Congratulations. Your business is human. So is everybody else’s.

Why now is the time to be superhumanising your business

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Being more human used to make you different. Now it just makes you normal.

For years, businesses have been banging on about being more human. Making their brands more human, their communications more human and their customer experiences more human. And right now, the world needs exactly that. A little less corporate nonsense and a whole lot more humanity.

But here's the problem. Being more human isn't really giving businesses the competitive advantage it once did. It's increasingly just getting them back into the conversation everyone else is already having. And if your business is still trying to become more human, you've probably got some catching up to do.

It's time we started going a whole lot further. It's time we stopped simply humanising our businesses and started superhumanising them.

Now, before you start imagining your accountant wearing a cape or your recruitment consultant leaping tall buildings, let me explain.

Being more human is all well and good, but what does that actually mean? More friendly? More approachable? A bit less corporate? Yes all of those. But if everyone is doing the same thing, how is any of that making you different? For me, the real opportunity lies in getting much more specific about the human feelings we want our businesses to create. Because being human isn't a feeling. It's a condition. And being more human doesn't really tell me how you're going to make me feel.

Instead of simply asking how we can make our businesses more human, what if we started asking how we could make people feel more extraordinary? What if we stopped thinking about humanity as something our businesses needed to demonstrate and started thinking about the feelings they could inspire?

Take an accountancy firm. Of course I want to feel reassured that they're looking after my money. That's pretty much what I'd expect from any decent accountant. But imagine if they made me feel genuinely excited about what I could do with it. If every conversation left me feeling a little more ambitious, adventurous and full of possibility. Suddenly, they're not just looking after my finances. They're helping me dream a little bigger.

Or take a recruitment business. Feeling valued as a candidate is nice, but imagine one that made me feel ten feet tall. One that recognised potential I hadn't even seen in myself and made me feel capable of far more than I'd ever given myself credit for. Suddenly, they're not just helping me find another job, they're actually changing what I believe I'm capable of.

And what about an insurance company? We all want to feel protected, but imagine one that made us feel so wonderfully carefree that we could get on with living our lives without worrying about everything that might go wrong. One that gave us the confidence to get out there, take chances and enjoy everything that could go right. Suddenly, they're not just protecting us from life's uncertainties. They're giving us the freedom to embrace them.

That's three businesses in three pretty ordinary categories, each with an opportunity to create a very different human feeling. And more importantly, each with an opportunity to become known for something far more meaningful than simply being friendly, approachable or easy to deal with.

And that's what I mean by superhumanising.

Not making your business more human for the sake of it, but deliberately choosing the feelings you want people to associate with your brand and then building a business that delivers them. Not just through your branding or communications, but through the way you behave, the experiences you create and all those little moments that people remember long after they've stopped interacting with you.

Because you can't just tell people how you want them to feel. You have to make them feel it.

And when you do, you give them something far more powerful than a reason to buy from you. You give them a reason to remember you, trust you, talk about you and ultimately choose you over someone else.

That's where I think the real opportunity lies. Not in becoming another business that feels a bit more human, but in becoming a business that makes people feel something they can't get anywhere else. Something they actively look forward to experiencing. Something that makes the alternatives feel a little less appealing.

Want to be part of the conversation? Make your business more human. Want to stand out? Make people feel something. Want to stand alone? Make people feel something they can't get anywhere else.

At Wonderment, that's what superhumanising is all about. Helping businesses become more affective by deliberately creating feelings that people fall in love with, remember and want to experience again and again. Because I believe the greatest opportunity for businesses isn't simply to behave more like humans, but to make the humans they serve feel a little more extraordinary.

To be clear, your customers are not all sitting around wishing your business was more human. They're wondering what your business could do for them, how it could make their lives better and whether they realise it or not, how it could make them feel.

Give people a feeling they can get anywhere and you give them every reason to go anywhere else.

Make them feel a little more extraordinary and suddenly ordinary won't do.

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I’m Sean Cornell, Founder and Brand Enjoyneer™ at Wonderment, the seriously joyful branding agency. I make businesses more effective by making their branding more affective, transforming fundamental businesses into wondermental brands.

If you’re serious about starting the joyvolution in your sector, we should talk.

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