefs, as seen by their actions. By implementing a human-centric approach, B2B companies may foster trust and long-term connections with their customers, resulting in a competitive advantage through distinctiveness.