“If you want to understand the entrepreneur, study the juvenile delinquent. The delinquent is saying with his actions, “This sucks. I’m going to do my own thing.”
― Yvon Chouinard
In his book 60 Minute Brand Strategist, Idris Motee welcomes us to today’s surplus economy. A reality in which companies look the same, act the same, and offer the same products, and in which customers only discriminate brands based on price and availability.
Avoid creating yet another surplus economy brand if you can. Be different, that’s the whole point of branding, but it’s not that simple. Painting your face and putting on a clown wig might have worked for Ronald McDonald, at least until they had to retire him because he started creeping people out (and it turns out fast food is not great for children,) but you don’t have to do that. It’s also not about defining your brand ‘purpose’ or jumping on the next social justice issue bandwagon.
Please do have a purpose beyond making money for a handful of people while squeezing every last drop of value from everything unlucky enough to find itself in your way. And please, be socially responsible and leave things better than you found them. But as much as I’d love for people to pick who they buy from based on such noble principles, they usually do not.
In 1957, Yvon Chouinard taught himself how to blacksmith and started selling climbing pitons from the back of his car, mostly to his friends. By 1970, he became the largest supplier of climbing hardware in the United States, and its pitons had irreversibly scarred and damaged climbing routes all across the country.
Patagonia’s first customers might have cared for sustainability, but apparently, it came after climbing in their list of priorities. Pitons were a big part of the business, but on an ascent on El Capitan, Chouinard saw the destruction they caused with his own eyes and came home disgusted. He immediately phased out the pitons and introduced a new and better kind of tool that would not damage rock faces, and in doing so, defined the ethos of what would later become the Patagonia brand.
From its humble beginnings as nothing more than a way to rack up change for bills and climbing trips, through more than a few smart business moves, several company restructurings, a long series of product and materials innovations, the necessary stroke of luck here and there, and a brand identity that is a masterclass in aligning visual elements and messaging to a company’s ethos, Patagonia has become a lifestyle brand, a big corporation opposing big corporations—if you believe something like that can even exist.
Some people pay a premium for its products because of their quality and durability and out of respect for nature, wildlife, and the outdoors, after all, Chouinard wanted “customers who need our clothing, not just desire it,” but the truth is that many more today do because Patagonia is famous and wearing it raises their status, while the sustainability part is simply the story they like to tell their friends.
The lesson here is that reaching famous brand status requires many things to fall right into place, and almost always a long timeline, a big budget, and often a combination of the two. Or you can pray for a miracle, which is exactly how Chris Godfrey made it on the TIME 2019 25 Most Influential People on the Internet list by publishing on Instagram a single stock photo of an egg on a white background. Remember that? It is still the second most-liked picture on Instagram, ever!
Since you’ve read this far, I’m going to go out on a limb and assume you’re skeptical about the miracle thing and can’t afford to run a Super Bowl ad, but you have something people need and are in it for the long run. Now, am I suggesting that you should just write your company name in Helvetica Bold while you let your brand emerge organically over time?
Yes, go ahead. Typeset your company name in Helvetica to use it as your logo, and you’re in business—I’m only half-joking—but waiting for a brand to ‘emerge’ is a missed opportunity. Maybe it’s even reckless. Follow Patagonia’s example instead, make stuff people need, stand for something, let it permeate and shape your business, take every opportunity to enhance the value you create, and be intentional about how you communicate that value to the world.