One of adlands favourite things is the ‘positioning statement’.
A statement that informs where a brand fits within its category.
It’s been a successful way to do things for decades and many brands continue to embrace to this day.
But it’s limiting.
It stops a brand from having a bigger role in culture.
It leads to those painful annual ‘brand relaunch’ campaigns.
It can become out-of-date in the blink of an eye.
It is for this reason I’ve always believed in the importance of a brand ‘point of view’.
A point of view transcends the category rules.
A point of view can adapt and flow with the times.
A point of view lets creativity flow, not be stifled.
Of course, to do this, you have to start with knowing who you are, who you want to be and what you stand for … but in my experience, expressing this as a point of view means you can make work that resonates with culture rather than tries to be relevant to it.
For those who don’t think resonance vs relevance is a big difference, I would say you’re missing a valuable shift in culture.
With so many brands talking at culture or making innovation that they want them to like rather than what they want, a brand that shows it truly gets it’s audience is more differentiated than any amount of brands who spend all their time trying to create a widget no other brand has, but no person actually wants.
