As a group, you may not like something. A style of music, a literary style, a type of product, a group of people, but when you see one of the group individually, and find you like it, or them, the rest of the genre becomes less confronting.
It is the same with brands, the closer you get to a part of the brand, the easier it is to find things about the whole that you like, and you can more easily justify involvement, and scoff at your previous dislike. Cognitive dissonance at work.
By definition you only get closer to a brand if it is delivering something to you, so it is a bit of a circular process, but the lesson for markets is that to build a brand, you need to get close.
The tools of “getting close” have changed, they used to be largely one way communication mechanisms, but now we have the power and tools of the web, so get close, engage, embrace, and succeed.
