How Branding is Like Sex

Our first-ever guest post is contributed by our alliance partner Deborah Hymes of WanderNot, Inc.

If comparing something to sex doesn’t make it more interesting, then we’re not doing it right. Take branding, for instance. Here are the three most important ways that branding is like sex.

#1: IT'S SIMULTANEOUSLY UBIQUITOUS AND MYSTERIOUS. Like sex, branding is everywhere. And like sex, we’re all convinced that branding is what sells. Do a simple Amazon search on “branding” and you get 50,840 results. Whether you’re one of the “dummies” or a Harvard Business School grad, you could spend the rest of your life reading up on effective branding, simple branding, personal branding, corporate branding, emotional branding and digital branding, just for starters.

To paraphrase Winston Churchill: Never was so much written by so many and understood by so few. Yet despite all this information, the currents and eddies of attraction between products and buyers remain as elusive as the tendrils of desire between individuals.

#2: EVERYONE THINKS THEY DO IT BETTER AND MORE OFTEN THAN THEY ACTUALLY DO. Five years ago, just having a website was a big deal. Now a website is just the beginning. We’re also Twittering, blogging, Facebooking, MySpace-ing and YouTube-ing. In other words, there are lots of opportunities to make some noise, but very little real communication.

Much of the clamor in the marketplace is companies talking to themselves. Putting a logo or company name everywhere isn’t branding, it’s marketing. Marketing doesn’t become branding until it evolves into a meaningful conversation between you and your customers. Like sex, talking is also something you can do alone, but it’s more fun with other people.

#3: MAD SKILLS ARE GREAT, BUT NOTHING TRUMPS TRUE LOVE. You can’t fake passion for very long. And you certainly can’t fake a genuine investment in your customers’ happiness. All beloved brands share a common trait: the value they bring to their customers’ lives exceeds the value of the particular product or service they offer. That value may be convenience, glamour, humor, beauty, or something else. And it’s that intangible enhancement in quality of life that creates nearly unbreakable brand loyalty.

So what’s the bottom line here? First, comparing branding to sex really does make branding more interesting. Second, like love, successful branding transcends the sum of its parts to become something greater. And third, an Amazon search on “sex” yields over a half-million results, with a recommendation for “Amazon’s Madonna Store” highlighted right at the top of the page.

Now that’s some powerful branding.