TO BOLDLY GO WHERE NO ENTERPRISE HAS GONE BEFORE.

Space.

We think about it when we’re crushed shoulder to shoulder on trains, or walk into shoebox apartments, or spend most of our days in open plan offices where one short desk blends into the next and the next and the next. 

And when we step outside in our quest for space, we are confronted with urban spread, carparks, noise, and the ever dwindling thing called nature.

We need and crave space. 

Space to think, to write, to chat, to read, to watch. Space to call our own. Whether it’s owning a home, camping, or even renting a car, as they do in Japan, just to have space to catch a nap, or listen to music, or shut out the world. 

Space to breathe.  

It’s important to our planet, to us and yes, even to brands.

Brand space is as precious to business as personal space is to us.

Most companies, however, seem content to play in the same space as countless competitors. Not to search for new frontiers but to be where others have gone before and many continue to remain.

I guess there’s a feeling of safety in familiarity. But a safe place in not somewhere brands need to be right now.

They need to find their own space which means define their own category. Rather than be obsessed with what competitors do, be obsessed with finding a place to play that is yours.

Strangely, with more people and more brands, there are more opportunities now than ever before to create a space that is not based on yesterday and comfort, but based on today and relevance. 

There is always a ‘but’ and here it is. A brand exists in the mind. 

Finding space there isn’t easy. You’re in there with every moment, every memory, every emotion, every feeling, every thought, opinion, idea. 

Something has to give. While the human mind has room for much, there isn’t enough space in there for everything. 

Some things get pushed down in order or forgotten altogether.

To find space for a brand, there are certain parameters. A brand has to be relevant, must have empathy, should offer something other than itself, be trusted, and to fight your way in and keep the space, a brand must be disruptive.

There is no such thing as a safe space for brands. Once you get comfortable, someone else will push you out.

Space is the one universal need. People search hard to find it. Trees soar into the sky to reach it. Animals and birds migrate up to thousands of miles each year for their space on this earth.

And yes, brands need to find their space. It is out there. And it may well be the final frontier for business. To explore strange new categories, to seek out new life and new targets, to boldly go where no business has gone before.