I just attended a talk by Debbie Millman on branding. One idea that I found very interesting from the talk was discussion on the current wave of tribal branding since 2000. Ms. Millman made the point that in this wave of branding, a brand that builds/facilitates connectivity is likely to be successful. She enlisted statistics that show 1 in 3 households in America now consists of a single person, in contrast with only 1 in 10 households as a one-person household in 1950. As traditional communion places like the household downsizes to be a single’s cave, our need for connectivity as human beings has to be channeled through other places and other objects such as brands.

This association between brand and connectivity is very interesting and is consistent with the evolution of contemporary marketing. So I’d like to elaborate on this idea a little further. The marketing discipline is witnessing two interconnected trends: an increasing emphasis on building customer relationships (i.e., relationship marketing) and a perception change of consumers as objects/targets of marketing efforts to consumers as collaborators (see Vargo and Lusch 2004). Both of these are manifestations of connectivity and how marketing may play a role in building connectivity.

So to use some concrete examples to illustrate the concept, a brand can build or contribute to connectivity in two ways: physical or infrastructural connectivity; and psychological connectivity. Brands in the former category build infrastructure for people to connect with each other, such as T-Mobile, MySpace, and Facebook. These brands derive their value not necessarily from consumers’ emotional connection with the brands per se but rather from the value of relationships that are built on these infrastructures. For example, the popularity of a social networking website such as Facebook is dependent on the people that we as users can connect to through the website and how satisfying that connection experience is. Consumer collaboration dominates in this setting as a demonstration of connectivity.

Brands in the second category aim more toward establishing actual psychological connections between consumers and the brand and between consumers and consumers. While the connection between people is still essential to the connected nature of such brands, each individual’s connection with the brand is an essential ingredient to this type of connectivity. For example, Harley Davidson or Apple owners identify among themselves because of a mutual connection with the brand. In this type of situation, rather than functioning as an underlying platform for connectivity to occur, the brand becomes an indispensable bridge in the connection process. Relationship marketing and CRM become key strategies for enhancing connectivity in such cases.

It is possible for brands to crossover between categories. An example of crossover from psychological connectivity to infrastructural connectivity is the online communities that many CPG companies have established, such as Kraft community. Consumer interaction in those communities may no longer be brand-centric and may broaden beyond the brand to other realms of life. An example of crossover in the other direction is Second Life, where devotees who have been able to build meaningful relationships in the virtual world come to love SL as their virtual country, no less than the feeling of patriotism that we feel as citizens of a country. By crossing over or occupying both realms of connectivity, these brand names build a stronger hybrid form of connectivity that is valuable to today’s single-dominant world.

Last month, American Express launched a new marketing campaign called “The Members Project”. On the Members Project website, American Express card holders can register and create or vote on projects that intend to have a positive impact on the world. Project proposals cover a wide range of areas, from arts, education, to environmental and wildlife protection. These projects will go through a few rounds of voting and selection both by the project advisory committee and the members of the website, and the winning project will be announced on August 7. American Express will contribute $1 for each card holder that registers on the website, up to $5 million, which will be used to fun the winning project.

I think this is a great campaign for a few reasons:

1. It draws on the collective power of consumers and utilizes the increasingly collaborative nature of the Internet. While American Express is not the first one to do this, most of the influential viral marketing campaigns on the Internet so far either used corky humor (e.g., CareerBuilder’s Monk-e-Mail) or had a distinctively underground feel (e.g., Burger King’s Subservient Chicken site). The goals have often been to capture the younger generation’s attention. In contrast, the Membership Project stands out as a more “mainstream” campaign that resonates with everyday Internet users.
2. The campaign is a great integration between advertising and public relations. The positive causes promoted through the campaign are likely to receive media attention, and it conveys a very positive image for American Express. By involving consumers in this process, the campaign seems more natural and less commercial-like.
3. By building the campaign as a members’ project, American Express builds affinity of its card holders as a group and makes them proud of being part of something positive. This fosters the feeling that being associated with American Express really means something.