Why does a brand need a point of view?

Corporations may not be people, friends, but many brands have come to represent all sorts of human qualities in the eyes of consumers. 
 

And when a brand draws on these factors to address a topic of common interest with its customers, it’s expressing a point of view, driving towards a shared belief, deepening the connections.

POV: It’s not about you, it’s about them

The first thing to remember about a brand POV: It’s not expressly about the brand. 

Brands have plenty of tools to explore what it thinks about itself, and these tools are great for creating marketing decks and products and banner ads. What they’re not great at is helping the brand have a POV about topics out in the world.

For example, a brand has a logo, but a POV is different from a logo. A logo is simply a signifier of the brand’s existence — like a hat for a cowboy.

A brand may have brand values, but a POV is different from brand values. Brand values are aspirational adjectives. They’re how you’d like your brand to be known — like a dating profile.

A brand may have guidelines for tone and voice, but POV is different from tone and voice. Tone and voice are more performative etiquette than personal philosophy — like knowing the Queensbury Rules, but never throwing a punch.

And a brand may have guidelines, but a POV is different from brand guidelines. Brand guidelines are systems for how to think about the perception of the brand, rather than a way for the brand to perceive the world outside itself.

No POV is an island

A POV is about having an opinion or set of opinions about things that are not your product. It takes a strong brand to take a stand.

The more authority you have to advocate those opinions, the more interesting and trenchant those opinions, the more those people will listen. A POV establishes the rules of the brand conversation.

But a POV is not a sales pitch. Not directly. The utility of that point of view is not to capture dollars by selling a thing. The utility of that POV is to capture attention by selling an idea adjacent to that thing.

Having a POV doesn’t mean capturing market territory, it means creating it.

How to create your POV

Activating a brand’s POV requires you to identify a topic with which your brand and your audience share a common interest. 

And so, you have to ask yourself some questions.

1. What’s your goal? 
2. What’s your brand’s area of expertise?
3. Who’s your audience?
4. What topics speak to your audience's desires/interests?

To form a more perfect POV, we find this chart helps align brands’ expertise with customers’ interests.

  Article Group
Article Group // Our essays and such

What We’re Working On

Easing back into the office. Like everybody else, Article Group is navigating and negotiating what the workspace will look like post-pandemic. Phase 1 of our return to the office will span June 1 to Sept. 1. We’re starting with FTE team members, using flex desks, and capping conference rooms at four participants.
One pilot project involves a new bracelet system — red, yellow, and blue — so team members can signal how COVID-comfortable they are on any given day. Article Group embraces test-and-learn, so we're trying a number of things as we return to more normal times.  What’s your post-pandemic plan?

Further Reading

Want to read more about brands and their POVs? Check out these resources. 

• In search of ancient trademarks: While paleoanthropologists have been fascinated by the dramatic paintings our ancestors left on the walls of caves from France to Indonesia, they only recently began to focus on the meaning of the small, geometric markings that often accompany them. Are these 40,000-year-old brands, and what do they have to say about the makers? Read all about it. 
• How did a tire company’s POV about fine dining become a matter of life and death for the world’s top restaurateurs? Learn how the Michelin Guide became the star of restaurant criticism — for better or worse. Dig in here. 
• Once upon a time, brands avoided overt political statements and cleaved resolutely to the status quo. Times have changed, but how effective are brands’ political positions at winning hearts and minds? Harvard Business Review shares research that explored the issue, and found a partisan divide over how respondents viewed any political activity by brands. Check it out.