I’ve been a brand strategist for 25 years. In that time I’ve developed an eclectic way of thinking that’s a blend of the many things I’ve read, learnt, experienced and observed along the way. For me, the last two of these – experience and observation – are the most important. They are also the least structured and, as much as others try to insist that brand strategy is a science, we all know that it isn’t. There is science in it, but that’s not the same thing.

Today I read an excellent article in JP Castlin’s Strategy in Praxis newsletter by Claire Strickett.  These two passages in particular struck a chord.:

1. “There are probably many occasions when you’ve found yourself presenting a recommendation you were convinced was strategically, rationally, completely sound, solid and utterly necessary, to a stakeholder or colleague who, despite your very best efforts, remained utterly unmoved by your argument. No matter how many pieces of evidence, charts and graphs, data points and learned sources you threw at them, something just didn’t land.”

2. “Alongside my day job, I’m currently undertaking an introductory course in counselling and psychotherapy.”

All of us have experienced the first scenario but too few think enough about the second, with which Claire is making an astute and important point.

Claire captures it in her conclusion:

“Businesses are, ultimately, just made up of people, and people are complex, layered and often vulnerable creatures, no matter how big their title. That goes for me and for you too, of course. No matter how acute our analytical approach, how learned or expert we are, or how solid our strategy, paying closer heed to the human undercurrents that shape decision-making can pay dividends, and smooth the path to influence.”

I have always been mildly suspicious of data and research, (see this old blog post for more), but am careful not to make sweeping statements because there’s always some over-analytical and over-educated data expert out there to tell me how wrong I am. But am I, really? If I look back over my 25 years in branding, almost all of the strategies that have worked best have two things in common: gut instinct on the course of action and empathy with both the client to get it signed off and the target audience that needs to be engaged by it. Data does not deliver instinct or empathy. Humans do.

This is not to say that data isn’t important. It clearly is but I subscribe to the John Hegarty school of thought, which is that brands have become risk-averse, that ads are often boring and that our industry needs to lose its obsession with data and get back to its roots. The older and more experienced I get, the more I look at data analysis and insights as barriers to good strategy rather than enablers of it. They feel like a safety catch and a crutch that client and agency can lean on, just in case it all goes wrong and they can say that they followed the science.

Our industry spends so much time digging for data driven insights because it needs the safety they provide as well as the revenue they generate from clients they’ve often bamboozled through deliberate over-complication. We talk about these people called consumers who act in accordance with a prescriptive model of behaviour. But ask yourself, seriously, have you ever met one of these consumers? They don’t really exist. They are just a crude approximation of human behaviour. I’m being harsh, of course, as the truth is a little more balanced than that, but I prefer to moderate brand strategies towards the instinctive and empathic rather than the safe and the dull.

I’ll add something I always say in my brand strategy workshops: I genuinely love what I do. It’s largely because brand strategists have the rare privilege in business of dealing with emotion and ‘feelings’ on a daily basis. It is our currency. It’s a wonderful thing that can influence, educate, entertain and inspire millions of people which comes with significant responsibility. Whilst others have to deal with numbers, logistics, operations and things that are defined by structure, process and, often, physical limits, we get to deal in something so wonderfully different, imaginative and impactful. And just because it isn’t data-driven does not make it less important. The majority of interactions in the world have nothing to do with data.

So, after all that, what’s my point? Well, I’d like brand strategists and creatives to stop over-thinking and obsessing with data. Instead observe, experience and absorb what’s going on around you. Watch how people react to events and circumstances and how they interact with each other. Apply it to your work and the relationships you have with your clients. Sure, check the data and use it to minimise mistakes, but have the courage to lead with the way you feel because that’s what your audiences will do when they meet your strategy out in the real world.

If you can’t feel it, then neither will they.