How to create impactful branding in the age of AI
As AI’s impact and reach continues to grow, it is clear this technology is here to stay. We must set aside the question of whether it is ethical, and instead ask the more nuanced question of how it can be used ethically.
Having led a multinational brand consulting agency for 15 years, I believe that the same principles we use within branding can be applied to AI. We must elevate the human over the mechanical, and recognize the unique value of human creativity and collaboration.
Equally, AI has the potential to make or break many of our biggest industries. It’s now more crucial than ever before to prioritize a robust, human-centric moral framework in our use of this technology, to ensure that it serves us, rather than vice versa.
Ethical branding
Similarly, just as morality and ethics are essential to our engagement with AI, so too are they increasingly essential to branding, especially as we begin to explore the role that AI can play within branding.
As a certified B Corp, my brand consulting agency, the bread and butter, consistently asks how we can use our branding expertise to generate or facilitate positive social and environmental change. Over the years, we’ve learned that good, ethical branding often boils down to uniqueness, authenticity, and transparency.
With the emergence of AI, however, we feel that humanity will become increasingly integral to branding: It will help consumers distinguish between boilerplate branding designed to maximize short-term profit, and organic, sustainable branding that centers community and long-term growth.
In this new AI-informed landscape, I suggest the following two approaches to branding:
1. Creativity and cohesion over replication
Many new business owners feel that branding begins and ends with their logo. They hop on a logo generation platform, instantly access hundreds of potential logos, and finalize their “branding” in just a few minutes.
This approach to branding is effectively “all fur coat, and no knickers.” While this logo may serve it well for a short time, as soon as the seasons change, the company will find that their branding lacks the foundational integrity and flexibility necessary to adjust to the brand’s changing needs.
A logo is like the icing on the cake that is branding. Brands looking to build for long-term success and stability should approach branding by first establishing the brand’s concept, philosophy, and core values. These factors are central to branding: They give it substance, much like the sponge of the cake.
Most importantly, they must all work together as a cohesive whole. When we have a slice of cake, we want its layers’ flavors to harmonize with each other; although its component parts may be made separately, they are designed to be consumed together.
Branding is not a science, but an art. The most remarkable brands have a distinctly human creative flair that allows them to stand apart from the competition. It is precisely this element of branding that AI is unable to replicate. While it might be able to re-create an Andy Warhol painting, it could not create an original painting of comparative artistic quality and value. Equally, AI might be able to improve the mediocre, but it will never produce something truly innovative or excellent.
If a company seeks to create a valuable product that can withstand market changes, rather than just orchestrate a quick cash-grab, it must develop a brand that is robust enough to grow and evolve. Although AI ultimately might be able to create individual branding elements, it cannot substitute the broader curation and alignment of brand strategy and communication essential to a strong brand.
2. Engagement and authenticity over reach
As our primary marketing channels have shifted from retail shelves to e-commerce interfaces, brand design has evolved from more sensory, tactile experiences to streamlined, flat designs that read well on digital screens of varying sizes.
These flat designs are currently seen as more sophisticated and trendy, but we’re already beginning to see this trend change. After the pandemic, brick-and-mortar stores have leaned into their unique strengths, offering immersive experiences that can’t be replicated on a screen. These now sit alongside our more established online brand communications, in a hybrid approach to branding that combines offline and online elements to engage consumers across mediums.
Equally, as AI allows users to access information with increased ease and speed, it prioritizes the need for corporate transparency. The truth has never been so accessible, and companies can no longer hide shoddy or unethical corporate strategies behind glossy branding.
Just as AI can be used by companies to facilitate gorgeous, fluid, and impactful interactions between online and offline marketing channels, it can be used by consumers to establish whether that marketing is actually representative of the brand’s activities. Consequently, companies must ensure their corporate practices align with their ethics, and be prepared to communicate those practices in a compelling, engaging fashion: They must walk the walk, and talk the talk.
Sooyoung Cho is CEO of the bread and butter brand consulting LLC.
https://www.fastcompany.com/91154432/how-to-create-impactful-branding-in-the-age-of-ai
Having led a multinational brand consulting agency for 15 years, I believe that the same principles we use within branding can be applied to AI. We must elevate the human over the mechanical, and recognize the unique value of human creativity and collaboration.
Equally, AI has the potential to make or break many of our biggest industries. It’s now more crucial than ever before to prioritize a robust, human-centric moral framework in our use of this technology, to ensure that it serves us, rather than vice versa.
Ethical branding
Similarly, just as morality and ethics are essential to our engagement with AI, so too are they increasingly essential to branding, especially as we begin to explore the role that AI can play within branding.
As a certified B Corp, my brand consulting agency, the bread and butter, consistently asks how we can use our branding expertise to generate or facilitate positive social and environmental change. Over the years, we’ve learned that good, ethical branding often boils down to uniqueness, authenticity, and transparency.
With the emergence of AI, however, we feel that humanity will become increasingly integral to branding: It will help consumers distinguish between boilerplate branding designed to maximize short-term profit, and organic, sustainable branding that centers community and long-term growth.
In this new AI-informed landscape, I suggest the following two approaches to branding:
1. Creativity and cohesion over replication
Many new business owners feel that branding begins and ends with their logo. They hop on a logo generation platform, instantly access hundreds of potential logos, and finalize their “branding” in just a few minutes.
This approach to branding is effectively “all fur coat, and no knickers.” While this logo may serve it well for a short time, as soon as the seasons change, the company will find that their branding lacks the foundational integrity and flexibility necessary to adjust to the brand’s changing needs.
A logo is like the icing on the cake that is branding. Brands looking to build for long-term success and stability should approach branding by first establishing the brand’s concept, philosophy, and core values. These factors are central to branding: They give it substance, much like the sponge of the cake.
Most importantly, they must all work together as a cohesive whole. When we have a slice of cake, we want its layers’ flavors to harmonize with each other; although its component parts may be made separately, they are designed to be consumed together.
Branding is not a science, but an art. The most remarkable brands have a distinctly human creative flair that allows them to stand apart from the competition. It is precisely this element of branding that AI is unable to replicate. While it might be able to re-create an Andy Warhol painting, it could not create an original painting of comparative artistic quality and value. Equally, AI might be able to improve the mediocre, but it will never produce something truly innovative or excellent.
If a company seeks to create a valuable product that can withstand market changes, rather than just orchestrate a quick cash-grab, it must develop a brand that is robust enough to grow and evolve. Although AI ultimately might be able to create individual branding elements, it cannot substitute the broader curation and alignment of brand strategy and communication essential to a strong brand.
2. Engagement and authenticity over reach
As our primary marketing channels have shifted from retail shelves to e-commerce interfaces, brand design has evolved from more sensory, tactile experiences to streamlined, flat designs that read well on digital screens of varying sizes.
These flat designs are currently seen as more sophisticated and trendy, but we’re already beginning to see this trend change. After the pandemic, brick-and-mortar stores have leaned into their unique strengths, offering immersive experiences that can’t be replicated on a screen. These now sit alongside our more established online brand communications, in a hybrid approach to branding that combines offline and online elements to engage consumers across mediums.
Equally, as AI allows users to access information with increased ease and speed, it prioritizes the need for corporate transparency. The truth has never been so accessible, and companies can no longer hide shoddy or unethical corporate strategies behind glossy branding.
Just as AI can be used by companies to facilitate gorgeous, fluid, and impactful interactions between online and offline marketing channels, it can be used by consumers to establish whether that marketing is actually representative of the brand’s activities. Consequently, companies must ensure their corporate practices align with their ethics, and be prepared to communicate those practices in a compelling, engaging fashion: They must walk the walk, and talk the talk.
Sooyoung Cho is CEO of the bread and butter brand consulting LLC.
https://www.fastcompany.com/91154432/how-to-create-impactful-branding-in-the-age-of-ai