There’s an old saying that goes along the lines that if you do not have a brand, you have a commodity. You probably don’t need me to explain to you why it’s a bad idea to compete based on commodities.
Commodities are interchangeable goods. A sack of rice of a certain variety will be a sack of rice, regardless of where you buy it, when you buy it, whom you buy it from, or a set of circumstances surrounding your purchase. It’s still going to be that sack of rice. The same applies to corn, wheat, pork bellies, chicken or what have you. These are commodities, but there is only one difference that you can compete on, that’s the difference is the course price.
Again, you probably don’t need me to remind you that competing based on price is a way ticket to failure. You need price competition as much as you need another hole in your head. As a producer that’s the last thing, you want to see happen. Unfortunately, if you do not build the brand, people are going to judge based on your price.
Instagram is no different. You have to build a brand, otherwise whatever content you’re sharing will fall between the digital cracks. There’s really nothing to distinguish it from the rest of the content that’s out there. Your brand is just going to be another digital face in the crowd.
Make no mistake, people follow brands. They’re looking for some sort of connection. They’re looking for some sort of persona that they feel can connect with their hopes, fears, dreams, aspirations and other goals and attributes. In other words, people choose to become loyal to people.
However, people are not dumb. They know that the persona of Kim Kardashian on Instagram and on TV is probably going to be very different from the real Kim K but people don’t care. People just what to see some sort of reality that they read into. That’s the cult of celebrity and this happens with brands all the time. If you do not play the game this way on Instagram, you are not going to be building your community. Chances are, you’re going to be positioning your brand for ultimate failure.
You have to understand that expertise can only go so far. Sure, it’s a great thing that you know what you’re talking about. It is an amazing thing that people can bank on what you are saying, but you have to deliver something more. You have to go the extra mile. This is where branding comes in.
If you don’t brand, you are generic. That’s the bottom-line. What’s so wrong about being generic? What’s so wrong about being, yet, another digital face in the crowd? It’s this simple, “If you are just another player, you are all too forgettable.”
