Having a personality is the competitive advantage nobody talks about in eCommerce

Dahna Borg – Bright Red Marketing (00:00)

When did marketing stop being fun? Because that's what I'm gonna talk to you about today. If your feed looks anything like mine, it's getting a little bit boring and everything is getting a little bit the same. So let's get into it.

Dahna Borg – Bright Red Marketing (00:11)

Hi and welcome to the Bright Minds of eCommerce podcast. I'm Dahna, founder of Bright Red Marketing, and I created this podcast because I wanted to bring you the best advice from Australian experts in eCommerce and eCommerce store owners. If you're wanting relatable stories and actionable advice, as well as the latest Facebook advertising strategies, you're in the right place. So let's get into today's episode.

Dahna Borg – Bright Red Marketing (00:30)

So I want to talk about why marketing has lost its spark. I think we've gotten to a point in the world where everything's gotten a little bit too polished, a little bit too safe, a little same-same. I do think the rise in AI usage is a little bit to blame here, but I also think we're in a space where people are tired, they don't have time for marketing, they're exhausted, and everyone's just trying to pump out marketing as quickly as possible while trying to keep things safe within their brand. So I think it's a bit of a perfect storm of chaos that's leading to marketing getting a little bit bland.

I want to talk about how to bring back some of the fun, but first I want to talk about why that matters. So if you're scrolling your feed, how many of those posts are you actually entertained by? How many are you engaging with? How often are you just scrolling past things because nothing's capturing your attention? This is the problem. I think so much of the content we're seeing is so same and so generic that we've sort of lost interest.

Now, I wrote a blog post about this. It's on our website if you want to go have a read more around pattern disruption and why it's so important, and the psychology behind it. So definitely go have a read of that. But essentially, what we're trying to do is find things and moments and pieces of a puzzle that are going to stand out and capture people's attention. Because if everything looks the same, no one's going to be interested. So we want things that aren't boring, we don't want things that are just going to slide through quietly. And I think the secret to all of this is having a personality.

I do think that having a personality at this point is a competitive advantage. I said it. Now, I'm not saying you need to be homecoming queen personality vibes. I'm saying that having a personality, and having a bit of a difference of opinion and a different vibe, is the competitive advantage. People at the end of the day buy from brands that they remember, that make them feel something, that give them something a little bit special. And I do think that what's going to get people to connect to you is that personality. Sometimes that personality is going to be your personality. Sometimes your personality is so strong and so lovable that people are going to associate that with you and your brand.

That's very much what our branding has been built on. I'm a little bit weird, I do things a little bit differently, we're all a little bit quirky, and I hire the same kind of wonderful and weird people, and it just comes across. You either love us or you don't. But the people who work with us love us because we are us, and that personality comes across through everything we do. It's also the easiest way to do marketing, because it's not faked, it's not forced, it's not manufactured. It's just me being me, my girls being my girls. We've come up with a brand that encapsulates that, and we've put a bit of work and effort into making that stand out. But we're just going to keep being our weird, wonderful selves. If you're listening to this, it's probably because you like the way we do things. Other people will listen to us and go, they're not for me, and that's perfect.

So again, I think having that personality is a very helpful piece of this puzzle, if you can have it. I think this is the reason it's working, and I think this is the reason having a personality is a little bit disruptive, because a lot of people are still really nervous to get behind the camera. They're really nervous to be a little bit different, to be themselves. We have a wonderful guest on the podcast in a fortnight who talks a little bit about this, around not feeling comfortable and confident in just being herself and putting herself out on the internet. And I think there are so many people in those shoes, and that's why everything's gotten a little bit safe.

So I'm not going to sit here and say you need to be the face of your brand, you need to start a podcast, you need to be in videos all the time. Brands don't need an actual face. What they do need, though, is a personality. I think the easiest way to get the personality is just to use yours, because you don't have to try so hard for that one. It's just yours. Be your weird self, go for it.

If you're going to build a brand off a manufactured personality, I think that's where it gets a little bit trickier. It's harder work, and it really does need skill to do well. So to talk about people who do that well, we have Duolingo. That owl is pure chaos, absolute chaos, and has nothing to do with learning a new language. It's just a sassy owl with the weirdest social media interactions you've ever seen. I love it. If you're going to look for an app to learn a language on, what's the one you think of? The crazy owl. Now, does someone in the marketing department of Duolingo have the crazy owl personality? Probably a little bit, to be fair. But that is an entirely manufactured brand persona, and they've done a spectacular job of it.

Dahna Borg – Bright Red Marketing (05:17)

The other one would be Who Gives a Crap, the toilet paper brand. Somehow they're just having so much fun on the internet. I love this for them, they're having a great time, they're standing out. The challenge I think they're going to face is that because they've done such a good job of actually making toilet paper fun, so many other brands are now starting up and trying to capture that market. So their challenge, and I'm really curious to see how they do this, is how they're going to stay relevant when they have so many copycats. There are so many brands coming out with the weird, quirky toilet paper, and it's like, cool guys, that's been done, take it into something different.

And then the other one I'll mention is Frank Body. Again, we're not talking about a real person behind the brand, I mean it's called Frank, so they kind of have a pretend person, but it's cheeky, it's flirty. If you read any of their product descriptions, it sounds like Frank Body. It's so well done. But those are three really good examples of brands that are manufactured. Some clever marketing team has built a brand based on a manufactured personality and absolutely run with it. They're not perfectly polished, super professional, uptight brands. They're having a bit of fun with it, but in very different ways. Duolingo is unbridled sass, Frank Body is very cheeky, Who Gives a Crap is just a bit fun and weird, and I love it for them.

And let's just caveat this: I lean quite heavily towards the fun, quirky, a-little-bit-weird brands. You can do this in a really different space too. You can be a little more aggressive, a little more edgy, a little more professional, or you can be wildly less professional. There are so many different ways you can capture this. I'll always speak to the fun, weird, quirky, because they're the ones that get me and the ones I pay the most attention to. But if you're listening to this and thinking this all feels a little too fluffy for your liking, and you're a bit more the other way, by all means, absolutely do it. There's such a need and a space for people who aren't in that cutesy, fun, weird, quirky space. There's room for everyone. Go be your weird self, whatever weird means for you, but take it and run with it. Absolutely nail it, and you'll do a great job.

Dahna Borg – Bright Red Marketing (08:14)

An example of a brand that's doing it really well, that's actually personality-based, so there's an actual person behind it, is Brittney Saunders from FAYT. Brittney is an absolute gem. If you don't follow her on any social media, go do it immediately. She's such a great example of being yourself, having a personality, and having that work woven straight through your brand. I don't think she's manufactured a personality, I think that's just her, and people love her for it. She just feels like your best friend. If you don't love her for it, that's great, I don't think she cares. She's doing a great job, she's just going to keep being her and showing up as herself. Again, people are going to either love her for it or they won't. If they won't, they're not her demographic, and that's so fine.

I think that's the really important thing to remember with marketing: we're not trying to market so that everybody loves us, we're trying to market so we find the right people for our brand. That kind of goes for life too, right? You can't go through life trying to make everybody love you, you just have to be yourself and the right people will resonate with that. If you're trying to make a brand that everybody loves, you're going to have a really hard time, because it's not physically possible. So you may as well speak clearly to those who are going to love you, and really build that relationship, rather than watering it down by trying to be palatable to more people. Don't be palatable, make people love you. Be you, and everything else will follow.

So the common thread with all of this is that they've got a deliberate point of view. They've owned their particular brand of weird and leant all the way in. There's no "we'll be a little bit fun over here and maybe a little bit of fun over here", they've just gone, this is who we are as a brand, and we're going with it. I think there's a belief sometimes that fun isn't professional. You can be a fun brand, a weird brand, or as I said, your own brand of weird, it doesn't have to be this exact brand of weird, it can be your own version, and you can still be highly professional at what you do. You can still have a high-quality product, everything can still be good. What it does mean, though, is that you're being more human, and that human connection is what people are going to resonate with, and ultimately that's what's going to make you more successful. That's what's going to make people go, "I feel something, I'm actually going to buy from this brand because I get it."

When you're thinking about this from a marketing perspective, we really want to look at it and go, how can I embrace what it means to be part of our brand, and how can I absolutely run with it? Try it, have fun with it, don't stress. Now, you certainly don't have to go fully unhinged like Duolingo, that owl is sassy, but just find what's yours and really make the most of it.

Dahna Borg – Bright Red Marketing (10:55)

I think this is also part of the reason UGC is doing so well, especially if you're one of the founders who doesn't want to be so camera-forward. Maybe you don't want to get behind the camera, maybe it's just not your thing. Having UGC can really close that gap. I'll caveat that with having the right UGC. If you go and get UGC from a million different people that match a million different vibes and it all feels really chaotic, it comes back to what I said, we're not trying to make you loved by everyone, we need to find the right group of people. So if all your UGC feels wildly different, it's not going to work. You want that UGC to feel like the same brand or the same personality. I don't want you to get every creator being cookie-cutter versions of themselves, but if you've got a cutesy, wholesome vibe, you want your influencers or content creators to have that cutesy vibe too. If you've got cute older ladies who are travelling and living their lives, that's the vibe you want to go for. If you're going for tradies having beers on a Friday afternoon, you don't want me as your content creator, you want tradies having beers on a Friday afternoon as your content creator. It really helps reinforce the brand.

I think that's a really important thing, because sometimes with content creators especially, they're harder to find, and we can go, "just take them, their content's great", but does that content actually reinforce the brand personality, and are they going to have fun with it the way you would?

Dahna Borg – Bright Red Marketing (13:00)

I think if you're struggling to work out what your personality is, which I imagine some of you listening are, if you've made it this far, you're probably thinking, "okay, but I know me, am I going to put myself out there or not? How do I build that sort of personality to fit into the industry, and how do I bring that back into my marketing?"

A really good way to approach this is to actually have an opinion on something. If you're in the beauty space, the marketing space, the fashion space, what's an opinion or something in your space that you either agree or disagree with that makes you a bit different? Because if you can catch onto a couple of these pillars, let's call them pillars, where you have a point of difference, that can be the starting point or stepping stone for your brand and that brand personality.

Because what we're trying to do with all of this is, yes, have fun with it, but also not blend into the category. We don't want our brand to feel like everyone else's. We don't want someone scrolling to see your UGC, your website, your product descriptions, or your ad, and it could literally be anyone else's. That's what we're trying to avoid. And yes, I lean fun, weird, quirky, that's just who I am, it's probably why you're listening to this. But if you don't lean fun, weird, quirky, what is it you can lean into, and how can you use that to make you different to all the other businesses in your space? Because at the end of the day, I'm sitting here yapping on about having more fun with your marketing, but the crux of it is really, how can you stand out in a really crowded marketplace and have a bit of fun with it?

Your definition of fun might look different to my definition of fun, yours might be a sassier version, and I absolutely love that for you, go forth. But we're trying to make sure you stand out in a very crowded space, especially with the rise of AI. It's getting so much easier to launch businesses and brands. What we really want to do is launch brands and have businesses that are memorable, and I want you to embrace that. I really want you to go, how can I make this so unequivocally me that it just makes sense, and that people will resonate with it and love it?

What I want you to do is embrace the less polished. Post the warehouse video, do the behind-the-scenes, have the founder content, just have fun with it, whatever that means to you. If you try and force these things, it doesn't come across well, it has to come from a natural space. And yes, it does get a bit clunky sometimes, and you might feel like, "this is my first time doing this, it doesn't come across as well as I'd like." But enjoy it, go have fun, see how it goes.

If you're going to write copy for a website, read it out loud. It's probably the best tip anyone ever gave me on web copy, ad copy, that sort of thing. Can you read it out loud and sound like a normal person, or does it sound like AI wrote it? Does it sound like a robot? Do you read it out loud and go, "no one speaks like that"? Because at the end of the day, we want these brands to feel like something people can connect with. Because at the end of the day, the brands people remember are usually not the safest ones in the room. They're the ones willing to take a risk, to make a change, to be a bit different, to have a bit of personality.

Dahna Borg – Bright Red Marketing (16:22)

Thank you for listening to the Bright Minds of eCommerce podcast. As always, you can find the show notes on our website at brightredmarketing.com.au. Just look for the podcast page. Thanks for listening.