Fast Company recently featured a story about IDEO’s Elle Luna’s talk to the Design Fair at which she declared: “Today, brands are becoming more and more like humans. They’re taking on more and more human-like traits.”

Clearly, with our concept of emotive branding, we believe the same thing.

Emotions are human traits which brands, as abstract concepts, do not literally possess.

However, what a brand says and does can be designed to evoke specific human emotions.

And when a brand consistently evokes the same set of emotions, it goes a long way to elevating the brand’s position in the hearts and minds of people.

We believe today’s most powerful and admirable brands go beyond staging special promotions or doing ad campaigns to project their human side.

Rather, they look for ways to transform virtually every brand moment to be more personally relevant and emotionally important to people.

The relevance they seek is rooted in brand truths which resonate with the needs, beliefs, interests and aspirations of the humans with whom they seek to bond.

The emotional importance comes from generating positive feelings that are unique to how the brand is experienced and which make brand moments particularly memorable.

A humanized brand doesn’t need to “advertise” or “promote” its human nature – it simply does what Elle Luna says, “Brands gain traction by embracing qualities like honesty, kindness and simply having a sense of humor about themselves.”

A truly human brand, therefore, isn’t honest, kind and friendly on a part-time basis.

It is the way they always do business, inside and outside the brand.

Emotive Brand is a San Francisco branding agency.