You Kant have it all
What can Immanuel Kant teach us about branding?
Immanuel Kant was a Prussian philosopher who lived from 1724 to 1804. Among his many assertions he argued that reason is the root of morality and that the human mind creates the human experience. In Idea for a General History with a Cosmopolitan Purpose (1784), I came across a “Proposition” of his that has stuck with me:
“Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made.” — Immanuel Kant
While this proposition could apply broadly to everything from sports to politics, it’s a particularly important lesson for the world of branding. Here’s why:
Nothing is perfect so stop trying to pretend it is
So many companies work tirelessly to perfect their brands. They want to appeal to everyone, all the time. Kant shows us that this is impossible. By appealing to one audience you are, definitionally, ignoring or insulting another audience. And that’s ok! The biggest risk of trying to appeal to everyone is the resulting bland unassertiveness that appeals to no one. You see this with companies that put the word “Solutions” after their names. They do this because they lack a defined purpose (or at least one they’re willing to share with the world). Everyone’s in the solution business–so what’s the value of calling it out?
Brands, like humans, need to have a belief system
Humans and brands are both incapable of flawless reasoning. We need to prioritize what’s important to us and act accordingly. Otherwise there’s just too much shit we’re supposed to care about. How many things are we supposed to do on a regular basis that we fail or forget to do? Flossing, changing Brita filters, flipping mattresses, checking the oil. We don’t do these things because they aren’t important enough to us–that is, until they cost us big money and their importance gets reevaluated. People tend to drive the speed limit after getting a speeding ticket (for about a week).
Brands need belief systems too. They can’t support all causes because not all causes are congruous with a belief system. Good brands know what they believe in and attract like-minded customers–think Patagonia. Brands that try to appeal to every cause on its marketing-invented day/week/month come off as pandering because, well, they are. No one expects a brand to be perfect–they just want to understand its values and how they fit with their own.
Relationships with brands are more complicated than they appear
You think it’d be simple: you like a brand, you buy stuff from them. If only it were that easy. People’s relationships with brands tend to be an aggregate of their experiences with the brand. When it comes to a brand that you interact with on a daily or weekly basis, you build a comprehensive catalog of interactions that informs your feelings towards, and interactions with, the brand. Let’s take Amazon for example: they are an easy brand to have mixed feelings about. Just this past weekend I had several interactions with Amazon:
- I bought hand soap refills and felt pads from them (glamorous, I know). Because I use Amazon Smile they donated $0.08 (0.5%) to a charity of my choice, The Sentencing Project.
- I saw that their employees and shareholders have written letters to Jeff Bezos asking them to stop selling “Rekognition,” the facial recognition software they created, to law enforcement.
- My brother told me they’re pushing Amazon Prime memberships hard at Whole Foods.
So how do I feel about Amazon? Clearly they provide a convenient service that I use on a regular basis. They also clearly act in a way that isn’t in line with my beliefs and those of their employees. This makes me a hypocrite. I use Amazon to donate to The Sentencing Project and they sell facial recognition software to law enforcement that puts more people into the criminal justice system. This is the crooked timber Kant is talking about. These decisions aren’t clear or logical. I’ve almost entirely avoided shopping at Whole Foods since they were acquired by Amazon. I still buy things from Amazon directly on a regular basis and enjoy my Kindle. It’s complicated–especially with international juggernauts that offer you several ways to patronize them daily. Making a binary decision in the face of all of this information, while totally warranted, feels like an over-simplification. These trade-offs and decisions are a big part of what it means to be human and what it means to be a brand. Pay enough attention and you’ll begin to see what is truly valued.
