william charnock
Sep 4, 2018 · 2 min read

Love it…but I worry the language feels a bit ‘flabby’ too. What does “brutal rigor” and “robust foundation” actually mean? If it means exploring and investigating things that have never been done before or imagining future possibilities that might change the fortunes of the brand, I’m right there with you. However, “brutal rigor” and “robust foundations” is sometimes the language of those who are afraid of change and avoid the unknown. Proponents often resort, for safety reasons, to “proven” or “previously achievable results”…or worse still, “best practices” that were established at different times, for different brands and in different circumstances.

In the ‘brand-owners’ world (i.e. the people who own the brand within an organization, rather than agency or consultants) “clear objectives” gets interpreted to mean limiting your activities to things you know how to do. “Insight” gets interpreted as something the consumer already knows they need and knows is possible. “Razor sharp” strategy gets interpreted as knowing in advance what you are going to do and never varying from it. “Delivery” means doing what you said you would rather than acknowledging that sometimes you need to make things first before you really discover where the potential is. (Dropbox is a good example of this if you look at their brand even just 2 years ago. Generic and Engineer/product focused functionality…).

The tightrope for strategy (and ‘brand’ for that matter) is that the prediction of outcomes is tough when trying to do something new. Rather than using smoke and mirrors to pretend these things are predictable, robust, rigorous and achievable, we need to be a little more transparent with brands about the real way we achieve great work, creativity and imagination, even if this involves a bit of risk on our part. Our business is about getting people (consumers — hate that word) to believe in a brand, to have faith in a brand even without rational or tangible proof? To do that we use many other human modes of being/thinking. Clients, agencies and consultants all need to start admitting that logic and reason is not how these intangibles and irrational preferences are created. These are rare, not easy to create and need persistence, nuance and experimentation. There’s a lot of trust required here. Sometimes we don’t have the answers in advance, sometimes good stuff happens serendipitously in mid-flight. This doesn’t mean we don’t need strategists, or that they are no good because they won’t pretend to know our ‘fortunes’ in advance. The strategic role should be less a fortune teller and more of ‘Shaman’. A core member of the team who has powers and interests over both the tangible and intangible worlds. Someone to provide guidance and makes use of all we know and a lot that we can’t, and shouldn’t, necessarily try to explain fully. (And personally, I like my Shaman a little on the flabbier side!).

william charnock

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Business strategist, thinker, doer, prodder and poker.