Introducing the story behind Humanisation and Human-Centered Marketing. This is how we help brands launch, scale and transform across APAC.
Despite remarkable advances in marketing technologies and processes, there remains a disconnect between many companies and the people they seek to serve. When the process is right, the outcome is incredibly powerful.Yet, getting it right remains elusive. It’s never been and won’t ever be a plug-and-play process.
Finding meaningful paths to people, winning their interest, building connections and earning trust are musts in a journey for people and with people. In the modern era, brands have a prominent place in our families, and for many of us, are ever-present in our daily lives.
If we think about those experiences that are most meaningful and memorable, the ones that we draw on each day, relate to others in conversation, I’d argue that there is a fundamental, timeless principle, given voice by a literary giant:
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
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Maya Angelou
As each wave of new technologies enters our lives, we learn, adapt, choose, reject, or embrace. Despite the powerful example of Apple, why is it that technology companies continue to lead with technology and not in solving human problems?
The lessons of Steve Jobs journey and evolution of Apple are so well known that they are our modern business folklore. Consider that 20 years ago, Steve Jobs explained the how to us all:
"One of the things I've always found is that you've got to start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology. You can't start with the technology and try to figure out where you're going to try to sell it. I've made this mistake probably more than anybody in this room and I've got the scar tissue to prove it, and I know that it's the case.”
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Steve Jobs
It’s also the case that Steve was not alone in this approach.
Human-centered design and design thinking had their roots in the design community 20 years ago as well, with now well-known firms such as IDEO and academics such as Elizabeth Sanders pioneering human-centered design processes used then and now to systematically bring disruptive products, services, and business models to market.
Most markets are increasingly disrupted by new waves of technology and the pace of technological change seems to accelerate every year. Companies that don’t offer the benefits of new or even tomorrow’s technology know they can’t compete.
If you are a leader at a growth company or manage a portfolio of revenue within a large company, your Monday morning is probably more about getting salable, relevant product out the door.
You know the lessons about usability, you probably have one event each and every day where you are acting as the advocate for the end user. But you know you are leading an organization that acts in many ways opposite to Jobs’ mantra of start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology. And you know that if you aren’t living it internally in your daily work, in each team, that no marketing campaign, no brand message, will bring the authenticity of human connection to customers.
This is the problem we at Humanisation solve.
Deep, authentic, meaningful connections with customers are possible and can be a competitive competence. But it has to start with building a core of thinking, behaviour, and practice.
It has to be systematic and integral. It has to be so routine that it becomes a habit.
In all my projects, I can’t think of even one that didn’t have some struggle to build a sustainable connection with people. Yet it is achievable and there is a process and there is a path to durable competence for companies. Humanisation exists to guide companies to this destination.
Thanks for reading. I invite your comments and ask you to share this with your network. In the coming weeks and months I will publish more of my thinking and ideas about connecting companies and technology to humans. Here is the original post on LinkedIn
Cat Williams-Treloar founded Humanisation, a Human-Centered Marketing Consultancy. Humanisation was born to help startups make a human impact in a digital world as they Go-To-Market across APAC.
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Read more about Humanisation & our why here, or get in contact with Cat@Humanisation.com
