TRReichman wrote:
The thing I want to challenge in Evan\'s rebuttal here is that real compelling branding isn\'t necessarily about being \"special.\" I sort of agree that if everyone is special then no one is, which is why I think being special or trying to be special is a waste of time. I think compelling brands are about being distinct, and committed, and standing for something. Strong brands defy the idea of positioning because they refuse to relate themselves to anyone else because at root they have no competitors.
Sorry to disappoint you, but I don\'t think we\'re really disagreeing.
I was in part using \"special\" as a term to lampoon this idea that we deserve high levels of compensation just because we are all precious little snowflakes, rather than because we innovate, provide unique and/or high-quality products, or provide well executed and specialized services. To paraphrase Mr. Godin, you don\'t \"deserve\" anything you can\'t kill and drag back to the cave.
However, I was also using \"special\" during the converse side of the point in a broader sense to describe a quality that makes it worth working with us over everyone else.
As you have sagely noted on your excellent business blog (http://www.amantofish.com/), great brands create a compelling narrative for their approach/vision. My argument is that such a narrative works best when the business is in fact trying to blaze their own trail at some sort of level... and I am trying to suggest to everyone that simply assuming that every substantive choice about how we conduct ourselves in art and business is already set in stone is a makes the challenge of creating that narrative with any degree of conviction a Sisyphean task.
Mar 08, 2011 at 09:42 AM
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