Acknowledging Affirmation

 Affirmation – a statement asserting the existence or the truth of something.

The world is full of overcrowding: animals, people, businesses, advertising, pollution the list is endless. We are all competing for that little bit of space, our place in the world.  Affirmation is the acknowledgement that we are here, alive, that we are real and offer value in the world.

Looking around, I find that affirmation governs our lives. The actions we take and how we continue to defend what we do, trying to justify that we count. You can see it everywhere: the cars we drive, the career paths we choose, the sports we play, the relationships we have.

Come to think about it, there isn’t much that we don’t do to try have a positive effect on our self esteem.  It is about finding these passions that make us “tick”. I don’t think that affirmation needs to completely be driven by the ego, but perhaps a sense of spiritual fulfilment. Can we justify our existence?

Working my first month at BrandsEye, I soon realised that affirmation is what we do for businesses, everyday. Our clients are also craving that sense of acknowledgement/recognition in the industry, a sense of fulfilment. Enterprises want to make sure that they too are delivering on all their promises (their vision and mission for example - if we are looking at old school). But most importantly are consumers recognising them for the quality they wish to be recognised for? There are often times where businesses value themselves on their “creativity or forward thinking”. Where in actual fact, the market loves and trusts their “personal interaction and attention to detail”. Businesses, if they aren’t careful, are at the risk of getting it all wrong.

Previously there has been no real effective way of being able to track a businesses’ reputation. Online has become a medium where consumers have finally been given a say, or at least a false sense of confidence to be able to share their opinions on various topics. I must say a quick tweet is slowly but surely proving to be more effective than calling a complaints centre!

This consumer engagement has created an opportunity for enterprises to constantly monitor what people think and feel about their brand. Social Media should not be seen by businesses as a portal where consumers negatively impact their brand but rather where they can offer real insight. Social Media has changed our way we interact, businesses and people have become a lot more “open”, allowing criticism to flourish. With all this criticism and exposure we risk feeling more vulnerable and so our need for affirmation increases.

And yes, perhaps businesses look at their online conversation to make sure they are satisfying all their consumers and not missing a gap in the market to make an extra buck.  

But I would like to think of it as something more. That businesses and large enterprises are a lot like you and me. We all just need to know we “matter”.

Affirmation has created a 2 way channel between consumers, marketers and enterprises. Both consumers and enterprises need to be affirmed and recognised for our strengths. We as marketers play a prevalent role in making sure that both enterprises and consumers get that warm fuzzy feeling. We need to really start listening to what consumers are saying, hear their needs and offer them praise. To the enterprise we need to offer honest feedback as well as praise.

Recognition of affirmation as a need is a huge opportunity we can embrace. Especially in a fast paced western environment, the need to care for each other's needs should now evolve and transform.

All in the name of “thanks to brand x, you continue to deliver on your promise”