It is frustration that makes people build brands that mean something.
I’m hoping you’ll see in yourself a frustration with the status quo. It’s that frustration with the way the world works meeting: hunger; passion; commitment and opportunity that shapes something better. It is that frustration that makes people build brands that mean something.
We call it irreverent relevance.
That irreverence is special, but sadly often fleeting. This chapter is going to add: discipline; tactics & tools to help remind ourselves how to access that irreverence while bringing teams along with the emotional energy they’ll need to help build your brand. Over time there has been a meaningful shift from inductive thinking that celebrated the irreverent change maker to the encroaching celebration of deductive thinking that places ‘best practice’ on a pedestal.
There was a time (and this is a personal story) when I was early in my brand building career, when it people would come to brand builders with old problems that needed a new solution.
We were expected to breath life into some archaic businesses that had to redefine themselves in light of the over-changing world.
Today the world is full of new problems, but many people have started working in the world of ‘brand’ and they’re nervous about the new solution. They want an old tested, data rich, deductive solution to the new problem they face.
Needless to say, the Rogue amongst us are bored with the deductive homogeneous solutions that pepper the world today. This is about something better — taking risks — and giving irreverence the relevance it deserves.
Especially the new problems the world faces today. Let’s not limit our thinking to the old solutions that got us here. Let’s leave meaningful space for clear eyes inductive thinking that imagines a better tomorrow.
