Coca-Cola’s new Share the Happiness viral film, based on their Open Happiness global strategy made us very happy. It is brilliantly conceived and executed, managing to convey a perfect mix of anticipation, surprise, delight, joy – happiness indeed.

The economics of happiness is being debated today at the World Economic Forum in Davos today. Measuring happiness as a measure of a nation’s success (Gross National Happiness – GNH – as distinct from GDP) is cropping up more and more in political rhetoric, and this seems progressive to us.

But the big question we are asking ourselves when the happiness topic comes up is: “But is it Civil Branding?”.

Valuing happiness for the effect it has on people’s productivity  sounds like it might make for a better society. Then the question is: “But is it really happiness?”. How do we promote real happiness? What about people who want to keep their happiness all to themselves?

The answer to whether or not this Share the Happiness film is civil branding lies in the word ’share’. It gives us a taste (excuse the Coke pun) of how much fun shared experiences can be, as opposed to solo experiences; it reminds us to share. It also supercedes the image-conscious, cliquey behaviour of students, bringing them all together through their simple, child-like joyful reactions.

Happiness is an universally desired end-state. Promoting happiness narratives gives us the widest possible target audience (virtually everyone). However, when we are promoting wide or even ‘terminal’ values, we need to keep the following three guides in mind:

1. Don’t mix up the means and the ends. We need to enrich the meaning of brands with views on how we achieve values like happiness, but not get side-tracked into swapping out means (sharing) and the ends (happiness) altogether. Coke does this nicely by describing a path to happiness being about sharing and makes it all believable.
2. Make it accessible. Widely sought after values must be promoted in an accessible fashion. When we promote a value (e.g. achievement) but make it less accessible (e.g. unattainable) we alienate not only customers, but large groups in society. Brands like Coke, McDonald’s, IKEA and the like make it a mission to democratise their values and make being happy for the many.
3. Promote the people. Customers aspire to values and brands need to demonstrate that they appreciate this perspective. It’s the difference between a bank speaking about itself versus speaking about its customers. We all know which is the right mode by now.

Be honest and prosper: easier said than done. Companies that communicate notions of truth, set themselves up for attack by a world that has grown cynical about big business. While it is admirable that Innocent Drinks has set up an entire company based on the values of truth and purity of action, it is perhaps even more incredible that one of the largest companies in the world, IKEA, also adopts a narrative of truth when promoting its brand.

Unlike Innocent, IKEA is also mired in controversy, ranging from deforestation to child labour to Nazi sympathy. Throughout all these claims, IKEA has taken an open approach, admitted fault on all occasions and adopted an unapologetic stance in key aspects of their operations like difficult furniture assembly, long customer queues and urban eye sores for buildings.

Despite all the criticism, IKEAs steady market position has led to it being dubbed the Teflon brand. At least part of their charmed existence can be explained by their honest approach to the market. For example, when accused of child labour, IKEA worked to ensure its suppliers did not use children in their factories. Not content with righting wrongs, they then set up a special effort with UNICEF aimed at eliminating child labour. IKEA has also gone further with action on deforestation.

Their continued successes can be attributed also to a liberal use of humour and their ability to laugh at themselves (a lot). Like Innocent, it seems they have a hard time taking themselves seriously.

Spoof ad depicting true Swedish culture

Fab faux designer extraordinare, Mr. Van den Puup