What is “Humanizing Complexity”?

Humanizing Complexity is all about how your product benefits satisfy both the functional and emotional needs of your target audience.

Ever wonder if your B2B communications clarify your brand’s value proposition?

Ever wonder if they unintentionally contribute to marketplace confusion?

In nearly all markets, one thing is certain: if your target audience perceives parity among you and your competition, lowest price wins.

Why? Because price is perceived to be the only differentiator.

Take a look at the brand communications within your own industry.

Do you see:

  1. The same undifferentiated language?
  2. The same imagery of professionals and their professional settings?
  3. Unstinting focus on products, features, and specs?

Does any of this work? Does it help brands get noticed? Does it speak to the deepest personal and functional needs of the target audience? Does it help or hinder sales?

Ask your sales managers. Many will tell you that competition is increasing and price is becoming—and in many cases, has become—the biggest determinant of a sale.

At Vivo, we felt there had to be a better way to market brands.

Humanizing Complexity starts with an obsessive focus—not on products, but on both the professional and human needs of your target audience. Next, it is about satisfying these needs with your product or service’s unique benefits. Third, it must get and keep the target audience’s attention in a clever and thoughtful way. Last, the target audience must identify with it.

What results is a closer relationship between your target audience and your brand.

We had the chance to validate this on a global scale. We designed nine different journal ads for a client. Three of these nine ads spoke to the target audience as emotional human beings. The other six spoke to them as professionals. The global respondents identified with these three over all the others, endorsing its humanizing approach.