The Myth Of The Brand Genius
In truth, the predominant conventional brand development approach is broken.
The world has changed in dynamic ways all around us, yet brand development has remained relatively static.
What worked for Coca-Cola, isn't working for Dropbox. What worked for Wells Fargo, isn't working for Square. What worked for Ford, isn't working for Tesla.
At the center of the conventional approach is a narrative painting a story of branding brilliance
- "The Myth of the Brand Genius."
The Myth tells us a brand genius - if given the right creative environment and paid the right fee - will work out a world-class brand fraught with glittering deliverables and infallible strategies for an organization to simply execute upon.
The Genius relies on an arcane process to work his magic. A process deeply rooted in the factory-think of industrialization.
In the factory, a systematic series of steps A + B + C produced a product. The conventional brand process follows the same linear path:
Brand Promise Statement + Logo + Personality...and so on is thought to add up to "the brand."
Sound familiar?
As much as traditional agencies may flinch at the idea, the great brands emerging today are no longer being developed on the 40th floor of a Madison Avenue high rise.
Today, great brand development isn't about genius, it's about the discovery of value.
We need a new framework. We need new thinking to bring entropy, energy, and life back into the way organizations form relationships with people.
