Marketing is eating itself from the inside
Something sinister happened over the past algorithmically driven decade: brands took a sharp turn toward efficiency and benefits mindshare, often focusing on a laundry list of functional and emotional whoop-de-doos.
It’s this paint-inside-the-lines mentality that stokes irrelevancy and meaninglessness. And the whole point of a brand is to create an ... See more
It’s this paint-inside-the-lines mentality that stokes irrelevancy and meaninglessness. And the whole point of a brand is to create an ... See more
From Brand Strategy to Brand Anarchy
To systematically build iconic brands, companies must reinvent their marketing function. They must assemble cultural knowledge, rather than knowledge about individual consumers. They must strategize according to cultural branding principles, rather than apply the abstracted and present-tense mind-share model. And they must hire and train cultural a... See more
Douglas Holt • Branding as Cultural Activism
I'm fed up. At this point in my career, I'm tired of writing the most milquetoast, pushover, inoffensive, coddling copy that (seemingly) every brand wants to use in marketing and advertising communications. "We help build solutions." "Our people are our secret sauce.""Customer service sets us apart.""We're eco-friendly.Every brand says this. These ... See more
Candace H. • Candace H. on LinkedIn: I'm fed up. At this point in my career, I'm tired of writing the most… | 274 comments
Clearly the cultural pressure to achieve a unique self is old, strong, and not unique to hipsters, so why did the authenticity drive spin out of control after CE 2000? One possible reason is that the hundreds of studies on authenticity in tourism and subcultures have also been read and in many cases sponsored by business thinkers who directly influ... See more