The Culture of Me

The following article is an expert from my book Brand Hacks - How to Build Brands by Fulfilling the Consumer Quest For Meaning. Available on Amazon and Barnes&Nobles.

• We seek instant gratification to experience pleasure without deferment or delay. But, as we wait less (if at all) for everything, we experience less gratification and derived satisfaction.
• Brands that deliver long-term satisfaction build anticipation for their product and create positive memories post-purchase.

It’s not business, it’s personal.?

We live in the “culture of me,” where publishers, search engines and social media platforms put before us content and products they seemingly handpicked for us, and for us only. We all have a personal assistant, a virtual one that is. Google Home, Siri, and Alexa listen to everything we ask them and then deliver promptly. Apple Music, Spotify, and Pandora know what music we listen to now and predict what we’ll want to hear next. In fact, they tell us what we will like.?

Thanks to our smart phones, all these interactions with brands, content, and people happen in a second. Laying our thumbs on that 6-inch screen, we instantly upload videos, update our status, “like,” post, repost, respond to followers. But the adrenaline rush triggered by a “like” or text message quickly fades, prompting us to post or text again to fill the void and not feel unfulfilled for too long. Instant gratification does not translate into lasting satisfaction. So, beyond the likes we receive and the products recommended for us, how can our interactions with media, people, and brands feel deeply personal and rewarding??

Why we take Selfies??

Selfie is a word that describes the act of taking a picture of oneself and posting it on social media. Once considered a narcissistic, dysfunctional, or even bizarre behavior, taking selfies is nothing to be looked down upon anymore. Academics from Thiagarajar School of Management in India and Nottingham Trent University in the UK developed a “Selfitis Behavior Scale” that measures people’s motivations to take selfies.42 They identified three groups of users:?

• The “Borderline”: Takes selfies up to 3 times a day but do not post them on social media. These people are motivated by mood modification and self-confidence. They take selfies to feel positive about themselves.??
• The “Acute”: Takes 3 to 5 selfies a day, publishing each selfie on social media. These folks try to copy what others do to feel a sense of belonging to a specific group. This is also called the ‘bandwagon effect,’ a concept we will discuss further in Chapter 5.??
• The “Chronic”: Takes and posts at least 6 selfies a day. These people want to increase their social status, feel more popular and create trophies of themselves (I was there, I did that). A trophy is a tangible proof of one’s achievement. A trophy is something you want to flaunt, whether the achievement is social (I’m at a polo tournament, in Dubai), financial (I drive a Lamborghini, nobody has to know it’s a rental), or physical (I fit in a size 2 dress, although I haven’t eaten all day).??

?

Brand Hack: How brands can harness selfies?

Selfies can help humanize your brand as they are by definition personal,?intimate, and emotionally driven pictures. Here are three ways in which users can invite your brand to be part of their selfies:?

More than 170 million people use Snapchat Augmented Reality features every day. Its Lens Creative Partners program helps advertisers connect with the creators that can design branded lenses. AR lenses transform users’ faces to create a fun, immersive engagement with your brand. Users feel personally connected with brands and brands become part of the users’ stories.?

• Create a contest that encourages people to take selfies with your product. Also, create a hashtag that will support your campaign. Use the hashtag to track the performance of your campaign.?
• Endorse a cause and ask people to take selfies to support the action. For example, Tarte Cosmetics teamed up with anti-bullying group Bystander Revolution to help stop cyber-bullying. Be mindful of supporting a cause that aligns with your brand propose, or you risk facing a backlash. We’ll explore further in Chapter 6 on activism.?

?