Brand believers, brand advocacy and nations

A very happy 73rd Independence Day, to us Indians.

National days are about celebration and introspection. And, our collective behaviour determines how we show and lend our support to brands or as in this case the nation brand.

What if, the political map of the world is nothing but a marketing map of different geographies? A little deeper, and you can actually plot personas of different countries and attach a value system, depict character of the brand, what it stands for and what it wants to become.

Sounds familiar?

Now comes the definition of the collective consciousness of the people who support the nation brands. Can there be different forms of following the brand? Different ways of endorsing what the nation brand stands for? We as a people are all brand advocates in one way or the other. In fact, the idea of brand advocacy is a fundamental truth. It’s an instinct that we are built with.

Why then, many commercialised brands falter at this? And why a handful, are highly successful? While marketing has advanced beyond catering to business generation towards leveraging brands as assets, why has branding not looked more deeply into this fundamental nature of humans?

If you delve a bit on the idea of different ways people expressing nation brand advocacy you would drift towards three clear forms of expressions:

1. Nationalism

2. Patriotism

3. Jingoism

Dissenters aside, these are the three Brand Advocacy expressions. And I’ve tried to bring out the difference between the three. While one might have the urge to dismiss the first two as a semantics, they are not. And there’s a clear difference.

Nationalistic: This is an ideology. It emphasises that a person’s loyalty to ones nation brand comes above all else. It is all encompassing. A nationalist is akin to a fan boy who is literally brain washed to not accept deficiencies of the brand he or she believes in. So deep is this belief that they take great pride to promote the virtues of the brand. They believe the brand they support is the greatest. Nothing else stands in the way. And, they will make it a point to exhibit this behaviour in public/socially as well.

Patriotic: This is a strong, magnetic pull for the nation or brand. It’s an emotional bond which revolves around the spirit of belonging.

This spirit, is of being as one. with the brand. And, is not a blind following. Patriots would be proud of their country or brand they love. They would willingly endorse the brand. They would also be willing to accept deficiencies, and, would be ready to help correct those deficiencies, through expression, partnerships and hands on collaboration if needed. Now, these are not some blind believers. These brand advocates are emotional yet pragmatic in their beliefs.

Patriots acknowledge, accept and respect the beliefs of other brand believers. But they are more often than not blinded by their own beliefs. And as an obvious result, they are not public or social in expressions at all times. They would be guarded, but when they do express it, they would be believed by others as well.

Jingoistic: An excess of nationalistic belief and expression leads to Jingoism. A blind believer. Brainwashed and irresponsible in thought and action. It goes beyond pride. It becomes an ego trip. It manifests itself as incessant trolling, social media or otherwise. It leads to harassment of non-believers. And probably lends a negative name to the nation brand.

So the difference is obvious. A patriotic advocate is an inclusive one and is participative with the brand to enable an open and transparent advocacy and helps in generating more brand believers. A nationalistic advocate has the pride and the emotion to make his or her word reach out. But comes, with a few shades of grey and might need to be controlled.

A jingoist is a troll.

Happy Independence Day India.

(The author works with a brand advocacy solutions start-up SOCXO and also with a CX IT services company Suyati.)