Reviews & Profile for Philosophy Communication

To S or not to S

If you’ve noticed, we’re Philosophy Communication, no s. This is not a minor detail, it hints at our purpose and forms the foundation of our work for all our clients.

• Communications: a technical term for all means of distributing messages; e.g. a telephone call or a television ad.
• Communication: the living act, in which an idea is shared, received, interpreted, then responded and reacted to.

In the realm of marketing and public relations, the former amounts to the purely tactical. The latter though taps into a fundamental aspect of life to strategically facilitate the interactions between businesses and their stakeholders. We are in the business of the latter: shaping thought to inspire behavior, changing the perception of your organization and how it intersects with people’s lives. It’s a vision of marketing communication we’ve coined Brand Sociality.

Conversations and Communities

Briefly: sociality has two definitions—one informal, one formal—both of which inform our process.

• Informal: sociability and acts of social interaction, e.g. a friendly conversation
• Formal: the act of coming together to form cooperative societies, e.g. a beehive

Conversations and the exchange of ideas are necessary to build relationships and trust, and it is on relationships and trust that strong, supportive communities are built. You shape thoughts with the former to inspire the behaviors of the latter.

We cannot stress enough how simple and powerful this philosophy is: if you treat stakeholders like people, engaging in conversations with them, you can create brand communities that support and promote your business as you support them with your product or service.

Vocabulary and Syntax

Every act of communication requires a language—bees have a language made of pheromones and dancing, and brands have theirs, composed of all the stakeholder touchpoints through which your business’ identity—its character and purpose—is carefully and creatively woven. And we mean every touchpoint: not just your logo and tagline; your website and TV ad, bylined article and Facebook contest, emailed receipt and CSR script, employee training and charitable donation, every element should be part of your thoughtful and systematic brand language.

A limited vocabulary handicaps the communication of ideas, so we use every tool at our disposal (this is the media agnostic in us speaking). We also integrate the tools we use so that, like a sentence, we can actually communicate complex thoughts.

This is but one reason we’re so one-of-a-kind: it’s not often you come across an agency that can execute marketing and public relations, traditional and digital services, has an in-house design team and consults on sales and internal processes. Whatever it takes, we’ll deliver.

Listening and Relationships

But your brand is also much more than a network of collateral and communications, it is a living, breathing idea shaped as much by your stakeholders, internal and external, as by your vision for it. Your brand speaks for you—letting the world know who you are and what you stand for, finding and starting a conversation with the right stakeholders, and building valuable and lasting relationships with each and every one.

And your stakeholders speak back—not just through direct communication or market research, but in social content, in reviews and referrals, in the queries they type in search engines to find your business, in the way they navigate your website or brick-and-mortar store, and, most importantly, in purchases, bookings, enrollments, donations, or whatever most directly translates to success. This side of the conversation helps boost the signal strength of your brand and nurtures the growth of your business in a sustainable cycle.

Ultimately, the beating heart of all marketing is this relationship between businesses and their stakeholders, a relationship embodied and mediated by the brand, whose purpose is to ease and enrich the lives of all involved, as with any cooperative society.