It appears inevitable, and perhaps even to be expected, that every work place has the proverbial water cooler, the locale for various employees gathering, gossiping, and spreading the different rumor of the day. As modern technology has evolved, however, the water cooler has become more global. Social medias have become platforms for lamentation of the day's woes and worries, broadcasting negative feelings further than a confined conversation around the water cooler ever could. Worse yet, at least from any given individual's perspective, these social medias are named and traceable. Timmy from Accounting has very little plausible deniability when the HR team has a screenshot of his gossip-mongering straight from Facebook, timestamped and all. There is a level of wisdom in the notion of not utilizing social media to do "shop-talk" and leave work problems at work, but the world tends to be too complex for such a simple approach to be effective, let alone sustainable over a career. Rather than avoid the politics, the problems, or the gossip, and potentially placing a cross-hair on yourself, the ability to navigate, and navigate expertly, is crucial. Robert Greene devised 48 Laws of Power to help with such navigation, and we are going to be examining some of them briefly to help lay the foundation for political navigation to further your own desires.

Obviously, reading Greene's book is the most encompassing way to learn all the Laws, and how to apply them, but perhaps you have been unaware that Greene's book exists - or that there were any laws you must obey to cultivate power in the workplace. It is heavily encouraged that you add Greene's book to your reading list, but for a different reason than you might be thinking. Navigating the political landscape of your workplace, and cultivating power to yourself would appear, on the surface, to come with nefarious connotations. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, right? The fact is, the Laws of Power, unto themselves, are totally and completely amoral. That is, the Laws are neither good nor evil by themselves. The use of the Laws, and the use of the power they bring, however, can most definitely be used for either. A screwdriver, a powerful tool, cares not whether it is used to build life-saving hospital equipment, or life-ending war machines; screwdrivers, exactly like Greene's Laws, are only tools.  The intent behind the use of the tool matters. Of course, Bickert Management, with the focus on holistic success, presents these laws as a method by which you can better balance work-life relations, prevent undue stress, leave work problems at work, and succeed quicker at your goals. As a small author's note, if you are curious how these Laws can be abused for selfish gain, read Machiavelli's The Prince. This book outlines, in great depth, using the Laws of Power to gain sufficient power to (theoretically) subvert and rule a country.

The human psyche is incredibly complex, and marketing seeks to capitalize on what elements of the psyche we know have a direct input-output relation. The colors red and yellow, for example, tend to subtly create a desire to eat. Just look at KFC, McDonald's, Carl's Jr, Burger King, Pizza Hut, Dairy Queen, Lipton, Pepperidge Farm, etc.; each of them uses red and/or yellow in their logo to try and create this established psychological response when you are exposed to their logo. Going beyond a simple response to color, humans tend to also have a psychological response to other human-like entities when we are exposed to them. This phenomena is actually well-known, and goes by the name of empathy! Our awareness that others have emotions, and our ability to feel others' emotions vicariously begins at the simple connection that both parties involved are human (or, at least, alive. There is empathy between species, such as a pet dog and his owner, but we will overlook this). AnMa seeks to capitalize on this empathetic response we have to other human-like creatures to better advertise.

Without diving into the overbearing details of the why and how (which, if you care to read, all sources and articles will be listed at the end), it is a fact that when potential consumers perceive a brand as more human, they are more likely to associate with it, empathize with it, and ultimately, choose it. Therefore, in general, it might be beneficial to begin to anthropomorphize your brand. The trade-off comes in a slightly messy, grey area. This brand empathy, subconsciously, elicit customers to treat a brand in the same way they might treat a friend or acquaintance. The longer the relationship lasts, and remains mutually beneficial, the stronger and more powerful the relationship becomes. Brand loyalty soars, and other competitors cannot conquer your market share without significant resources. As an experiment, think about your favorite coffee (or perhaps beverage in general) and ask yourself: how much of a discount would another brand have to offer in order to sway your purchase away from your regular and onto theirs? Personally, if the two brands are similar enough, I might find myself drawn by as small a discount as 10%, or a buy-one-get-one deal. The tipping point is fairly low, and my loyalty can be swayed fairly easily. What is your tipping point for the coffee brand you envisioned? 

Now, think of a brand that has an AnMa mascot or brand. (Note: we selected coffee initially so as to have a control experiment to refer back to; very few, if any, coffee brands have an AnMa approach.) With this new brand in mind - I am selecting Popeye's Supplements - let us reapproach the initial question: how much of a deal would you have to be offered to select another brand? Different from my coffee, I have a significantly larger loyalty to Popeye's, and so the deal would have to be much more substantial. Perhaps a discount of 25% might grab my attention, but I suspect that my loyalty for Popeye's would likely result in turning a blind eye to most other offers. Popeye's, for me, mirrors a lot of the qualities I want to display; strength, dedication, a healthy lifestyle, and so on. It's just a brand, but it's a brand that I, like many consumers, has come to empathize with. This empathy makes shopping elsewhere less likely, and has a powerful retention subconsciously built into the brand.

If AnMa seems to be all upside, why wouldn't every marketing team be utilizing it? A fair question, as the downside of AnMa is not immediately obvious. Anthropomorphizing a brand, and tapping into the empathetic response it has on consumers opens a dangerous door if that empathy is ever broken. Like a friendship that goes sour and is never fixed, a brand risks permanently ostracizing itself from its customers if it ever breeches the implicit trust the anthropomorphized empathy brings. The high risk, then, is from the powerful ability to retain, or permanently lose customers. Even more impossible to account for is the threshold for which customers will allow transgressions. Each customer, like relationships between various people, has a different level of allowance for a brand before a transgression becomes too great, and breeches the empathetic trust. Thankfully, like a friendship, this level is not (usually) so low that the risk of AnMa is too great, but it is unspoken. Any company pushing the envelope will eventually find themselves the subject of mass scrutiny, and the loss of customers as a result. This loss can result not only from intentional actions, but even accidents. A company whose mascot normally displays values of honesty, care, and compassion, and is discovered to be associated with actions in contradiction to those (for example, a company utilizing child labour) risks breaching the empathetic trust and forevermore being labelled as untrustworthy and uncaring. Customers often, at risk of judgement from their peers, abstain from association with a less-than-reputable character, be it a company mascot or an average civilian.

The use of AnMa then, is a balance of risk and reward. If done correctly, AnMa builds and can foster a strong brand loyalty and relationship with customers. Market share becomes most consistent and stable, harder to conquer, and the company brand becomes more recognizable to the general public. The trade-off, and what any company must consider and weigh before diving into AnMa, is their risk at breaching the trust they work so hard to build. A strong moral code, built into the company's motto and values, is a start, but continues beyond that. What risks are present in your industry that present a threat to such a relationship with the public? What about within your company? Only a deep, truthful, introspective analysis can determine if AnMa is right for your company.

Your business, like many others, faces the age old challenge of standing out from the crowd, differentiating itself against competitors, and ultimately, winning the bid of customers who continue to improve their business selection savviness. Marketing appears to stand as a beacon of hope for many businesses as the best method to achieve this goal, and for the most part, a beacon it is. Marketing in the 21st century, however, has become akin to navigating a minefield; larger, more experienced companies appear to have all the equipment they need to make the task trivial, and the successful smaller companies appear to have managed to etch out their name by sheer luck. Fortunately, there is much more to marketing for small businesses than luck of the draw, and the tools the megacorporations use are accessible to all. Their accessibility, however, should not be mistaken for their applicability to all circumstances.

That is to say, successful marketing is applying the right technique at the right time. In this article, we will discuss a new technique that you can add to your business' marketing tool belt, to be implemented when the right circumstances arise. This technique requires a precursor though: marketing through the anthropomorphization of your brand carries with it several incredible benefits and drawbacks. It cannot be understated enough that this is not the be-all, end-all marketing strategy that will magically solve all your marketing problems. Anthropomorphized marketing strategies are just another tool that has to be used at the right time. What, then, is the right time? Or, more importantly, what is anthropomorphized marketing?

As difficult or scary as the word may seem, you are already accustomed to anthropomorphized marketing (henceforth AnMa for brevity). AnMa is the technique of taking a brand - either in its entirety, or just a specific product/division - and making it seem human. Perhaps you know of the Michelin tire man? He is an outstanding example of an anthropomorphized brand; the tires themselves, an inhuman object, have been stacked into a human shape, given a face, emotions, and human-like movement. Tires are not human in any regard, and yet, the Michelin tire man stands (quite literally) tall as an imitation of its customers. Contrast this with a brand that has virtually no AnMa: Nike. The swooshing check mark and catchy tagline of "Just Do It" are fairly recognizable around the world, but this brand has not humanized themselves at all. While their ads display hardworking, fit individuals clad in the Nike gear, the logo and brand itself remains totally inanimate; there is no smiley face hidden in the check mark, no Nike mascot, and no features of the gear that makes it appear like anything more than just that, gear. And just like that, you can see the stark difference in two massive companies' advertising strategies; one employing AnMa, and the other not. To help draw the distinction clearer, let us name a few others on each side. I would invite you to cover the rightmost side of the table below as an exercise to test your understanding.  See how you do!