My younger daughter, Hannah, returns this weekend from more than six months as an exchange student in New Zealand.
She'll hit New York and do her thing for just five days. Then she's off for two months in St. Maarten, where she'll be teaching scuba diving.
Since Hannah was young, she's always been adept at creating worlds for herself. Where things are built around her and allow her to spread her wings and explore. She's always been this way, and I hope she always stays that way.
What occurred to me is that in creating a world that suits her, Hannah is a lot like a successful brand.
Successful brands create worlds.
Unique, ownable, personal worlds.
In Nike's world, everyone is an athlete.
In Coke's, soda brings love and happiness.
In IBM's world, life is more intelligent.
Most brands, and I guess most people, are not very good at creating worlds. They do what's expedient as opposed to what's organic.
Much of what they do is ill-thought out, ill-conceived and tone deaf.
They are unsure of how to act in their world, or even what their world is.
2 comments:
kind of a broad statement george. many more brands have it together now than in years past. the shift is that brands are owned by consumers and corporations now thx to the real tie digital ecosystem and the changing nature of influence and how its leveraged. appreciate you trying to close the loop between your daughter's worlds and brand image, but a sweeping condemnation is not in order. -- emily
I didn't think it was a condemnation. More an observation, of what some of the best brands (and people) do.
Thanks for writing, Emily.
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