It’s Not For Everyone
Welcome back! If you’re just joining us, this is the eighth installment in our series Every Decision Is A Brand Decision. We’d like to start this month’s post with a few very important questions:
Do you like the taste of Dr. Pepper?
What about black licorice, Red Bull, or Vegemite?
No? Well, how about some Stilton cheese, or a super-hoppy IPA?
It’s likely you have strong opinions about some or all of these things. And even if you love all of them (which is unlikely), we bet you definitely know someone who doesn’t.
What if you’d been the inventor of one of these things, and you heard someone say, “I hate that! It’s disgusting!” Would you say to yourself, “Well, that’s it–I quit. I’m not gonna do this anymore”?
We don’t think so.
In this post, we explore the hidden value of divisive opinions (a.k.a. having a strong point of view), and what that has to do with good brands.
The Deal-Breaker
We learn everything about each other from our interactions — in public, at work, and in our personal relationships. At one point or another, we’ve all encountered the deal-breaker moment: We’ve met someone new! We’re getting to know them, we’re getting along, and everything’s going just fine until… it isn’t. And like that, it’s over. Then, lying awake at night all alone, the questions come:
“Where did I go wrong?”
“Was it something I said?”
“Why does he/she hate me all of a sudden?”
Stung by an unexpected negative reaction, we start to shy away from voicing our own potentially divisive points of view — whether they’re political leanings, cultural opinions, or even deciding on where to go for dinner. Sometimes it seems like the wisest option is to just shut up and move on.
But what if that’s who we are? It makes it difficult to just move on. Do we have what it takes to strike the balance between owning our point of view while remaining open to the world? Are we OK with not being liked by everyone?
These are also very real questions for brands. If they don’t strike the right balance, it can be catastrophic. Brands are like people. It’s easy to tell when someone’s trying too hard to stand out.
If a brand second-guesses their identity too much, they’ll end being so safe that no one will hate them, instead of unique enough that a smaller group of people will really, really love them. Brands that take a stand, that celebrate their unique qualities, are brands that feel authentic.
Square Pegs, Round Holes
Here’s a story about a personal experience we had, as a brand.
In 2016, we relocated our studio to a beautiful warehouse space, just above the legendary Burnside Skatepark. The building is located on the East side of Portland where, over the last 20 years, the neighborhood has been undergoing massive change, as 100-year-old warehouses have been torn down and converted to lofts, offices and *shudder* condos.
Case in point: a few months before we moved in to our new space, the historic Towne Storage building adjacent to ours was sold, and subsequently about 500 artists and creative studios lost their spaces — many of them are friends (and even partners) of ours. This kind of urban drama is commonplace in San Francisco, Seattle, and LA, but now Portland has joined that unenviable club.
The storms of upheaval do also have silver linings. One is the big wall space on the outside of our new building, just above the West-facing windows. The previous tenants had painted their name on the wall, and our landlord suggested we do something similar. “It’d be great for business,” they said — ours is the first building you see when you cross the bridge over to the East side, and no fewer than 50,000 cars drive past our window every day.
But we had a better idea.
This was our chance to communicate directly with Portland, to say something about what we’re feeling and thinking in this dynamic time. We wanted to give a thought-provoking gift to our city; a timely statement that also stayed true to who we are and what we’re about. So, instead of plastering The Official Manufacturing Company (or OMFGCO) on the side of the building in 6-foot high letters, we did this:
The phrase “Long Live The Wildcards, Misfits & Dabblers” had emerged organically out of our own internal work as a brand. To us, it struck a balance between what Portland means now, and how OMFGCO fits into that. We wanted to provide an Eastside response to the iconic neon “Portland, Oregon” sign across the river, the gateway to Downtown. We figured that, given enough time, our mural could earn its own significance. The best part was that no one knew yet that it had anything to do with OMFGCO, or even that this was our new studio (or even what an OMFGCO is for that matter). We loved the prank factor of it all.
We got our pal Justin to put it up, and social media responded: people HATED it. To be fair, we had some supporters, but, it also got panned pretty hard. The big problem was that folks seemed to think that our building was part of Towne Storage, so the mural looked to them like the Evil Californian Developers who’d bought the building were lamely trying to be relevant to the “cool” people they’d kicked out. Some Portlanders were so offended that they vowed never to walk or drive across the Burnside Bridge again! What we had hoped would be embraced turned out to be really divisive, even among people that knew us.
But we still knew what we meant by it, and what we were thinking in the first place, and we kept on loving it just the same.
Time passed, folks found out that it was us after all (and not the Evil Californian Developers), and a lot of the haters quieted down. But it showed us something. People seemed to change their opinions after learning it was us who did it, but for us, it had been better to hear the honest truth. It’s fine, even refreshing, that they didn’t like it — it’s not for them.
And it’s still not over. Disney recently reached out for permission to license the phrase (not the mural itself) for use in an upcoming movie. Flattered, we said, “Sure, thanks!” (while crossing our fingers that the film doesn’t turn out to be terrible). We just wanted to share the sentiment with as many people as possible. Audiences may see the phrase in the context of a Disney film and decide to hate it again–who knows? The point is that what happens at that point is beyond our control. What is within our control is being OK with whatever reactions we provoke by expressing our point of view.
“Flawless” Is For Fakes
Trying to please everyone pleases no one — not even you. Do your thing and everyone will benefit. Your fans should love you, not just like you (for more on this, read Kevin Kelly’s post on 1000 True Fans). Your detractors can be your biggest asset, because they show you what you’re not. Don’t let the fear of a negative reaction prevent you from being who you are.
So, chow down on that stinky cheese — the stinkier the better! Pour me a tall glass of Dr. Pepper, and pass the black licorice. Guzzle that face-melting IPA — hell, have two, and love every minute of it.
Clearly, these things are not for everyone. And that’s OK. What some people view as our “flaws” are the differences that make us us. Accept it, love it, and, please… don’t apologize.
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P.S. While we were writing this article, Nike dropped this spot. People were pissed, their stock took a hit, but they stood for something (and now sales are up 31%). LOL
Original illustration © 2018 OMFGCO
