Welcome to the Humans Era

Welcome
to the
Human Era
The new model for building trusted connections,
and what brands need to do about it

It is indeed a tough world for marketers.
The challenges go well beyond navigating consumers’ changing media habits, or competing
in a volatile economy. Today’s challenges run deeper.
We have now moved away from the time when leadership commanded respect,
stature mattered, and big businesses were always the economic leaders. Instead, trust
in institutions has plummeted. Company life cycles have been compressed. Connected
consumers quickly expose and accentuate corporations’ flaws. Social tools enable people
to truly “see” what an institution actually is. And consumers crave relationships where
businesses view them as individuals — and respond in a much more transparent, personal
way than ever before.
Welcome to the Human Era.
The hidden fee, the locked-in contract, and the perception of unfair executive
compensation are now made highly visible in consumer-controlled media, creating perhaps
irreparable fissures between people and institutions. Institutional Era companies, often
staying quiet or hiding behind policy, fine print, and a “Please hold, your call is important to
us” attitude, find themselves a growing target for a changing culture expecting better.
Being a Human Era brand goes beyond merely saying that one is more “human.” It requires
an authentic story delivered consistently through an inspiring experience. It requires hard
work — establishing organizational values and commitments that are customer driven,
while also driving them toward daily leadership decision-making and employee behaviors.
In the following pages, our goal is to define what being a Human Era company means, and
who is doing it well. Building from a large data set of over 800 companies, we examine the
leaders and define the behaviors of companies — both big and small — that are able to
break through in this new environment and build trusted, authentic connections.
We believe that being a Human Era company is more than a strategic option; it is
increasingly recognized as a new and essential way of approaching business in our
connected age. Our hope with this report is to stimulate discussion and debate, and provide
a framework that enables companies to embark on this transition.
We look forward to the conversation.
John F. Marshall
Sr. Partner and Global Director of Strategy
Lippincott
Graham Ritchie
EVP and Chief Strategy Officer
Hill Holliday
W E L C O M E T O T H E H U M A N E R A 3

The end of the Institutional Era

Europe in the 1500s was a world
of change and turmoil.
The dominant institution of power, the Roman Catholic
Church, was seen by many to be suffering from systemic
corruption driven by a complex, hierarchical approach to
management, giving rise to a powerful, new movement —
the Reformation.
At the heart of the Reformation was a belief that God
and mankind could sit together eye to eye, and that this
“connection”— and indeed eternal salvation — could be a
direct experience, rather than one mediated and controlled
by the Church. There was a desire, we might say, for the
Church become more human and less institutional.
The headlines of the day spoke of ‘indulgences,’ ‘doctrine,’
‘regulation,’ ‘ownership,’ ‘power,’ ‘authority,’ and ‘corrupt
leadership’ — all themes that are eerily familiar when we
think about the discussion that surrounds many of today’s
dominant institutions.
In our view, the changes facing businesses today are no less
significant than the analogy above. While religion may not
be at the core of today’s societal tensions, we believe that
the world today is at a critical inflection point not unlike
the one Europe experienced in the 1500’s — that we are
amidst what we might call a ‘human reformation.’
Powered by technology, the democratizing of information,
and the ascendant power of the individual, the way
institutions connect with individuals is changing irrevocably.
We believe that a universal and fundamental search for
trust requires modern businesses to shift away from
previously accepted common practice and become more
human; those that don’t risk a steady decline in relevance
and value.
Less than four decades ago, our society understood that
the world was centered on the power and efficacy of
institutions. We understood and valued the various roles
they played in our lives, and by and large we trusted
those institutions to fulfill their obligations without question.
Schools and colleges provided valuable and necessary
education. Our medical system stood by to help us in
times of physical discomfort. Large businesses produced
the goods and services that made our lives comfortable,
the media conveyed the news that we needed to stay
informed and up-to-date, and religion gave us a place
to find moral and spiritual fulfillment. These pervasive
attitudes of reliance and trust were the hallmarks of
the Institutional Era.
Since the 1970s, however, trust in traditional institutions
has been precipitously eroding. We now find ourselves
members of a vastly different society — one marked by
innovation, rapid change, and individual empowerment.
The validity of higher education is being questioned as
college graduates struggle to find jobs. We balance our
enthusiasm for new medical technology with rising
healthcare costs and an explosion in prescription-drug
abuse. A widespread financial crisis has cast doubt
on the practices of our biggest institutions of business,
a more sensational media establishment demands
heightened scrutiny, and scandals and politicization have
forced us to question the motivations of religious institutions.
The life expectancy of an
S&P 500 company has
dropped from 75 years
in 1937 to 15 years today.

A significant decline in institutional trust Source: Gallup
“Confidence in Institutions
Study”, Top 2 box results.
80%
75% – The Military
44% – Organized religion
41% – Medical system
29% – Public schools
25% – Newspapers
21% – Big business
13% – Congress
65%
58%
51%
42%
34%
1970s 2012
The End of the Institutional Era
Derived in some part by the dominant military-industrial
complex of the day, command and control hierarchies were
the hallmark of the Industrial Era companies. Complex
and rigid institutions, they were designed to function with
machine-like efficiency.
Over time, they became so densely layered and complex as
to be impenetrable to outside opinion or influence, creating
a rift between their actions and consumers’ expectations.
The end result was a loss of trust that had a significantly
impacted the long-term sustainable growth of many
previously successful companies.
Increasingly, success comes from the use of distributed
rather than concentrated power structures, dictated by
the rise of what some have called ‘Evolutionary Economics.’
In contrast to the old precepts of vertical bureaucracy,
growth in the new model comes horizontally.
Reflecting this shift, successful companies have begun to
resemble organic systems or networks more closely than
machines. The most admired brands and organizations have
become flatter and less centralized. They listen to the world
around them and are open to social influence. They use data
to organize their capabilities around an individual’s needs,
rather than the other way around.
In short, the most successful companies have recognized
that “fortress” behavior is no longer an effective approach
to interacting with customers or communities. Why?
Searching for Trust
As human beings, we have a fundamental need for
connection with others. The need to connect is so deeply
within us that simply seeing connections makes us feel
connected.

1 Do you send emails that have
‘do not reply’ addresses?
2 Do you make it difficult
for your customers to reach
a real person?
3 Do you make money in ways
that your customers don’t
know about?
4 Do you have policies that make
it hard for front line employees
to “make it right?”
5 Do you measure your call
center on how fast they get
off the phone?
6 Do you send out communications
with a paragraph in 6-point
type at the bottom?
7 Do you prevent unedited
ratings and comments from
customers on your website?
Take the test… Are you a Human Era
or an Institutional Era company?
8 Do you resist letting your leaders
speak unscripted and show their
true personality?
9 Do you proactively steer
customers away from the product
best for them, and toward the one
more profitable for you?
10 Are you uncomfortable
saying sorry?
11 Do you follow your process to
the letter, or will you allow
an exception to create a happy
customer and advocate?
12 Is your customer research done
“behind closed doors,” or do you
ask questions and get feedback
in open forums?
If you answered yes to most of these
questions, you have a ways to go
to enter the Human Era. But moving
the needle on just a few can make
a big difference.

Make/Sell/Broadcast Model Create/Participate Model
[Network TV]
Meaningful human connections can’t be formed in one
direction — they require the other party to reciprocate, to
level with us. When they do, the connections become a
foundation for something we intuitively understand and
value highly: trust.
In all aspects of our lives, we strive to create more of
these connections — to gain more friends and business
partners, to gain knowledge and comfort. Technology has
exponentially expanded our ability to make connections
on a vast scale. The result is that individuals can, and expect
to, have powerful networks of connections that are
direct and dynamic.
At the core of the Human Era is the realization that the
expectation of meaningful connection — the search for
trust — extends to organizations and brands as well as
people. And as we’ll see, those who hope to be successful
must be willing to hold up their side of the bargain.
The Human Era
The rise of the Human Era has precipitated a fundamental
shift in the value equation, which has profound implications
for brands and organizations. Value creation has become
not only more intimate and personalized, but more
cooperative and inclusive.
Consider the brands in the chart below and the different
business models. Brands that have succeeded in the
Human Era seek to build trust collaboratively, forging more
authentic and valuable connections with consumers. They
don’t rely on controlling scarce assets or natural monopolies
to generate returns. Rather, customer insight yields more
intimate relationships, which in turn accelerates additional
insight. Across industries, we see this leading to higher
proﬁtability, deeper share-of-wallet relationships, and
stronger market value.

Citizens
Live in meaning
Users
Live in value
Emotion
Mutuality
Harmony
Empathy
Integrity
Purpose
Stability
Trust
Responsibility
Governance
Control
Access
Utility
Expertise
We make decisions as both citizens
and users
The brands mentioned on the previous page recognize that
a User mindset, based on personal, functional experience
with a brand or company, may not be enough. They also
pursue a Citizen mindset, shaped by reputation and external
perception above and beyond any direct interaction. They
combine User functional value with the personal, human
values that appeal to the powerful Citizen. Emphasizing
values of mutuality, harmony, empathy, integrity, and
purpose, they realize that the relationship itself can be a
source of value, in addition to the product or service.
It is such intimate connections that form the basis for
trust — the single most important factor in creating
brand favorability.
Both Story and Experience
Building a brand in the Human Era is much harder, as
both story and experience need to work together. Gone are
the days where repositioning can be led by messaging
and advertising. Lippincott research from its BrandView
database has shown that experience leaders outgrow their
counterparts by 4% in total shareholder value. Today,
the experience is the message.
Consumers are seeking not just to buy something, but to buy into something.
Brands now must think about how best to create valuable connections with
consumers. We ﬁnd it helpful to introduce the concept of Citizen-User as a way
to characterize how consumers understand brands.

What makes up a
Human Era story?

Institutions have always used
communications to declare.
To preach. To sell.
Yet humans communicate to connect with one another.
To learn and to teach. To ask a question. To apologize.
To share joy.
They communicate by writing. By talking. By exchanging
a grin or a furtive glance. With a gesture or a sound.
In the Human Era, brands must communicate in the same
way. They must invite people to connect with them.
Institutions have historically kept iron-fisted control over
what they communicate, and it shows. They communicate
to further their agenda, on their timeline in ways that are
often glossy, airbrushed, and convenient.
Human communications aren’t as tidy. They involve a
willingness to talk about the hard stuff, the ugly stuff.
Acknowledge a mistake you made and what you’re doing
to make it better. They imply being available to talk — at 2
a.m., if someone desperately needs you right then.
People demand the same from how brands tell their stories
today — transparency, a willingness to engage on their
terms and timeline, acknowledging flaws, and putting forth
a plan to improve.
These new demands may appear at first as just another
burden to be borne by already stretched marketing
professionals and budgets. In fact, there is great value
to be unlocked by identifying and activating valuable
connections, inside and outside the company. Done right,
Human Era communications can result in mutual benefit
for the individual, the community, and the brand.
Individual consumers find value through loyalty from their
connection to brands they believe in. The community derives
value through diverse people sharing mutual knowledge,
and the power of connection to amplify accomplishments
and achieve large-scale goals. Brands generate value where
decisions need to happen — at the point of direct contact
with their customers — even when that interaction includes
no products or services at all.

A strong recent example is Bank of America’s repositioning effort. In a stark
departure from the norms of the industry, this $2-trillion-asset institution took
the bold move to anchor its story on the idea of human connections. Featuring
the tagline “Life’s Better When We’re Connected,” the story is about the bank’s
role supporting the lives of its customers — and about knowing its own place
in the world. “We know we’re not the center of your life,” the messaging
emphasizes, “but we’ll do our best to help connect you to what is.” By placing
human needs and experiences at the center of its message — above the bank’s
products and features, Bank of America delivered a clear message that placed
customer relationships at the top of its value hierarchy.
Successful Human Era stories are built to thrive in this communication ecosystem,
where value is created and exchanged in a reciprocal, cooperative, inclusive
manner. The best Human Era stories embrace conversation, collaboration,
and simplicity. They are deﬁned by listening as much as speaking, in eye-level
conversations with customers. Perhaps most importantly, they are best expressed
through authentic demonstrations alongside traditional communications — in
acts as much as ads.

Human Era Stories…
> Demonstrate Listening
> Convey a Sense of Always Helping
> Focus on Collaboration
> Are Localized and Personal
> Appeal to Citizen as well as User
> Simplify to Convey Transparency
> Are Expressed in Acts, not Ads

What makes a Human
Era experience?

They have a deep cultural trait of customer empathy
They talk and act like people
They are open, real, and even flawed
They aren’t boring
They care intensely about the little things
They empower individuals to be the brand
Breaking through and making an authentic connection is a tall order, and few
brands actually get beyond the messaging. Why? Because real connection needs
to be ﬁrmly anchored in the culture of the business. Pivoting a big institution to
create more open and trusted connections in the daily customer experience
requires hard work — establishing organizational values and commitments
that are truly customer driven, but also driving them toward-daily leadership
decision-making and employee behaviors.
Examining our data, several traits appear among the leaders (see page 24
for the list of leaders across industries). Not every company exhibits every
characteristic equally, but taken together, a picture of a truly Human Era
company emerges:

Amazon aspires to be “Earth’s most customer-centric
company” in its mission, and CEO Jeff Bezos speaks
passionately not about customer-driven, but customer
obsession. An empty chair is often kept in meetings, where
the customer is symbolically seated. USAA shows similar
immersion, asking employees to don ﬂak jackets and eat
army meals to get in the mindset of what their customers
in the service go through. British retailer Tesco makes each
leader work in the stores — stacking shelves and checking
out shoppers — for several days per year. For these
companies, customer understanding goes beyond learning
based on sample sizes and crosstabs; it is true immersion
in the lives of real people and how they think and feel.
The consequence of this culture is a greatly heightened
awareness of how to serve in unexpected ways. Disney,
for example, bends over backward in advance of your
visit if you have dietary need, to make sure that the park-
dining experience works for you. Ally posts call center
numbers and wait times visibly on its home page and
makes it easy to reach a person. And Umpqua Bank,
as another example, uses concierge desks and not teller
windows to interact with customers, which makes opening
an account feel like a friendly conversation in the comfort
of someone’s living room.
An empty chair is often kept in meetings,
where the customer is symbolically seated.
ATTRIBUTES OF SUCCESSFUL HUMAN ERA BRANDS
They have a deep cultural trait of customer empathy
From management to the front line,
each of these companies goes beyond
paying lip service to being “customer-
driven.” They have cultures in which
employees deeply immerse themselves
in customers’ lives.

Connecting with a Human Era
company should feel more like an
eye-to-eye conversation than a
one-way corporate communication.
Human Era companies shed the jargon, lose the corporate
pronouncement, and have a dialogue like real people do.
If you follow the Starbucks Twitter feed, you’ll see an
authentic and interactive style that feels very personal.
When Katy Perry tweeted “Today I quit my beloved
coffee & make the switch to vitamin B complex :( Don’t
worry @starbucks it’s not forever,” Starbucks playfully hit
right back with “It’s ok. Today I made the switch from
California Gurls to Hold It Against Me. Don’t worry, it’s
isn’t forever. ;-)” When you log onto the company’s
in-store WiFi page, it doesn’t say “you are now logged on”
but rather “welcome, friends.” And with MyStarbucksIdea,
the company’s open web suggestion site, there is truly a
two-way conversation, where as much energy is devoted to
encouraging thousands of customers to make suggestions
publicly as is spent on planned messaging.
Somehow in most institutions, the shorthand jargon that
employees adopt to get work done efﬁciently has leaked
out to customers. Most airlines still talk about “equipment”
change (it’s a plane, right?), “EFC time” (expect further
clearance), “all-call,” and “cross-check.” Banks lose their
customers in talk of effective APR, APY, and DDAs, and
cell carriers speak of 4G and LTE. No industry is worse
than the PPO and FSA of the health care business. It’s no
wonder these institutions are untrusted.
The opportunity to talk like a person holds as much
internally as externally. Target, for example, calls its
customers “guests” and employees “team members,”
choosing the simple, direct terms over HR jargon.
One of the easiest ways to show you care about people and
to engender their trust is to talk with them, on their terms,
asking and listening. Real dialogue, with real words and
real listening, is how humans communicate, and it is how
the true human era brands do so as well.
They talk and act like people
Today I quit my beloved coffee
& make the switch
to vitamin B complex :(
Don’t worry @starbucks
it’s not forever
– Katy Perry, via Twitter
@katyperry It’s ok.
Today I made the switch
from California Gurls to
Hold it Against Me. Don’t
worry, it isn’t forever. ;-)
– Starbucks, via Twitter
“
“
”
”W E L C O M E T O T H E H U M A N E R A 17

Gone are the days when you had
to be perfect. Human Era companies
admit error, show customers where
they truly stand, and let you see
behind the curtain. They are taking
transparency to a new level.
For example, USAA displays customer ratings and
comments about real estate and mortgage products on
its website, whether they are a 2 or a 5 out of 5. And
the comments section on their website shows everything
customers have to say, raw and unvarnished. Apple also
does the same, publishing customer ratings on its products.
There isn’t a company at the top of the list that makes
money from hidden fees or locked-in contracts. Not
surprisingly, prepaid leader Metro PCS is perceived as the
most human company in the cell carrier business, almost
certainly because nothing says “untrustworthy institution”
like a 20-page, small-print-packed, two-year contract.
On a bigger scale, Netflix openly admitted the error of
its ways in rebranding its mailer DVD service to Qwikster
with a very public apology, and has seen its brand
reputation recover with surprising speed just a year later.
After Southwest’s accident in 2011 when a fuselage
broke open in the air, the company grounded a large portion
of its fleet for inspections before being required to do so
and offered regular public updates. Human Era companies
are willing to be honest about where they stand and
about their mistakes
Any human relationship is anchored in candor and honesty,
and relationships with companies should be no different.
They are open, real, and even flawed
I messed up. I owe everyone an explanation.
– Reed Hastings, Cofounder and CEO, Netflix,
on his lack of communication about Qwikster.
Qwikster would be shelved soon after its
launch in response to customer backlash.
“
”

There is no doubt that connecting on
a more human level is about showing
a real personality and creating your
unique character in special ways.
Virgin America’s in-flight experience — with its purple
and pink, ambient mood lighting — is like none other.
And the carrier shows its unique character by helping
passengers use social media to connect on board to meet
other passengers, occasionally adding special touches
such as an in-flight art gallery. Target paints bulls eyes
on its store roofs near airports in a unique gesture.
In-N-Out Burger’s “secret menu” creates a cult-like ritual
of the fast-food-ordering process — you’re “in the club”
when you know what getting an “animal style” burger
means. Zipcar doesn’t call its customers renters; they are
“Zipsters.” While admittedly more difficult to execute,
big brands can have real personality, too. IBM’s Smarter
Planet carries a refreshingly unique voice and design,
and the company used interactive, smarter billboards
in airports that change color to match the attire of the
person walking by. Companies can, and should, have a
dynamic personality just as people do.
They aren’t boring
In-N-Out Burger has finally published six of its most
popular “secret” menu items, but true loyalists know
that there are actually dozens of cult-favorite meal
stylings available — if you know how to ask for them.

It is tempting to ascribe leadership
solely to “the big innovation”
or “the structural competitive
advantage.” But the leaders
on our list show that little things
can matter a great deal as well.
Amazon occasionally allows you to keep low-priced
products that you want to return. Disney’s magic in the
park is not just from the most exciting ride, but that
it pays just as much attention to understanding that
garbage cans should be not farther than 25 paces apart.
And Disney park gates open ﬁve minutes earlier than
expected, each morning, to create a little added delight
for waiting customers. Southwest adds a smile and
friendly welcome to its low-cost model. Target doesn’t
just win with its breadth of low-priced designer items,
but it also places a simple label on private-label brand Up
and Up’s packaging, helping you to easily identify the
competitor product to which it compares.
Many of these things are extra, surprising, and
unanticipated. Many don’t have immediate returns other
than helping, but they also don’t cost much. Some are
innovations, some are the courage to do what matters,
and some are just good, plain human thoughtfulness
(for example, Umpqua branches have dog bowls in them
to make pet owners welcome). These efforts and gestures
don’t just come out of a research project or focus group,
but an ingrained daily habit of listening and responding.
There is also a virtuous, cyclical aspect to these little
gestures. They form daily reminders that what matters is
serving people well, and they deﬁne a standard of care
in actions and not just words. Employees notice them and
learn from them, and they serve as inspiration to spawn
more of such behaviors.
They care intensely about the little things
Big things
Strategy
& Investment
Ability to
personalize
Deep insight
Design leadership
Employee training
Demystifying
the web
Innovation
breakthroughs
Little things
Culture
& Mindset
Forgiving a
return charge
Polite manners
Short & simple
instruction manual
Customer’s name
on the cup
Logo
changing daily
Probing questions
for customers
How Human Era Brand leaders “think little”
W E L C O M E T O T H E H U M A N E R A 2 0

The final key characteristic of human
brands is their willingness to truly trust,
empower, and celebrate their people.
They throw out the script and entrust
employees to deliver.
No Southwest flight attendant’s announcement feels like
any of his or her colleagues — be it a song, a comedy
show, or a personal story. Each member of the floor staff
or genius bar at Apple is uniquely themselves. Trader
Joe’s employees make each store their own by making
their own signs. And when you call USAA, you really feel
you’re talking to a polite neighbor – plain talk, real-time
problem solving. IBM has shown how important every
individual’s views and contributions are to its brand – even
if they are not 100% in lockstep — as the firm links to and
promotes the individual blogs of thousands of employees.
Standardization is giving way to freedom and trust.
To enable this, many of these companies are also investing
more in training and often benefits. Many of our leaders
— Starbucks, In-N-Out Burger, Disney, and Umpqua Bank,
to name a few — boast unique employee-training facilities.
And many of the companies on the leader list also actually
give the frontline better rewards. For example, Wegmans’
compensation cost of 15–17% of revenues is significantly
higher than the supermarket average, an expense more
than made up for in the customer loyalty and basket size
these employees can deliver. The same holds true for
In-N-Out and Starbucks.
Being people-centric versus policy-centric pays off. A
Southwest pilot made an individual choice to wait 12
minutes for a man trying to visit a dying family member;
whereas most competitive employees at major carriers
would follow the “on-time departure” policy to avoid
retribution. The result of this people-first culture however
is that Southwest has a tiny fraction of the complaints of
the majors (.25 per 100,000 complaints, versus an industry
average which is almost 10 times higher). And they have
almost three times the preference when asked which
“airline I would first choose to fly.”
They empower individuals to be the brand
Part of Southwest’s charm comes
from its flight attendants’ unique in-flight
announcement styles, be it a poem,
comedy sketch, or even a song.

The Human Era Index:
Which brands stand out?

Beyond the rise of the
“human brand campaign,”
the real question is which company truly delivers a more
human experience – one that is honest, caring, and real,
and one where customers are more likely to trust the brand,
forgive it when something goes wrong, and create real
relationships?
To learn more about which companies really stand out as
Human Era leaders, we analyzed the Lippincott BrandView
database across multiple industries. Exhibit 1 shows us
the leaders in a new metric we created — the Human Era
Index — an assessment of the extent to which brands
exhibit three human characteristics: authenticity, empathy,
and vitality.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the highest-scoring companies do
indeed outperform ﬁnancially. The public companies on the
leadership list outdistanced the Dow by an average of 11%
per year over the last 4 years, implying 50% more value
creation over that period.
Lippincott’s BrandView Study
Comprising 30,000 customers across four continents and over 1,000 brands,
BrandView quantifies customers’ experiences and the general market’s
perceptions of brands.
We determined the Human Era Index from an equal weighting of three
character traits that indicate whether a brand connects on a more human level
than its counterparts. Each brand is rated by its customers on three dimensions:
1 Do you truly care for and about your customers?
2 Are you trustworthy, real, and authentic?
3 Do you have a personality that is vital and unique?
The composite score is calculated on a range of 1–10, with a high of 9.4 and a
low of 1.0. The average brand in the U.S. has a score of 6.

6.9
Airlines
Industry
Leaders (tie): Score:
In an industry with the lowest average scores, Virgin and
Southwest show it is indeed possible to be human
in the world of flight delays, security headaches, and
crowded airports.
Virgin America gets the top airline human score, focusing
on a differentiated customer experience that is infused
with personality. With onboard features including mood
lighting, on-demand movies, an in-flight art gallery for
business class, and their new “get lucky” seat-to-seat
ordering service where you can send fellow passengers a
drink. Virgin’s service principle seems to be to help “make
you smile.” They publish their guest services commitment
and pledge to do everything in their power to remedy any
un-Virgin-America-like experiences. Now expanded to 19
domestic markets, Richard Branson’s brand proves that you
can create real personality in tough and regulated, low-
margin industries.
“A motivated employee treats the customer well...It’s not one of the enduring
mysteries of all time, it’s just the way it works.” – Herb Kelleher
Southwest makes it fun without the trappings. They have
stayed true to their “bags fly free” approach, strongly
believing that the value of the customer connection and
trust outweighs the extra revenue potential. CEO Gary
Kelly articulates their human philosophy: “Customers hate
these fees. Analysts assume you charge the fee and it drops
straight to the bottom line. But it’s not clear that we’ll make
more money if we charge than if we don’t.”
This last year, the company has managed to perpetuate
its leadership role despite beginning to assimilate AirTran.
True to its “Warrior Spirit,” the company has focused
significantly in imparting its Human Era values to its new
teammates, welcoming them with a One LUV tour and
pairing them with Southwest employees through its
Wingmate program. Now at $17B in revenue and the
third-largest domestic carrier, Southwest shows human
experiences can be delivered by even the biggest airlines.
The Human Era leaders across industries
We analyzed the Lippincott BrandView database to see
who truly stands out in the eyes of their customers. The
leaders are…

7.0
Grocery
Industry
Leader:
Score:
Score:
The $6B family-run grocery scores only behind Nordstrom
among brick-and-mortar companies and is known for its
extraordinary assortment and knowledgeable, friendly
employees. Family is business, and 20% of its 40,000
employees are related. Wegmans commits to its customers
through its employees. It has a higher staffing level, and
applies serious consideration to the people it hires, trains,
retains, and rewards. Values are core and are emphasized in
their onboarding programs, including take-home DVDs for
family members.
“You cannot separate their strategy as an employer from their strategy
as a retailer” – Darrell Rigby, Bain
Their leaders live their values, encouraging employees
to innovate, make changes, and stay connected to the
customer experience. Danny Wegman, CEO, visits newly
opened stores weekly and poses with adoring customers
like family. In a business known for razor-thin margins,
Wegmans has withstood growing competition from
Walmart by investing in the human connection made by its
employees and boasting half the employee turnover, twice
the customer satisfaction, and twice the operating margins
of its peers.
7.5
Retail
Industry
Leader:
Proving the you don’t need to have face-to-face
interactions to deliver a human experience, Amazon has
set a new standard for understanding how shoppers really
want to be treated. Amazon is starting to live its mission
of “Earth’s most customer-centric company,” and scored
highest in service among all retailers according to the NRF.
Amazon’s commitment to its customers and excellent
performance is heavily instilled in the company’s culture
“We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts.” – Jeff Bezos
and its talent selection. From day one, CEO Jeff Bezos has
said that he’d “rather interview fifty people and not hire
anyone than hire the wrong person.” Fast-growing Zappos,
a recent Amazon acquisition, espouses a similar philosophy,
offering new hires $2,000 to take the money and leave if
they don’t feel they’re a good fit.

Score:
“Your customers dream of a happier and better life.
Don’t move products. Enrich lives.” – Steve Jobs
7.8
Consumer electronics
Industry
Leader:
Not surprisingly, Apple continues to lead the electronics
pack. But a decade ago, as the PC business rapidly
commoditized and margins plummeted, we never would
have imagined that a computer company would be
perceived as more human than a high-touch brand like
Ritz-Carlton. But the Apple brand has shown its uncanny
ability to understand our unspoken needs and connect in
simple and meaningful ways to make life enjoyable. An
army of 30,000 enthusiastic retail employees truly embody
that brand’s human personality and provide individual,
customized service and education to customers.
Learnings from
other leaders
With the second-highest score among ﬁfty retailers,
Nordstrom remains strong as it continues to deliver
its exceptional customer service. While Nordstrom’s
famous return policy can be imitated by online retailers,
re-creating its level of outstanding customer service is
more challenging. Nordstrom hires employees to be
nice to customers, and then gives them the training,
tools, resources, and support to help them achieve this
for customers. Importantly, it empowers them to act to
best help the customer, starting with their now-famous
Employee Handbook: “Rule #1: Use best judgment in all
situations. There will be no additional rules.”
Retail
Rule #1: Use best
judgment in all
situations. There will be
no additional rules.
– Nordstrom
Employee Handbook
“
”

7.9
Media and entertainment
Score:
Disney leads as the most human brand in media and
entertainment with an unbeatable combination of emotive
stories and characters, and attention to detail that creates
magical experiences at the parks. Disney keeps obsessing
about how to make customers’ lives easier. For example,
their new MyMagic+ wristbands — personalized RFID
bracelets linked to a guest’s credit card — are aimed at
further reducing the hassles of crowds, waiting, or paying
in the theme parks. Soon, animated creatures may be able
to address customers directly by name, in Disney’s ongoing
quest to improve the guest experience and deliver magic.
For brands looking to offer more of that human touch,
Disney offers their Disney Institution management and
customer-service training programs.
“You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world.
But it takes people to make the dream a reality.” – Walt Disney
Perhaps surprisingly, Netflix was near the top of the media
list. The company shows us that being a more human
brand can be about changing course and making and
admitting mistakes. Netflix now has more subscribers than
HBO, an amazing comeback after the Qwikster launch and
pricing misstep of 2011 where the company lost 800,000
subscribers. Netflix has always been very real, never
lacking the courage to invent a new way, humbly admit
mistakes, or pioneer what people really need. They remain
committed to breaking the rules to build a better approach.
Perhaps most important is its legendary internal culture,
including nine shared values that empower employees and
guide behaviors — including honesty in being quick to
admit mistakes. Its user-generated, quirky movie tags (e.g.,
“Sentimental dysfunctional-family dramas”) also infuse a
personality that members appreciate. Netflix shows that
being human is indeed not about
being perfect.
Sentimental
dysfunctional-family
dramas.
– Netflix user-generated
movie tag
“
”
Learnings from
other leaders
Industry
Leader:

8.3
Restaurants
Industry
Leader:
Score:
Founded the same year as McDonald’s (1949), In-N-Out
Burger scores almost twice as high as McDonald’s or Burger
King on the Human Index, and is two standard deviations
above the norm. The company has defied fast-food
conventions to continue to provide customers the same
trusted quality. They have never franchised, never use
pre frozen ingredients, and never use promotional items.
While they have only four menu items, they have a “not-
so-secret” menu listed online (including the quirkily named
“animal style”) that originated from popular custom orders.
Employees are not treated as disposable, with pay rates well
above minimum wage for new part-time cooks, and store
managers can earn six figures plus bonuses.
Starbucks does extremely well, third out of more than
50, showing that scale does not necessarily prevent you
from making a human connection. Starbucks is a standard
deviation above other restaurants on the human index,
staying connected in a personal way while serving over a
billion cups of coffee a year.
Chick-Fil-A ranked second in the restaurant category. A
family-run business that still remains closed on Sundays,
it scores the highest on our “caring” dimension among
restaurants. Like In-N-Out, Chick-Fil-A puts an emphasis on
quality and integrity, from hand-battered chicken to fresh-
squeezed lemonade. While customers crave the taste, and
likely find personality in its advertising of cows proclaiming
“Eat Mor Chikin,” they are also delighted by the friendliness
and service they encounter. Customers submit their stories
on the company website, mentioning kindnesses like
employees providing table service, giving them their meals
“on the house” when a customer is having a bad day, and
generally treating customers with respect and good cheer.
Learnings from
other leaders
Learnings from
other leaders

9.4
Financial Services
USAA is the most “human” brand rated across all
industries. Customer understanding and empathy runs
deep in USAA’s core, with its founding over 90 years ago
on the concept of “military brothers looking out for one
another.” With a mission of “the world’s best employees
serving the world’s most honorable customers,” one
member says “they look to us as people and walk in our
shoes.” Their culture reflects an internal respect toward
their employees, with a shared sense of purpose and
values. Not surprisingly, USAA is consistently rated as one
of the top places to work by Fortune. USAA is continually
pushing to meet customer needs, investing millions in IT
and employee training to better understand and efficiently
serve up the most relevant expertise and solutions—leaving
more time for relationship-building during member
interactions.
The impact shows up in the business, as USAA boasts an
unparalleled 98% customer-retention rate.
“There is nobody on this earth who understands their customers better
than USAA.” – K Pauli, TowerGroup
Score:
Portland-based Umpqua Bank is rated the top commercial
bank, with a score of 7.4. The company has surely parted
with expectations as to how a bank connects with its
customers. Umpqua designs itself as a retailer rather
than a financial services company, with store-like branch
design and “training missions” for its employees to
other retail and hospitality leaders like Ritz-Carlton. Like
many other “human” brands, Umpqua creates a culture
that encourages its employees to take charge of their
actions, but also admit mistakes and learn from them.
In its customer experience, it always strives to feel like a
community bank by making sure its customers never feel
like a number, and also to create interest in a “boring”
category. Their “stores” are beautifully designed to
reflect the local environment, and create a welcoming,
no-pressure setting. Umpqua is not old fashioned though;
it pushes ahead with integrating technology and even
has special Innovation Lab branches. Each store also has
a direct telephone to the CEO, keeping management
connected and accountable.
Learnings from
other leaders
Industry
Leader:

So where to next?
Like any reformation, we are at a moment of great change.
And accordingly, the key ingredient for success is resilience.
For people and communities, turbulence is the new norm.
The ability to recover quickly becomes essential, and
ﬂexible rules will become more important. Cooperation
between customers and companies will be key to future
sustainable growth.
> Profit models shift. Businesses that derive their returns from the
locked-in customer or the extra fee will either need to define new models
or risk obsolescence.
> Balanced measurement approaches arise. The immediate, direct response,
offer-driven decision-making of many industries, will be tempered with
longer-term metrics. Brand metrics – capturing the long-term assets of trust
and relevance — will find a greater role in daily decision-making.
> New roles emerge. The importance of cultural insight will grow dramatically.
Roles such as the “Chief Connections Officer” will arise, focusing on how to
connect brands to the cultural side of citizen users.
> Marketing is everyone’s job. Functional divides and different measurement
approaches across divisions will begin to give way to the whole organization
pivoting around customer goals. CEOs of Human Era companies will be
the owners and champions of the connections with customers. And the
brand purpose lived by employees inside the company will be the same as
the one experienced by customers.
When this happens, companies will truly thrive in the Human Era.
To be human in deeds as well as words, a different
mindset prevails – that the role of the ﬁrm is no longer
just to make and sell products, but also to engage
deeply and openly with customers as collaborators in
creating value together.
This mindset can lead to a very different world, a world in
which traditional precepts and paradigms are turned on
their head. In the future, we see the advent of the Human
Era changing marketers’ roles and impact in many ways.
Some predictions…

© 2013
Authors
Lippincott Contributors
Liz Greene
Daniel Johnston
Matt Miksa
Amit Sabharwal
Nicole Slavin
Dave Stein
Heather Stern
Hill Holliday Contributors
Ross Cidlowski
Austin Gardner-Smith
Leslee Kiley
Linda Lewi
Mollie Partesotti
Catherine Sheehan
John F. Marshall
Senior Partner, Global Director of Strategy,
Lippincott
Graham Ritchie
EVP, Chief Strategy Officer,
Hill Holliday
About Hill Holliday
Hill Holliday is a full-service advertising and marketing
agency. The 14th-largest agency in the United States, it’s
home to more than 900 employees in Boston, New York,
South Carolina, and Miami. Founded in 1968 by four
self-described “ad guys” with a commitment to grow their
business by first growing their clients’ business, Hill Holliday
is a creatively driven, modern agency that works on some
of the nation’s largest, most complicated pieces of business.
The agency’s current client list includes Bank of America,
Dunkin’ Donuts, Major League Baseball, and Cadillac, to
name a few.
www.hillholliday.com
About Lippincott
Lippincott is a leading brand strategy and design firm. We
uniquely combine business-based strategic thinking and
creative excellence to solve the most complex challenges
facing corporations today. As pioneers of corporate identity
70 years ago, we have been behind some of the world’s
most iconic brands and partner with today’s leaders as they
shape their brands for the future.
www.lippincott.com

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