Psychology of Brand Leadership

Brand leadership means being able to shape what customers actually want to do. Sounds like a dream, right? Maybe not.

It’s easy to find some national brand leaders and see this definition in action. Recent examples include Apple with the iPhone and Microsoft with Halo3. It’s a little harder to find small business brand leadership examples. Let’s examine why and see if we can find a path to shaping customer behavior on a local level.

A recent article from Scientific American Mind, examined what they called The New Psychology of Leadership which “points to secrets of effective leadership that radically challenge conventional wisdom.” Let’s see if we can apply those secrets to your business and brand leadership, because local marketing could definitely use a challenge to conventional wisdom.

Here are the key principles outlined in the study:

The new psychology of leadership suggests that effective leaders must understand the values and opinions of their followers, rather than assuming absolute authority, to enable a productive dialogue with (customers) about what the group stands for and thus how it should act.
No fixed set of personality traits can assure good leadership because the most desirable traits depend on the nature of the group being led.
Leaders who adopt this strategy must try not only to fit in with their group but also to shape the group’s identity in a way that makes their own agenda and policies appear to be an expression of that identity.

The Lessons:

It’s not charisma that creates leadership, you can’t simply try to act larger than life. You must be a larger than life example of the customers you want to lead. You are the same as your customers, not superior. Basically, you want to be the leader your customers would be if they could. If you position yourself as very different than your customers, you are their adversary and not their leader.
Give your customers a social identity. Once you are able to identify yourself as being the same or similar to your customers, get customers to see themselves as members of a group. Give them a social identity by doing business with you.
From the article:

“…the development of a shared social identity is the basis of influential and
creative leadership. If you control the definition of identity, you can change
the world.”

What’s the practical application to acquire brand leadership on a local level?

First, don’t try to be above your customers. Let them identify with you. That means understanding their values. Pinpoint all your customers’ values and then incorporate them into your business’ persona.

Second, to shape your customers’ identity create a compelling social community within your business. That means that your business has to stand for something, you’re not just selling stuff. Give your customers rituals and ceremonies, give them a cause. Let them know that they’re not alone. They’re part of something bigger.

To create local brand leadership you have to be more than a business. You have to have a family of customers that can identify with each other. Then think of yourself as a matriarch/patriarch. You become the leader because of your ability to tie the family of customers together.

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