EP 17: Does AI Have a Place in Branding?

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Will AI ruin or help branding as we know it? That's one of the things that we're going to talk about on today's edition of Everyday AI you, your daily livestream, podcast and newsletter, helping everyday people like you and me not just understand AI, but actually use it. We have a very exciting guest for you today, so a founder and branding strategist, Beatrice Goodkinek. Beatrice, thanks for joining us. Tell us a little bit about, you know, what you do in your company.

Thanks so much for having me, Jordan. And yeah, so I am a Australian, half Swiss, half Portuguese branding strategist and yeah, so basically I help founders of savers, service based businesses to get the eyes of the 95% of their audience that currently don't even know that they exist because marketing and sales are focused on 5% that are ready to buy.

Yes, yes. And also thank you, Beatrice, because you're our first technical international guest. Everyone else has been here from the US So you're holding it down for the rest of the world. Now for the Everyday AI Show.

That's a lot of pressure.

None at all. All right, so before we get a little bit into what Beatrice is doing in the world of branding, we're first going to go through some of the big news headlines for today. We always like to keep you up to date here at Everyday AI with everything that's going on because there's a ton. So let's start here a couple pieces from OpenAI. As you know, ChatGPT is kind of the tool or the, the child of the parent company OpenAI. So their CEO Sam Altman testified before Congress yesterday, kind of all over the place, but talking about, you know, concerns about misuse of the technology. You know, he did say that AI could cause significant harm to the world and agreed that AI should be regulated, but also saying it should be regulated by an outside company. And then another piece from Sam Altman and OpenAI as we can just group it all here together. So at a recent conference he talked via live stream at MIT and said that GPT5 was not in training, at least not for six months. So a lot going on in the OpenAI ChatGPT space. Beatrice, where do you think this is heading just in general with, with OpenAI and chat GPT?

I, I think there is so much more growth and, you know, so much that has been talked about in the past and, you know, there, there's a lot of overlay with, you know, people being concerned about their jobs. But at the end of the day, I don't think that's the case because, know, we have the emotions, we have the complexity. That doesn't matter how many years it's going to be, they won't have it.

That's true, yes. At least for now. Humans are the only ones with true emotions. So that's good. So speaking. Speaking. You know, Beatrice, you kind of, you know, talked about it there. Just people worried about AI taking over their jobs. Our next kind of news piece. So cnet, you know, obviously a very popular media company. Their, their staff talked about unionizing partially because of AI. So, you know, similar to buzzfeed, which, which cut its whole news staff a couple months ago, and they started using AI. And as we talked about on the show yesterday, human readers are actually spending more time on BuzzFeed's AI content than they were on AI or, sorry, they're spending more time on content created by AI than they were reading by content created by humans. So, you know, now CNET is seeing some of these things and the staff want to create a union and they want to say, like, hey, we need editorial independence. And we also want to weigh in, you know, on CNET's usage of AI tools. So, you know, this signals, Beatrice, I think, to media companies really paying attention to how good AI is at curating and, you know, summarizing news. So, I mean, what's your thought on that piece?

I honestly, first off, you mentioned cena and I think terminate. I, I don't have the, the, you know, because I was born in Australia, spent the last 10 years in Southeast Asia seen. It's not been a big thing, so my brain automatically goes to that. But it is a very interesting, interesting point there. There will have to be some kind of balance between AI and what's going on with the people because of course, there's going to be people with the emotional side and the ideation, and that'll lead the AI. So either way, I'm sticking to my guns here. That you still need the people can't be without.

Makes sense. And just as a reminder, so we already have a couple comments coming in if you want to ask something of Beatrice or myself. So, Usama, thank you for your comment. Samantha. You know, Derek just said it will be known as branding soon. Branding spelled AI.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

So if you're watching live, feel free to drop a comment if you're listening on the podcast or the Newsletter, make sure to tune in every week or sorry, every weekday, 7:30am Central Time. So, so with that, Beatrice, let's just talk about branding. Right? So you know, this, this, there's the new Entrepreneur report, you know, talking about the impact of branding, you know, specifically with AI and how, how actually easy it makes it to start a brand. That doesn't mean that you can use AI to make a good brand, but at least it gets you started. So I, I mean, talk a little bit about even just your experience so far with AI in branding. Is it good, is it bad? Is it too early? Like, what are your thoughts?

I think for branding wise, it is far too early. Sure, there's a lot of, you know, programs out there, hey, let me do your logo, et cetera. But a, those logos are all over the place because they're, they use different parts from what already exists. So there's not really that originality and the logos aren't really the brand, you know, these days the brand is more of that human side, that internal, that strategy where, you know, you're talking about what is your. Why, what are your values. That's fact not something that AI can really do for you. Great. It can help you with like, you know, content.

But yeah, no, great. So Leanne with a comment. Thank you, Leanne. Just asking a little bit more about the Entrepreneur Report. Thank you. I kind of skipped into that because I was so excited to get Beatrice's thoughts. So, yeah, the new Entrepreneur Report, just talking about how it's easier than ever to start a brand, you know, because AI can assist you with content creation, curation, social media management, audience targeting, all those things. But then Beatrice, I think that there's also, you know, if you rely too much on AI, right? If, if you're not doing this, you know, like someone like yourself, if, you know, there's a risk of just losing your voice. You know, if, if you're not putting your own voice out there and just taking everything from AI, it's not really a brand, is it?

Yeah, I mean that's, that is a very good reason why the comments that people use that are from ChatGPT or the posts that people use that are from ChatGPT are so obvious. It just lacks that human quality that we're just like, okay, this is just an AI comment going why? There's no human side to it. And it's very obvious to people and it's a detraction. People aren't drawn to that.

So do you think that maybe the overuse of AI, maybe by People that aren't professional branders. Do you think it actually might help people like you or companies like yours stick out a little bit more when you can put your own face and your own voice out there and maybe it'll stick out a little bit more in a sea of what seems like AI generated content?

Oh, yes, definitely. I mean, that's the main reason why badassery and what I put out does stand out, because the ideas that I have are just crazy ideas. When I'm like, in the shower or just as like, I'm about to sleep and I'm like, are you kidding me? I'm gonna talk about anti heroes now or tattoos.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. So, I mean, what. But so far, you know, I do think for everyone there is a place for AI, right? What do you think? At least for you or brands that you work with, what are kind of the areas where you say, hey, this is somewhere that I feel good about using AI without compromising on the brand's values?

I think once you do have that base, that internal brand, that base strategy, you can use those terms. So say, for example, if you pick out a certain value, be it edginess or. And you, you link it with the topic that you're trying to talk about and put that into AI, be it for images or for content, you can use that to develop quality content. That. I'm not saying necessarily just take it from that program and paste it. I'm saying use that to create something to build on your existing ideas, to create more options for content. Thank you, Wendy.

Yeah. And you know, Wolf, wolf here on LinkedIn had a great point and I think we can turn this into a question here. You know, saying, speaking from the point of view of someone using AI actively, he agrees that there's a limit to the usage. So where do you see that limit, Beatrice? And then also, how can, how do you advise clients or how might you advise people watching or listening on. Where do you draw the line on, you know, getting something from, you know, a chatgpt or, you know, an image generation program like midjourney? Where do you draw the line between something that AI creates and, and then, you know, putting it out in the world and trying to develop that relationship as a brand?

Well, I think a lot of the content, like a lot of the content that you can get from ChatGPT, you do need to cross check or fact check rather at as to what is the real deal, because again, you know, it's. It's up to 20, 21, right? So exactly, time wise, it's not current and depending on how you write your instruction in there, it might come out in a way that's not really true. So I think, yes, while you get that information, it's important to cross check what is really factual. And I think that's a main thing, be it with text or be it with the graphics. I know a lot of people have been talking about the graphic, graphic side of things, that AI has stolen parts of their graphics.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. So, you know, mid Journey, as an example, Dolly, you know, those are two popular AI image generation and then there's a big gap. Like I think those two in terms of quality are fantastic. And you know, brands can, can definitely use pieces of that. But they are, Beatrice, like you said, they're, they're trained on actual works of art. And there's been instances where, you know, the, the AI accidentally includes watermarks or signatures from the original artists that these were used by. So, I mean, even with that, like, what, what has to happen before brands or companies can start working relying on specifically the image side or will they never.

Yeah, that much I'm not sure as to the potential of AI. I know there's a lot of potential. There's so much growth. Like you think about even the ability for us to have this, you know, this video chat 10, 20 years ago, it's something that we wouldn't have imagined to have that international communication that easy. So imagine 20 years from now. There's a lot of things which I think aren't necessarily what we think possible, but will probably be a thing.

Yeah, yeah. And Wendy, you just brought up a great point. Like if you're just using content without doing what you said, Beatrice, fact checking, you can look dumb. Right? Like if you accidentally post something and you're saying this is from our brand and it has a little watermark, or it's clearly just been copied from somewhere else, you're going to fall on your face and look dumb.

That's the thing. And I have been trying to put that in more so recently on LinkedIn because I know there isn't the restrictions just yet on the content, like, you know, the images that you use the, et cetera to credit where you got it from. I think that's, that's important to show that, hey, look, we're not perfect, you know, we can't create everything. So, you know, give credit where it's due. It shows that you're human.

Yeah. And you know, that's, that's a fantastic point. You know, sharing credit, you know, obviously Google this week at their I O conference, they said in the future for their image generation, they're going to watermark, you know, things that were made by AI. So, you know, people or brands can't pass that off. But I do want to follow up, Beatrice, with something that you said. You know, you, you mentioned, hey, the fact that we're having a live video talk right now between continents where everyone can watch, you know, wasn't even a possibility in most people's mind 10 or 20 years ago. So where do you see? So I'm not asking you to look into your crystal ball, but, you know, as, as a branding expert, if you did look into the crystal ball, whether it's related to AI or not, where do you see branding heading, whether it's brand identity or brand strategy, where are we going to be looking at in the coming years?

I think it's going to get a hell of a lot more personal. We're already shifting away from the idea of logos. The ideas of like, hey, this is the, the logo, this is the business, this is what you expect from that. It's going to become more about the people that are behind those logos, be it the founder, the director, board of directors is going to be about them and what their values are and how they act. You know, you even have a look at, say, for example, Gen Z. The way that they're looking at businesses is based on what are their corporate csr, what are the corporate social responsibility, what are they doing for that, what are they doing for the world? And they are judging, they are making their choices upon which company to go with based on that, based on how social the founders are being, how public they are being, and how honest they're being with how they're going about their business. You know, the people that are being successful on LinkedIn at the moment, there's a lot of them are sharing their personal journey, they're sharing their hardships, and that's going to become even bigger. It's going to go back to the original thing of when we used to walk around the markets way back, like, I don't know, in the 17, 1800s, we would go to the stalls based on other people's recommendations, from a friend, from a family member is going to go back to that because there's just so much technology out there.

Yeah. So I like that thought, you know, almost where I think of it, kind of like records coming back in style. Right. Like, like in the, you know, in the last 10, 15 years, you know, that was the only piece of media it went away for a long time and then it, you know, obviously experienced a resurgence. So you're almost saying that maybe we as humans are going to get just drowned with so much content and maybe that we feel it's AI or we feel it's impersonal, that eventually we're going to go back to just wanting to talk with and to humans. Is that kind of what you're saying?

Exactly. That is exactly what I'm saying. We're spending all of our time on phones, on laptops, and it's, it's messing with us, it's messing with our memory, it's messing with our social side. Like I think I saw somebody's post or a couple people's post today where they're talking about the effect of being on LinkedIn so much or being remote because of COVID etc. They're working at home and it's affect their social side and they didn't even recognize it until it was like too late. And they're in a social situation and they're like, oh my God, I don't know how to deal with this anymore. They're having like anxiety.

Yeah. So how would you, whether it's in your official role with your company or just personally, how would you advise whether it's solopreneurs working on a side hustle or maybe marketing directors or vice presidents of a bigger company? What are some actionable steps that people can start to take now to get to that point of really building those human relationships? Because I think right now with this AI wave, it's getting more and more impersonal and just getting data. So how would you advise people to kind of get back to the human basics in building that, that part of a brand?

I think that we should really focus on that internal branding. So the internal branding, as in really define and get clear on what their why is, what their values are, what their mission, their vision, and not just use them as like, hey, this is a placeholder. Actually use them in, in their business and within the team, you know, between employees actually have that. Yes, we feel the exact same way, whether it be inwards or outwards. Same thing as, you know, say, for example, Salesforce, they have that ohana culture which you go to their office and all their office names are based on those Hawaiian family names and the way that they talk to each other, it is in that ohana family style. What you show internally should be externally as well.

Yeah, that's a great point. You know, even going down to the, the words that we Use internally can still give us, you know, even for a huge company like Salesforce, it can still make that company human. But it starts internally, right? Like, you know, if, if you are part of a big team and if you do want to, you know, have a brand strategy or brand identity that you are working human to human to help humans evolve, I think it has to start eternal internally. So that's, that's a great point. We are, we did go a little bit over. Beatrice, I'm so sorry. Thank you. But do you have any, any last thoughts, any last tips, any last pieces of advice whether it has to do with AI or not? I know there's a lot of people popping in, you know, questions and comments, but you know, what's kind of your takeaway with, with how the everyday person can use AI or not use AI, but how can they just help build their brand?

Step away from the big words. Step away from like anything that makes you feel like, you know, you're, you're saying in a way to say to be smart, be human. Use the language that you would use in a normal conversation like this and use that in your communications because that's what people want to see. And yes, go ahead and use AI, but do not rely on it. Use it to base off your ideas, springboard your ideas so that they're even bigger and then go back and fact check it.

Yeah, that's such a great point. Beatrice, thank you so much for coming on the Everyday AI show. Appreciate all your insights, stories. So thank you so much.

Thanks, Jordan.

All right, so just as we wrap up, as a reminder, please go to your everydayai.com, sign up for our newsletter. We are giving away a year of premium ChatGPT which we'll talk about in the newsletter. And we're also going to have a lot of follow up conver conversations in the newsletter from the, you know, all the things that Beatrice and I were talking about, you know, we talked about some different resources. It's all going to be in there. So thank you again everyone for tuning in. We hope to see you back tomorrow and every day with Everyday AI. Thank you.

And that's a wrap for today's edition of Everyday AI. Thanks for joining us. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave us a rating. It helps keep us going for a little more AI magic. Visit youreverydayai.com and sign up to our daily newsletter so you don't get left behind. Go break some barriers and we'll see you next time.