January 17, 2007
Making the involuntary voluntary
Influencing brand, in my not-so-humble opinion, is all about making the involuntary voluntary.(I was going to stop there. Leave that hanging like some insightful piece of Joseph Rago prose. Allow you to bask in my genius. But then I realized that it bears a little more explanation, a little more context.)
I can hear you saying it. What am I babbling about?
Take the human body. (You've got one right? I mean, anyone who's anyone has one. They're nearly as popular as iPods and mobile phones. Nearly. If you don't happen to have a body, ask someone in the office if you can borrow theirs. In fact, maybe I would suggest this to be the first course of action. I don't want anyone within my already minuscule reader base to be injured.)
So, you have your human body. Congrats, Igor.
Now, as we all know, with the body, there are some activities which are critical to survival and, as such, managed by a part of the brain that we can't easily influence with our conscious mind. These little functions like hearts beating and digestion and breathing we like to call "involuntary."
Then, there are some functions that are purely window dressing or subjective, over which we have complete conscious control. Things like what kind of food we eat or what words we use or how we walk. These actions we like to call "voluntary."
Business, it seems, tends to be filled with a very similar mix of functions, some voluntary efforts and some involuntary efforts. At least, in the classic view.
Common thought would have us believe that voluntary efforts for business are things like marketing, communications, blogging, product development. They're important. They're fun. But they're not critical to the business surviving, per se.
Equally common and mundane thought would have us believe that involuntary efforts include the things that make the business run. Usually, they are not fun. But they are important. Or so I'm told. They are things like finance, IT, HR, customer support.
But here's my thinking: In businesses that are attuned to brand, every effort is a voluntary effort. Because everything the business does, no matter how rudimentary, affects its brand in the mind of the consumer. Influences the market. Develops an emotional response.
Now, there's a complete book I can write here. But I'm going to stop there. Branding is about making the involuntary voluntary. And in so doing, making the business thoughtful in all aspects of its function. For the benefit of the brand.
Am I right or am I right? I'd love to hear from you. So long as you tell me I'm right. All right? All right.
Labels: involuntary, voluntary
Making the involuntary voluntary
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