My This, My That

I've been pondering an article I read in the Sunday NY Times last week about the rise of "my" everything on the Web. MyCoke or MyAOL, and, of course, MySpace. It takes me back to a lot of meetings we had in the mid-to-late '90s where we tried to convince a host of clients that this was the way to go. Granted, technology was clunkier and consumers were wary back then. But times have changed.

Today consumers can't get enough of "my" from the brands they love. Writer David Browne talks about the rise of the My decade, similar to but more technology-inspired than the Me Decade of the '70s. Plus it's less about individuals being selfish (the reputation of the Me Decade or Generation) and more about individuals wanting connections--with friends, colleagues, and, of course, brands. Seems every brand is trying this out--creating a version of their experience expressly tailored to an individual. (This must make the founders of Peppers and Rogers smile..or maybe smirk). And clearly, lots of consumers actually want it.

So what does this pronoun trend mean? Today it's about how consumers get closer to brands and vice versa. And this closeness can't be underscored enough; "my" speaks to possession and even ownership -- of information, content, and the brand itself. Plus, what better place for thousands or millions of people to claim and hold a piece of a brand than the web; the web is the relationship hub.

Most brands are just starting to explore what the My Generation is and means, but aren't quite (yet!) delivering on it. "My (insert brand)" can be engaging, fun, inspiring, helpful. It can be the place where I not only track my purchases, view my rewards, get offers, save content, preferences or favorites, link to reviews and other personal contributions to the brand, keep a log of my customer service inquiries, see my transactions from other channels, change my communication preferences or IM a service rep. We're far, far away from most brands having a digital hub that goes beyond historical purchases.

"My" is definitely here to stay. The value proposition has room to grow immensely and consumers want increasingly personal experiences from the brands they choose to engage with. No more being treated like a stranger, or like everyone else for that matter--not if you're a "regular".

But, "my" or "me" is only one piece of this story. It's just one vertex of what we call the Love Triangle, the new relationship model for open brands. It is an inverted pyramid with "individual" in one top vertex and "community" (representing the "we" or "our" where consumers congregate around shared passions) in the other. The last vertex is the brand as bottom-up enabler, in lieu of top-down dictator.

For the brands that begin to understand their Love Triangle, the pronouns will no longer matter. Consumers will simply feel, "I am the brand. We are the brand."