How To Incorporate Humour In Your Branding (And Do It Right)
It’s 2018, and if you want your consumers to bite, you need to make authenticity a priority.
Get this: 91% of consumers say that they are more likely to buy from an authentic brand, as opposed to a dishonest brand. This begs the question… what exactly is an authentic brand?
While there’s no textbook definition that you can handily refer to, we at RICE feel that authenticity boils down to a couple of things, including…
- Being genuine and transparent with customers
- Showing your human side
- Interacting with customers in a meaningful way
At the heart of it all, consumers today crave authentic interactions with brands… so companies who want to remain relevant need to step up and humanize their brand, as much as possible. One great way of doing that? Using humour!
In this article, we’ll explore three ways in which you can incorporate humour in your branding – and by doing so, win the favour of your customers.
#1: Have fun with your social media
Want to experiment with switching your brand’s voice to something that’s more light-hearted and less corporate? One great way to dip your toe into the water is with social media!
If you need some inspiration, look to Wendy’s, which is known for its savage roasts on Twitter.
While some entrepreneurs might balk at roasting (or, essentially, insulting) consumers online, think about this: each of Wendy’s roasts typically get over a thousand likes, and hundreds of retweets… and people love these roasts so much that they’ll straight up tag Wendy’s in a post, and ask to be roasted.
Brandon Rhoten, Head of Media, Advertising and Digital/Social for Wendy’s, says that having a “distinct voice” is crucial in contributing to social media success.
Most brands have several people juggling the day-to-day posts, so it’s important to keep the tone consistent. For Wendy’s, it’s simple – their voice is Chris Pratt’s in Guardians Of The Galaxy. Here’s how Rhoten explains it: “We don’t have any superpowers and we’re not superhuman. We’re just a regular guy who happens to be funny and a little sarcastic.”
#2: Inject humour into your website
Maybe you’re afraid to follow in Wendy’s footsteps, because you’re not quite sure if the local market can handle it.
Another (less controversial) option – inject humour into your website, like what Foot Cardigan does with their FAQ page!
I mean, how can you not smile after reading something like that?
While editing your website to reflect a humorous tone is a quick and easy way of displaying your brand personality, be sure you keep all your different target segments in mind when doing so.
Here’s an example: let’s say 60% of your customers (and website browsers) are from Singapore, and the rest are from neighbouring countries. Taking this into consideration, you wouldn’t want to make any references about SMRT, Yishun, or basically anything that our foreigner friends wouldn’t understand. Simple enough, right?
#3: Incorporating humour in an apology
Here’s the thing… Singaporean brands are pretty bad at admitting when they’ve screwed up.
Just for the record: when you make a mistake, the right course of action isn’t to delete all traces of evidence, and pretend the situation happened.
What you should do, instead, is to take a leaf out of KFC’s book, and deal with the problem head-on.
If you haven’t heard, KFC went through a crazy chicken shortage in the UK recently. Due to operational issues, the fast food chain had to temporarily shut down the majority of its 900 outlets… and as you might expect, their customers got pretty angry.
KFC responded with this ad:
Pretty genius, huh?
They apologized from the get-go, acknowledged the irony of the situation (“A chicken restaurant without any chicken”), and reassured their customers that they were doing all they can to get back on track.
Of course, the best thing to do would be to avoid screw-ups altogether, but if that’s not possible, then a sincere apology which incorporates just the right amount of humour will go a long way.
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