Ownership: the new holy grail for brands
How brand and marketing leads can unlock the power of the blockchain through this one little-used customer lens
Enabling customers to experience ownership will be crucial differentiator for brands.
Blockchain unlocks this concept in new and yet to be explored ways.
Blockchain technology has become largely ignored, particularly in the branding space. Some view blockchain as a highly technical solution looking for a problem. Others have generalized it as “digital collectible artwork” and missed an opportunity for their brands.
Two attributes of nearly all blockchains unlocks ownership. Those are:
An immutable, trustless record-keeping system or ledger;
Proof of something to write to this ledger
The first item means that, because the different parties don’t have to trust that a central entity will be accurate in its record-keeping, those parties can trust the accuracy more. These ledgers can have varying degrees of openness and transparency, but the immutability by a bad actor or by a central entity instills greater confidence in whatever is being recorded.
Because these systems often rely on some cryptographic proof that something meaningful occurred, there’s trust that not only are the records free from tampering, but that what has been recorded can also be believed and trusted.
This type of record keeping already exists as a traditional foundation of ownership.
Proof of home ownership, theoretically, comes from documentation that shows that you have title to the home. Now, we all know that when you actually drill down into what the documents say, the bank owns your own. In turn, you demonstrate that you have been reliably paying the mortgage on the home.
Regardless of the nuances, the records give us proof of ownership.
In countries where the records are unreliable, can be easily lost, or not easily accessible without showing up in person, proof of ownership can be onerous and even a risk factor.
But the point of ownership isn’t in the record-keeping. It is in the psychological results of believing one has ownership. Realtors often pitch the “pride of ownership” which, as more people become skeptical of the costs to owning a home, has begun to lose its sheen. But for many people, that belief of ownership creates a different psychology which turns into different actions: investing in repainting, remodeling, taking better care of the property than they would a rental.
Let’s compare the value of ownership for employees in the form of stock options.
The initial reason for stock options was so that people would feel invested in the outcomes, and make decisions and put in the hours by “acting as owners.”
Technically, when one has exercised their stock options, they are owners. But often times, these grants are so small, nobody really acts as if there's ownership. So legal ownership isn’t enough for people to believe that they are owners.
On the other hand, in close-knit communities, some people act as if they are owners of the neighborhood, even though there's no legal documented proof that they have any ownership. Interestingly, it is often those who are actually home owners who are willing to extend their belief of ownership to the entire neighborhood. Yet, we also know that not all home owners feel that way about their neighborhood.
Why does this matter to a branding or marketing person?
Sense of ownership deepens the relationship to the brand that triggers actions and behaviors that can further deepen that engagement.
A sense of ownership compels a homeowner to take better care of their house, making it more valuable or livable.
A sense of ownership motivated neighbors to watch out for each other, making it better.
In the end, one value of strong brands is it deepens conviction or engagement to be more loyal repeat customers or vocal evangelists or whatever set of activities and behaviors make sense for the company’s brand or core business.
If you are the brand steward for your company or your client, how are you developing the customer’s concept of “ownership”?
The next unlock for brand thought leaders is to figure out the language, the behaviors, the beliefs, and, from there, make it tangible and incentivized through the blockchain.
For marketers, empowering customers to feel ownership is not a typical point of focus. Instead, the focus can often be on questions like: How can I get more customers? How can customers see us more favorably? How can we instill in them beliefs or values that enforce our brand? How do we increase awareness and relevance of our brand?
While those are important, they are fundamentally different from asking, “How can we actually enable customers to have a sense of ownership?”
I'm going to use a simplified, trivial example around wine, but it can apply to any alcoholic beverage.
Because it can be bought, collected, stored, gifted, even resold, there's some already built-in ownership. Some companies extend this with these club memberships that increase a sense of belonging in addition to deepening actual purchase.
I’m not a wine person, but it does seem that people really into wine have been very vocal about what wines they own and are their favorite. Being able to prove ownership and share that off with digital proof seems like it could tap into that same sentiment. In fact, because of wine’s artisanal roots, there are opportunities for art and provenance to be part of the blockchain’s ledger for public sharing, just as NFT-based art had a run at being shared and displayed.
But how can ownership be further deepened beyond just proving one is a fan?
Ownership often comes from a sense that one has a say in matters.
A company that has stock options but never listens to employees imparts less ownership that a company with no stock plan but that actively listens to employee suggestions.
How could this be enabled for this wine company?
What if label design on the next launch could be voted upon by those who prove a certain level of purchases?
Those who have purchased wines are granted blockchain tokens; and those tokens give governance rights on things like label design, custom blends, maybe membership club privileges.
What if ownership data and communication were more open to complementary services subject to your own approval?
For example, what if a chocolate company felt there was a good fit; and they designed an airdrop granting discounts to their chocolate to owners of your wine (subject to your approval).
The idea of partnerships isn’t new. But by reducing friction and increasing provability, the ownership benefits can begin to accurate around an ecosystem of partners. Now ownership in your brand confers others brand re-inforcing relationships and benefits that could be inbound, from upstart niche products that enable you to stand apart?
How could this impact your brand and market presence?
Those brands that due embrace ownership will generate buzz and innovation in their ecosystem. It’s a vector of differentiation that will ripple across many industries because ownership is a deeply felt, but very elusive, experience for most people.
If you're interested in doing more, we welcome you as an anonymous (if you want) guest on the podcast and we’ll workshop it with you live!
Or join our next Unlock: Design Sprint for World Builders.
And we’ll work together to help you answer: “How can you turn your best customers into owners?”