Marketers often talk about being a brand leader as if it is one thing. But there are many different ways that a brand can distinguish itself in a marketplace. The critical decision for brand owners is deciding how you will lead and why that will work.
A colleague of mine made an observation recently that if you really want to make significant changes as a brand, you should go all out and look for something…dull. That’s right, find something uneventful, even pedestrian – and poke it for opportunities.
About a month ago, I wrote an article on “The Thin Brand Line.” Truth be told, lines everywhere are thinning. Even at SXSW, perhaps a glimpse into the future is inferred by this quote from Elizabeth Dole, Entrepreneur in Residence at Dell, “There was a whole convergence between [the Film, Music, and Interactive parts of the conference], reflecting that to consumers, it’s really the same thing now.”
In a market filled with possibilities, there is power and focus in constraint. I pressed this point home last week in a discussion on why brands can’t just continue to add to their visual language.
“I never worry about action, but only inaction.” ~ Winston Churchill There’s a simple, human reason why behaviors happen time and time again. We are creatures of habit and familiarity. It is much more comforting to keep hammering away at what we know than it is to stop, reappraise the problem and completely redesign the playbook.
