Biometric Update reports that Amazon’s Ring products are offering a feature called “Familiar Faces.”
“In September, Amazon revealed a revamped Ring camera lineup featuring two notable AI features, Familiar Faces and Search Party. Familiar Faces uses facial recognition and lets users tag neighbors or friends so future alerts identify them by name rather than generic motion.”
I’ve been interested in brand archetypes for years. You’ll recall my first post on the topic, after which I used Kaye Putnam’s quiz to determine my archetypes: primarily Sage, with some others.
Sage, Explorer, Royalty, Entertainer.
This morning I attended a webinar, sponsored by Verizon and under the auspices of SCORE and BizHuub, on the topic of budget-friendly branding. It was presented by Warrick and Takicha Roundtree.
After some preliminary discussions, the Roundtrees focused on the topic of the 12 brand archetypes. They then encouraged us to explore our brand archetypes, with the help of our favorite generative AI tool.
The first prompt, and the response
I am Bredemarket. I offer marketing and writing services (content, proposal, analysis) to identity, biometrics, and technology firms. I sell these services to marketing leaders at these firms. Give me a list of psychographic characteristics of my most likely buyer.
Here is a list of psychographic characteristics of your most likely buyer, the marketing leader at an identity, biometrics, or technology firm. These characteristics go beyond simple demographics and aim to uncover their motivations, challenges, and attitudes.
Core Motivations and Goals
Career-Driven and Results-Oriented: They are primarily motivated by professional success. They need to demonstrate a positive ROI on their marketing budget and show tangible results in the form of lead generation, increased brand awareness, or successful product launches.
Aspirational: They want to be seen as innovative and forward-thinking within their company and the industry. They are looking for solutions that will help them gain a competitive edge and establish their firm as a leader in its field.
Driven by Urgency: They are often facing deadlines and a “need it yesterday” mentality. They have projects to complete, campaigns to launch, and are looking for a reliable partner who can jump in and deliver high-quality work quickly and efficiently.
Seeking Strategic Partnership: While they need a service provider, they are really looking for a partner who can provide fresh, objective insights and strategic thinking. They value an external perspective that isn’t clouded by internal biases or politics.
Challenges and Pain Points
Overwhelmed and Under-Resourced: They are likely managing a lean team and a multitude of responsibilities, from content creation to campaign management and analytics. They may not have the in-house expertise or bandwidth for every project, especially specialized ones like proposal writing or complex analysis.
Need for Specialized Expertise: They are acutely aware that their firm’s technology is complex and niche. They need a writer and marketer who can understand the technical nuances of identity and biometrics and translate them into compelling, clear, and trustworthy content for a B2B audience.
Information and Privacy Concerns: The identity and biometrics space is sensitive. They are concerned with navigating complex issues like data privacy regulations, ethical considerations, and public perception. They need content that addresses these concerns and builds trust with their audience.
Difficulty Demonstrating Value: They struggle to effectively communicate the value of their complex, often-invisible, technology to different stakeholders, from technical users to C-suite executives.
Attitudes and Behaviors
Risk-Averse (to a point): While they want to innovate, they are also responsible for their budget and brand reputation. They will seek out a provider with a proven track record, relevant case studies, and a clear understanding of their industry.
Values Efficiency: They appreciate a streamlined, no-fuss process. They don’t have time for extensive hand-holding or for a provider who needs a lot of training on the basics of their industry.
Prefers a Collaborative Approach: They don’t want to simply hand over a task. They want a partner who will engage in a dialogue, provide strategic recommendations, and work with their team to achieve a shared vision.
Values Trust and Reliability: Given the sensitive nature of their business, they need to feel completely confident that their partner is stable, consistent, and committed to the project. They value a partner who is responsive and transparent in their operations.
The second prompt, and the response
Which of the 12 brand archetypes would appeal to my customers?
Based on the psychographic characteristics of your target customer—the marketing leader at a technology, biometrics, or identity firm—several brand archetypes would likely resonate most strongly.
The key is to choose an archetype that speaks to their professional motivations, pain points, and desire for a strategic, trustworthy partner.
Here are the most relevant archetypes for Bredemarket:
1. The Sage
Why it works: This is the most natural fit. The Sage is the expert, the thought leader, and the trusted advisor. Your customers are seeking knowledge, analysis, and strategic insights. They don’t just want content written; they want content that is well-researched, accurate, and authoritative.
How to embody it:
Focus on data-driven insights and analysis.
Create content that educates and informs, such as white papers, in-depth reports, and industry analysis.
Position yourself as an expert who understands the complex nuances of their industry, not just a content mill.
Your tone should be knowledgeable, wise, and credible.
2. The Creator
Why it works: Your services are inherently creative. You are creating content, proposals, and narratives from scratch. Marketing leaders at tech firms are looking for someone who can translate complex technical information into compelling, engaging stories that resonate with their audience.
How to embody it:
Showcase your ability to build something from nothing—a strong narrative, a winning proposal, or a memorable campaign.
Use a portfolio to highlight diverse, imaginative work you’ve done for other clients.
Emphasize your process, from ideation to final execution.
Your messaging should focus on innovation, originality, and the power of well-crafted communication.
3. The Hero
Why it works: This archetype addresses your customer’s pain points directly. They are heroes within their own companies, tasked with generating leads and demonstrating ROI. You, as Bredemarket, can be their sidekick or a “hero for hire” who helps them conquer their challenges.
How to embody it:
Frame your services as a solution to their problems. Instead of “We write proposals,” say “We write proposals that help you win bids.”
Use success stories and testimonials that highlight how you helped a client overcome a major challenge (e.g., “Helped Company X generate 50% more leads with a new content strategy”).
Your tone should be confident, courageous, and results-oriented.
Secondary, Supporting Archetype: The Ruler
Why it works: While this may not be your primary archetype, it’s a good supporting one. Marketing leaders are often in a position of power and authority. By positioning yourself as a professional and organized partner, you align with their desire for order and control.
How to embody it:
Emphasize your clear processes, reliability, and project management skills.
Communicate with precision and confidence, demonstrating your command of the subject matter and the project.
Show that you bring order to the chaos of their marketing needs.
Summary & Recommendation
For Bredemarket, the Sage and Creator are your strongest primary archetypes.
Sage establishes your expertise and credibility, which is paramount in a technical field.
Creator highlights your specific skill set and ability to build compelling narratives.
You can then use the Hero archetype to frame your marketing messages around the problems you solve, and the Ruler to reassure potential clients about your professionalism and reliability.
By combining these, you can craft a brand identity that is both intelligent and innovative, while also being trustworthy and empowering for your target customer.
What I need to do
So what have I learned from the Roundtrees’ prompts and Google Gemini’s responses?
I need to analyze the rest of the two responses and perhaps make some changes in direction in my self-promotional content. After all, Google never lies.
In truth, why is Google happy that I’m ignoring its marketing advice?
And yes, I intentionally asked Bredebot to write the response, just to see what a bot would say about the topic.
Here’s part of the prompt that I gave to Bredebot when writing the article:
The post must include the following three parts: (1) an introduction explaining how Bredemarket asked Bredebot to analyze the post “Move Over “Authentic AI,” Real Beats Perfect in Content and Marketing” at https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/audience-building/move-over-authentic-ai (text at the end of the prompt) because it made sense for a bot to analyze an article about authentic AI; (2) a summary of the key points of article (text at the end of the prompt); and (3) counter-arguments to the points made in the linked article (text at the end of the prompt).
Bredebot’s criticism of the Content Marketing Institute article
As you’ve seen by now, this was one of Bredebot’s counter-arguments in the third part of the post.
The author says, “Let the people perform. Let the machines cue the spotlight.” I love that line. And I agree completely. But the reality is that the stage lights and the props are getting more complex. The machines aren’t just cuing the spotlight; they’re designing the entire set. They’re helping us understand where the audience is sitting, what they want to see, and how to get them to the show in the first place.
Instead of fighting the technology, we should be leaning into it. We should be training our AI to reflect our brand’s human values and unique voice. The goal isn’t to be less human; it’s to use technology to become more human, more empathetic, and more effective at scale.
Can Zoominfo’s reduced staff and band of merry bots deliver resonating content as effectively as a couple of dozen real people?
Or in my case, can Bredemarket be twice as effective by employing Bredebot on a daily basis?
But let me insert one caveat here.
Bredmarket’s client work is (so far) very human and unchanged
Regarding client work, John E. Bredehoft still ALWAYS writes the first draft. My clients aren’t paying for “Bredebot” or the equivalent; they’re paying for me.
And when I do employ generative AI, I disclose it.
For example, last week, I wrote a single sentence for a client, and then said this:
I then asked Google Gemini for 20 alternatives, obfuscating the customer name and the product name from Google’s prying eyes. Do you prefer any of these formulations to the one I drafted?
Pay particular attention to the obfuscation. Just like 2023, I don’t feed confidential information to my bots.
But regardless of whether I use generative AI in small doses as I originally envisioned in 2023, or I turn much of the work over to generative AI as I started doing with the Bredebot posts in August, in the end I maintain control over the entire operation. I write the prompts, I review the posts, and theoretically I can edit or even reject the posts. (I haven’t yet, just to see what uncontrolled Google Gemini can produce.)
A very human call to action
As I type this, I have not yet turned Bredebot loose on issuing a call to action.
I’m reserving that for myself.
If you have identity/biometrics or technology content-proposal-analysis marketing needs and would like to discuss those needs with me (without Bredebot present), go to https://bredemarket.com/mark/ and schedule a free discussion.
As a wordsmith, it’s interesting to see how slight wording changes can affect…pictures.
Slight alterations in the wording of a Google Gemini prompt can cause dramatic changes in the resulting images. The final picture prompt included words such as “oversaturated” and “grandly.”
Google Gemini imposes severe restrictions against creating pictures of famous figures. You can’t create a picture of President Taylor Swift, for example. But Woody Guthrie is fair game, which is no surprise to anyone who knows of JibJab’s tussle with the Richmond Organization. But I digress.
But what if I uploaded a Wikipedia picture of a famous figure to Google Gemini, asked Gemini to describe it, then had Gemini create a picture based upon its own description?
Unfortunately it doesn’t always perform a perfect recreation, and I bet none of you can figure out the original famous figure depicted here.
The description, excluding her attire:
“The person in the image is a woman with fair skin and light-colored hair, possibly blonde or light brown. Her hair is styled with a slight wave and a side part. She appears to be of a mature age, with some wrinkles visible on her face, particularly around her eyes and mouth. Her eyes are light, likely blue or grey. Her nose is straight and her lips are thin. She has a serious or neutral expression.”
Last month I discussed Google’s advances in health and artificial intelligence, specifically the ability to MedGemma and MedSigLIP to analyze medical images. But writing about health is more problematic. Either that, or Google AI is growing body parts such as the “basilar ganglia.”
“In their May 2024 research paper introducing a healthcare AI model, dubbed Med-Gemini, Google researchers showed off the AI analyzing brain scans from the radiology lab for various conditions.
“It identified an “old left basilar ganglia infarct,” referring to a purported part of the brain — “basilar ganglia” — that simply doesn’t exist in the human body. Board-certified neurologist Bryan Moore flagged the issue to The Verge, highlighting that Google fixed its blog post about the AI — but failed to revise the research paper itself.”
A little scary…especially the fact that it took a year to discover the error, a conflation of the basal ganglia (in the brain) and the basilar artery (at the brainstem). There’s no “basilar ganglia” per se.
And the MedGemma engine that I discussed last month has its own problems.
“Google’s more advanced healthcare model, dubbed MedGemma, also led to varying answers depending on the way questions were phrased, leading to errors some of the time.”
One could argue that the same thing could happen with humans. After all, if a patient words a problem in one way to one doctor, and in a different way to a different doctor, you could also have divergent diagnoses.
But this reminds us that we need to fact-check EVERYTHING we read.
This was never supposed to go on the Bredemarket blog, but here it is. Because when a product marketing consultant wants to improve his storytelling skills, he practices with…toilet paper.
Wylie likes to share art challenges, and she recently shared this one. The text below, including the emojis, is straight from the challenge.
📣 New Weekly Wednesday Challenge 📣
🌟 Glitch N’ Sass and AI Anonymous Present:
🎭✨ MESMERIZE THE MUNDANE ✨🎭
Where glitter drips from code and imagination struts in stilettos. @everyone 💥
Take the forgotten, the overlooked, the tragically basic —
and unleash the glam-core magic of AI.
Allow creativity to glitch the system, let sass polish the mundane, all while reshaping reality.
⸻
Flip the script on the everyday:
🥄 A spoon stirs time’s secrets
👟 A shoelace coils into cosmic scales
📎 A paperclip snaps open hidden realms
✨ Rewire purpose.
✨ Reframe presence.
✨ Reveal what the world forgets to see.
📌 Tag it: #AIAnonymous #GlitchNSass #MesmerizeTheMundane
⸻
💬 This isn’t an art drop — it’s an everyday clutch, transformed into a chasm of creativity .
A call to those who see depth in the digital, beauty in glitches, and freedom behind the mask.
We are not escaping the world — we are a reminder, to view it. For all the purposes they told us it never possessed. 🔥
✨ So go on… Mesmerize us, With glitter in one hand and encrypted vision in the other. ✨
Preparing my response
Now on the surface such an exercise has nothing to do with “know your business” or “biometric product marketing expert” or “content – proposal – analysis”…
…but it does.
In essence, written business communications are opportunities for storytelling. As I noted, case studies are inspiring stories about how a challenged company realized amazing success, all thanks to the wonderful Green Widget Gizmo.
Now that’s a riveting story.
Tell us about the Green Widget Gizmo again PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE! Imagen 4.
And of course I’ve performed AI image storytelling before: for example, with my three “Biometric product marketing expert” reels. Here’s the second:
Biometric product marketing expert, the content for tech marketers version.
But back to the “Mesmerize the Mundane” challenge. So to participate in the challenge I had to find something mundane. Now some of you think a single finger sensor is mundane…but I don’t. (There’s actually a connection between fingerprint sensors and art, but I’m under NDA.)
My response
So I picked a mundane topic: toilet paper.
What’s even better is that toilet paper is filled with emotion. Particularly relative to the ongoing debate about whether…
I’m not going to say it. I hope this reel—my entry into the “Mesmerize the Mundane” challenge—speaks for itself.
The over/under.
When I shared this reel on Facebook and elsewhere, I did so with the following text.
A storytelling exercise…and a challenge.
You can’t get more mundane than toilet paper, or spawn fiercer battles over orientation. But love conquers battles.
One of the challenges in multi-image storytelling is the need for consistency between the images. You can’t have the hero wildebeest wearing a blue cap in the first picture and a red one in the second.
So to enforce consistency, I’ve been bundling all my picture prompts into a single request to Google Gemini, and including instructions to enforce similarity between the pictures in the series.
AI art creation. This is the picture I use for the Bredemarket Picture Clubhouse Facebook group.
So here is the specific request used to create the four pictures in the reel above.
Draw realistic pictures based upon the following four prompts:
Prompt 1: Draw a realistic picture of a toilet paper holder on a blue tiled bathroom wall, next to the toilet. The toilet paper is white. The toilet paper end is hanging in front of the roll.
Prompt 2: Draw a realistic picture similar to the image in the previous prompt, a toilet paper holder on a blue tiled bathroom wall, next to the toilet. The toilet paper is still white. This time, however, the toilet paper end is hanging behind the roll.
Prompt 3: Draw a realistic picture similar to the image in the previous prompts, a toilet paper holder on a blue tiled bathroom wall, next to the toilet. Now the toilet paper is glowing in a neon red. Due to mesmerizing magic, there is a toilet paper end hanging in front of the roll, and there is also a duplicate toilet paper end hanging behind the roll. The presence of both toilet paper ends removes the conflict of whether to hang toilet paper in front of our behind the roll; now, both are simultaneously true.
Prompt 4: Draw a realistic picture similar to the image in the previous prompts, a toilet paper holder next to the toilet. But now the tiles on the bathroom wall are colored gold, vibrating, and throbbing. The toilet itself is glowing with a bright light. Now the toilet paper is glowing in red, green, and blue, and sparkles are shooting away from the toilet paper roll like fireworks. Again, due to mesmerizing magic, there is a toilet paper end hanging in front of the roll, and there is also a duplicate toilet paper end hanging behind the roll. The bathroom floor is covered in hundred dollar bills and shiny gold coins.
And here are the full square pictures, which do not completely display in the reel.
Now I just have to tell the riveting story of a single finger sensor.
“Google has released its MedGemma and MedSigLIP models to the public, and they’re powerful enough to analyse chest X-rays, medical images, and patient histories like a digital second opinion.”
“In the United States, it is a criminal offense for a person to claim they are a health professional when they are not. But what about a non-person entity?”
In the announcement, Google asserted that their tools are privacy-preserving, allowing developers to control privacy. In fact, developers are frequently mentioned in the announcement. Yes, developers.
OH wait, that was Microsoft.
The implication: Google just provides the tool: developers are responsible for its use. And the long disclaimer includes this sentence:
“The outputs generated by these models are not intended to directly inform clinical diagnosis, patient management decisions, treatment recommendations, or any other direct clinical practice applications.”
We’ve faced this before
And we’ve addressed this also, regarding proper use of facial recognition ONLY as an investigative lead. Responsible vendors emphasize this:
“In a piece on the ethical use of facial recognition, Rank One Computing stated the following in passing:
“‘[Rank One Computing] is taking a proactive stand to communicate that public concerns should focus on applications and policies rather than the technology itself.’”
But just because ROC or Clearview AI or another vendor communicates that facial recognition should ONLY be used as an investigative lead…does that mean that their customers will listen?
Bredemarket 