Very interesting thoughts Josh. As a numbers focused growth person who believes he doesn't know enough about 'brand' this helped bridge the gap for me .
Some of the best reading and learning I did on brand over last year was the idea that brand is not an authoritarian, top-down, controllable thing. It's very much owned and navigated by your consumer. The best the company can do is apply guardrails to what that experience is.
One persons said 'trying to force a brand is like telling a child what they're going to grow up to be, you don't know yet'
And if you come at it from that perspective, you realise that you need to acquire the customers until you know what the brand is: the customers are the ones who shape it.
Our job on the acquisition front is to get people in, they can co-create what that brand is later. Let the brand follow the customer, not the other way round.
Very interesting thoughts Josh. As a numbers focused growth person who believes he doesn't know enough about 'brand' this helped bridge the gap for me .
Some of the best reading and learning I did on brand over last year was the idea that brand is not an authoritarian, top-down, controllable thing. It's very much owned and navigated by your consumer. The best the company can do is apply guardrails to what that experience is.
One persons said 'trying to force a brand is like telling a child what they're going to grow up to be, you don't know yet'
And if you come at it from that perspective, you realise that you need to acquire the customers until you know what the brand is: the customers are the ones who shape it.
Our job on the acquisition front is to get people in, they can co-create what that brand is later. Let the brand follow the customer, not the other way round.
I like that thinking a lot. In addition to the the Ogilvy book, what would be on your recommended 'brand' reading list?
Can't Sell, Won't Sell by Steve Harrison (out of print book).
Then follow and read on Substack: https://substack.com/@nikitawalia
Like
https://nikitawalia.substack.com/p/brand-is-social-social-is-brand
https://nikitawalia.substack.com/p/the-new-cultural-operating-system
I also like https://www.instagram.com/eugbrandstrat/?utm_source=ig_embed on Instagram
My summary post last year
https://read.earlystagegrowth.com/p/the-death-of-brand-control