I believe we’re all more or less aware of the over saturation of the supply of goods and services, regardless of the sector. Let’s take the post-World War II period as our starting point: the first phase was that of doing. When things need to be rebuilt and there’s an objective need for everything (shoes, cutlery, tissues, tires, etc.), the impulse that leads to starting a business responds to a fundamental, very valid question: what can I do to earn a living producing something that’s missing and needed?
In this phase, communication can focus almost exclusively on the “what,” the technical specifications of that product/service, in order to make people aware of its existence. Production and distribution likely occur locally, and therefore one or a few businesses operating in the same sector cover the entire geographical area’s needs. Where their area of reach ends, that of another supplier of the same product begins.
Let’s now leap forward 70 years. To say that the world has radically changed would be a blunt understatement, but above all, the problem is that it continues to change at an ludicrous speed, unthinkable in any other era. On top of that there’s another crucial issue: almost every sector is saturated with supply. Almost no one can afford the luxury of saying, “There are only a few of us doing …” Each of us, as consumers, is reached by tens of thousands of commercial stimuli every day, which, thanks to technology, are no longer limited to the geographical dimension of a single area. Literally, every individual can and is reached by stimuli arriving from every corner of the globe; time and space have contracted in the internet age.
Anyone not suffering from pathological aspects of compulsive shopping can realize that most of our purchases don’t happen because we truly need the thing we’re buying, but rather because of a consumerist inertia that is actually desperately trying to fill one or more voids within us. A complex and profound topic, which is not the subject of today’s post.
The core of the issue I’d like to reflect on is this: in this hyper saturation of supply that responds to NO demand, human beings feel (or should) a profound sense of overwhelm, as well as a loss of meaning. This latter aspect is what fascinates me the most, both from a psychological perspective and as a business opportunity. The truth is that no one wants to buy a pair of shoes because they need them, but they would very favorably consider the possibility of “buying” a value, a cause, a sense of meaning. The “why” is what is truly in short supply today, and therefore we are all automatically hungry for it, regardless of our level of awareness of it.
I’m not interested in branding and its strategies as mere tightrope-walking commercial exercises designed to navigate the complexities of today’s communication. They fascinate me from a humanistic perspective, as I believe that, in business, they are THE ANSWER to the question we’re all asking ourselves internally: how do we give meaning, a significance, to what we do? And no, profit isn’t the meaning; at best, it’s a consequence, even if we all agree that some companies act solely according to a logic aimed at maximizing profit at the expense of human well-being (any reference to Big Techs is purely coincidental). If profit and profit-making represent the only ultimate reason for a project, then any form of branding will simply be a way to dress up and mask that company’s true reason for existence. It happens a lot, much more often than you might think… But I’m really not here to lecture anyone.
So, essentially, what excites me most is the awareness (and stance) that I believe it’s no longer enough to start a business project that simply answers the question, “What do I like to do that could provide a living?” When I hear people talking about sustainability in the modern era, I almost never hear mention of the fact that even the choices we make should take into account the real needs of the world around us. Pollution isn’t just environmental; there’s also the amount of noise and distractions that businesses and products no one really needs cause us. The individualistic logic that led us to start a project based on a personal passion in the hope of being rewarded needs to be reframed, in my humble opinion.
That’s why, regardless of the technical lingo and processes that lead to the creation and strategy of a brand, the best definition of branding, in my opinion, is the following: it’s the way you give a product or service a reason to exist, beyond profit. That reason, as well as the values that represent it, is what customers truly buy. Without it, especially if you’re a small/medium business, you’ll be inexorably forced to keep prices low (and continually lower them, ruining your margins) in the hope that someone will choose your product, even if they don’t see much difference compared to all the others. If, on the other hand, you’re a large industrial company, then you potentially have the opportunity to churn out very large numbers, operate solely on a cost/benefit basis, and at that point, communication and branding will serve to embellish and reframe the profit objective, which is perfectly legitimate.
In case you didn’t know, 90% of businesses in the world are SMEs and self-employed, contributing to approximately half of global GDP and employment. Therefore, if you’re reading this post, it’s highly likely, if not almost certain, that you’re part of that 90%. Precisely because you’re part of the larger group, you won’t be exempt from answering the very question of the present and future: why should someone choose you over dozens of other competitors, since you all do the same thing?
A strong, coherent, and strategically structured brand answers that question and solves that problem.
