Don't spill your guts.

When trying to explain branding, many people choose to compare a company to a person. The brand can then be equated to what a person chooses to wear, how they style their hair, how they choose to speak, and what they are most anxious to talk about. It is what can draw someone from the outside world to interact with you, and part of what encourages them to choose to spend time with you, even to the extent of investing themselves.

I like this parallel, but over the last few months I've noticed a disturbing trend in this line of thought. Spilling your guts.

Since the beginning of the recession, many people have demanded that companies become more transparent in their dealings. And that's fine, especially for stockholders or those embroiled in the political process, but it can be a little much for the average consumer.

Think of it in the realm of the person parallel. There is a clear line that should be drawn when you're trying to pull people in to determine what is appropriate and what is not. Here are some examples of how to think of it in the personal parallel...

Your company realizes that people don't trust you because your former management has made bone-headed choices that have become very public.

To tell them: "We're commited to you, and we got new management and CEOs who will stick by you." is roughly the equivalent of saying "I know I betrayed you before and stole your car, but I had brain surgery and won't do it again."
It's disturbing and way too much information. It does nothing to actually validate how a person feels about being betrayed before.
Instead, a smart message might be: "We're commited to you, and to prove it we're offering to back you up with this exclusive warrenty in case you come upon hard times." which is pretty much the same as saying "I know I screwed up before in borrowing your car, but I'm going to be your personal chauffeur until we get this all sorted and I earn your trust back." There is less personal information offered and it becomes about projecting outward, not on bothersome inward issues.

Let's face it, we've all known that person who doesn't seem to know when it is appropriate to stop sharing information. You ask them how their day was, and though you're not that close, they go into every small detail from their most recent medical proceedure to the rotten apple they bit into at lunch yesterday. It is not the person most people are drawn too in a social situation. That being said, it might be important information if you're thinking about marrying them... but the important idea is that you have to identify what level of sharing your consumer might be comfortable with... and most consumers are self-involved. If it isn't really about them, then it is hard to hold their attention.

A Colorado commercial icon, American Furniture Warehouse, has aired commercials starring owner Jake Jabs for years. In them, he has always shown off the latest furniture deals, and usually somehow ended up wrestling a tiger or riding a water buffalo through a showroom. They've been airing spots like these almost my whole life. But a couple of months ago, they changed.
Jake Jabb got on the air to assure people that American Furniture Warehouse was going to survive the recession, and then took it a step further in mentioning they were more likely to survive because they were privately held, didn't have a board of directors, owned all of their property, didn't have a private plane, and wouldn't be putting their name on a NASCAR racecar.
The people equivalent of this is Jake Jab coming up and saying, "Hi! I hope you'll let me work for you, and I'm not going anywhere if you don't want to. Why? Because I'm healthy!" At which point he begins removing internal organs from his body and slapping them up on the counter to demonstrate just how healthy he is.

That's called spilling your guts, people, and no one wants to see that. It doesn't sell anything, it doesn't calm anyone's mind enough to encourage them to purchase something, and quite frankly, its disturbing and unforgetable.

So the next time you're trying to figure out how to drawn in stakeholders, think carefully about the person they would most want to be involved with, and communicate with them on that level. Do not overshare.