Brand or identity?
How do you, as a professional, distinguish between a sincere conviction and greenwashing ? How do you get clients on board with the distinction between a brand challenge and an identity issue? I have come up with a model for this that works surprisingly well as a conversation starter .
You can only build a compelling brand if you know who you are and what you stand for.
Imagine: there are four types of organizations. The distinction has to do with the identity of the organization and its brand. The identity (who we are, what we stand for) can be clear or unclear. The brand (how do we radiate that) strong or weak.
Albert Heijn does it, KPN does it, HEMA does it and SNS Bank does it. But Nespresso doesn't do it, the Dutch Railways doesn't do it either and ING Bank sometimes does it: say 'you' and 'you' on the website. hospital email address list To use the informal 'you' or not? It is the key question when you start building your brand identity and filling in the accompanying tone of voice. But on what grounds do you make that choice and what is the effect on your customer's brand experience?
Even before the turn of the century, IKEA started doing it: the furniture giant downgraded all customers from u to jij. At the time, a brave move that caused quite a stir. It didn't exactly show much respect for paying customers, who were already led like docile sheep past the model living rooms and then lugged the parts for their new bunk bed from the warehouse themselves. And now they were also addressed as little children with jij. But IKEA persevered and hasn't sold any less Billy for it in the past twenty years.
Respectful or personal?
Perhaps the Swedish furniture company was a trendsetter. Or it sensed at a very early stage that customer communication and interaction would become a lot more informal. In the meantime, the big brands have started using the informal 'you'. Especially online: the websites where visitors are still addressed respectfully as 'u' are in the minority. But is saying 'u' respectful by definition? Doesn't that create an old-fashioned distance between company and customer? And does that make 'je' and 'jij' much more contemporary, and also personal and close?