Strong brands are really
all about constraint. The role of marketing and communications is to find the
edges of a brand and create within those limitations. As soon as a brand starts
relaxing their constraints, it will be the brand that becomes weaker.
Indeed, there are countless
examples of how constraints – seemingly confounding as they were confining – have
resulted in brilliant creative solutions. Without constraints in language and messaging,
budget, time, etc., brands tend to become too “full of themselves.” They go a
little nuts with big production values, big celebrity endorsements and things
that are less and less essential to the brand. In doing so, they wind up "talking to themselves." They shoot
themselves in the foot and become more and more forgettable.
Sarah Shearman’s Campaign post is definitely worth a look.
