Brands put a huge amount of time and money into getting their standards right. All this is crucial to establishing a brand’s identity, but too much control will not help you to be more successful. The most important thing, on the contrary, is… Let go.

Here are six of the secrets of brands that do this well:

Secret #1: Take a supporting role Let the consumer be in the center of the conversation.The more flexible, the higher the chances to succeed. The idea isn’t to leave the consumer alone. Instead you take part in the dialogue. .

Secret #2: Control is an illusion I came across an amazing quote in this article :  “Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.”  By opening channels where consumers can express how they feel about your brand, you can actually get more  power to influence what people say and address it — the good and the bad.(That brings us back to all the conversations about listening to your customer and deciding whether to engage or not).

Secret #3: Make it easy to participate Not everyone will want to put an effort and speak up. So you should try to be creative and come up some easy yet interesting ways to engage with the customers.

Secret #4: If you open up, they will too  One of the greatest examples is  ‘Our Food. Your Questions’ campaign of  McDonald’s Canada. The customers could post any questions they wanted and the company replied to all of them. This results in more and more questions being asked and a huge spread of the campaign. Here is one of great examples of the campaign:

Secret #5: Showcase experiences Create opportunities for people to share their actual experiences. “Show, don’t tell”. Prudential’s Day One Stories campaign in which thousands of people posted pictures of the first day of their retirement brought sharing experiences to a new level.

Secret #6: Trust your fans Trust your fans, they know what they want from you. Taco Bell does a great job at this.  They consistently invite their customers to help redefine what their brand means over the last 24 months.Taco Bell CEO Greg Creed says, “You have to entrust 23-year-olds to protect or amplify the brand without the classic structure that organizations use to make decisions … If you are a control freak, you’re not going to like the future.”

Of course, a lot of the companies might be hesitant to accept the reality their brand currently exists in, however, if you want to succeed, let go…and embrace the change!