Vague enterprises, blurred statements and frizzy positioning.
I was walking across a vast concrete and asphalt lot, hundreds of feet between me and the monoliths of retail across the expansively empty and sweltering plains,
two stood there:
Sears
and
JCPenney.
In the heat of the day, the asphalt was glimmering a seething mirage, and that wavering and sweltering visage was, in a manner — fuzzy. But more I’m talking about what brands and their teams talk about, in presenting themselves and their visioning to their purchasing communities.
What are they reaching for, and
what would their audiences be reaching to?
I really don’t have a clue about what these brands stand for, or they offer, except for holistic discounting —
that is, everything is discounted.
Everything.
Exterior.
Story.
Store.
Materials.
People.
So what is it?
It’s fuzzy.
“Where better happens.”
And J.C.Penney?
It might be surmised that the relationship value is only transactional. There’s not much feeling, which I might also surmise isn’t a psychic state of valued consideration, the inner feelings of people in brand sensation,
but rather
a less important attribute.
That’s fuzzier.
Get cheaper, get more.
What that rings out is a brand that is built mostly on commercial interplay and
that is — among millions —
the core value.
Go there, pay less, get more, or less.
Interestingly enough, WalMart might be the better visualized exemplar of expressing some kind of attitudinal character in their overarching positioning — there’s an offer, there’s a stake placed. Some kind of touch.
Whereas the others, Penney and Sears don’t seem to stand for anything immediately graspable beyond: “cheap.”
It might be said, however, that in all these strings of fuzzy brands the key relationship isn’t brandspirit, or brandheart, or brandsoul.
It’s baser; it’s more basic —
it’s transaction, supply and demand, pay and get.
Other brands stand for more.
That would be what?
Which ones?
I think of:
Nordstrom,
Target,
Kind,
Honest,
Pixar,
Virgin.
Plenty of other brands.
Clearer intentionality.
A statement, a stance,
working for a bigger purpose.
Touchable, relational, community.
Not fuzzy.
Crystalline.
Sparkling.
Meditating on that sense of fuzziness,
this would be —
what?
Who’s fuzzy?
Characterless, formless,
vague and imprecise?
Tim | GIRVIN Charlotte, NC
F i r e s t a r t e r & A c c e l e r a n t
B R A N D M Y S T I C I S M | Deep Journeys to Team & Enterprise
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