Brands as Patterns
There is some BRILLIANT thinking in this article that should be considered by businesses and marketing professionals.
Gone are the days of static-anything. Gone are the days of postured presence and one-dimensional interactions. And so, the concepts of branding must change too.
Having managed branding and communication efforts for numerous organizations, I have always resisted branding presentations that are about learning the lessons of Nike, Apple, and McDonalds. For almost every branding effort, these examples are esoteric and of no real value to the discussion and needs at hand. This article is of a different bread – principled, philosophic, and highly relevant to the discussion you should be having about your brand in today’s communication environment.
Here are some of the highlights. I’ve attached the downloadable PDF below.
The Background and Brand Environment: We all know that brands are increasingly accessed digitally, but a less considered consequence is that the interface through which a brand is accessed has become a primary identity element. This requires that a brand's "identity" should not only be defined statically or dynamically but also iteratively through successive release and behaviorally through interactions. Through this iterative interaction, the brand becomes a constantly shifting relationship between the company and its customers. Through the interface, the customer assumes the right to some control, ownership, and authorship of the brand.
As the digital world evolves, the customer's ability to inform the brand will outstrip the company's ability to control it. As a result, the brand is no longer the proprietary tool for the company that founded it but an ongoing negotiation among the founding company, its own workforce, and the customers who have invested in the end product. The added dimension of interface reveals an unparalleled breadth of a brand's characteristics and gives access that is perpetual and immediate. Therefore, the customer expects the brand to be as responsive and real-time as any medium through which it is accessed, while maintaining consistency no matter how it is experienced.
To maintain a brand's value in the future, one must begin by understanding the basics of cognitive psychology -- how people judge human consistency and anomalies of character, and how people perceive human relationships. This reveals greater understanding of how to achieve consistency beyond repetition. Consistency is still at the heart of a brand's value, but in this fluid and agile world, repetition cannot be the only rule.
Consistency in human behavior is not derived from repetition alone; it is about the formation and recognition of coherent patterns. Patterns are the way our brains perceive actions, thoughts, memory, and behavior to ultimately inform belief. They allow for differences while creating a whole. Patterns are unique in the fact that they create consistency around difference and variation. Creating a believable and consistent brand begins with the creation of coherent patterns.
The Brand Pattern: A brand pattern is more than how a brand looks. It is the coherence and consistency between how the brand acts, looks, and responds over time. Brands are temporal -- their past, present, and future is available in one URL. This kind of interface demands iterative management. The limited elements of traditional brand strategy, such as brand bibles, guidelines, values, and promises were not designed to accommodate this. So we must begin to create the tools that will make a brand perform.
A pattern needs to bridge the totality of what a brand can be -- it must be the master plan to create strategic consistency -- as well as the micro plan to create a single, relevant tactic. It must encompass systems (which are expansive and multiple) and narratives (which are reductive and singular). By doing so, brands are given room to unfold and grow iteratively without the need for radical change.
A brand pattern creates more value than repetition. It provides coherence among disparate mediums and continued relevance that can adapt and respond to its audience. A brand pattern connects a product to an experience and an audience, allowing the brand to continually grow.
