two brands in this world
I was purchasing my first ever wedding present on Friday when it occurred to me that I had no idea what to get, where to look, or how much to spend. I had recalled hearing that Home Sense was very good for these types of occassions. After being told there was a location in three different places (when, in fact, it wasn’t in any of them), I decided to change it up. I visited the Bay, Sears, hell - I even went to Winners! I felt an awful lot like the butt of Jerry’s joke.
On the way home I realized that there are only two kinds of brands in this world. There are those for people who have an idea and there are those for people who don’t.
An ‘I Have An Idea’ brand is a funny thing. These brands service a niche (either through their product line or target market) and carry products that belong more in the long tail than on their physical shelves. They can be big or small - an Apple or a PC. You don’t visit the Sony store if you don’t know what you’re looking for. You visit the Sony store because you know what you need and you know that if anyone will have it, they will.
An ‘I Have No Idea’ brand is like Sears, the Bay or even Facebook. You walk in aimlessly, guided by the impression that due to sheer volume and reputation, this shopping experience will leave you feeling like an expert - an expert who has an idea! Most times we are disappointed with the level of expertise with which we leave.
Doesn’t matter what product or service you’re in the market for - you’ll rarely visit both kinds of brands in one shop. An “idea brand” needs to listen to people who walk in inquiring about something not on their shelves, because if people are asking you for it, you could (should?) be carrying it. That is to say, the brand supports this type of product or service quite nicely. A “no idea” brand should make my first visit easy and pleasant. It should give me enough information that I feel competent but only because the sales staff are around. The “no idea” brand should be looking to make themselves my default option - like eating peanut butter every morning for four months.
‘Two brand thinking’ goes beyond just retail. We go to Loblaws for a full shop and Longos for our produce. We go to the best creatives when we already have an idea for our campaign and we go to consultants when we don’t. Even when we watch TV, we either sit down to watch a program or we flip through a handful of channels. This is why YouTube was adopted faster than Joost. YouTube is for people who don’t have an idea but want to browse until they find something they like. Joost requires you to be on the hunt for something specific and let’s face it, more often than not we have no idea what we’re hunting for.
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Someone who talks a lot, listens a lot, sings on the streets and loves big ideas. If you need a discipline or two for piece of mind, try Marketer and Entrepreneur. If you need a title to legitimize why you'd waste your time here, I can't help you. I work with people on fire for the things they love.
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