Embrace human paradox: building brands with trends AND countertrends

Brands think about trends the same way that surfers think about waves: find a really big one, get on top of it and ride that baby!

But when you look at the physics of what makes waves surfable, something interesting emerges. 

Beautiful waves are created by a tension between the energy carried through the water and the resistance opposing it from the shoreline.

 What if you looked for trend tensity?

Very few of us live in a single dimension. And these dimensions are not all logically coherent. Our desires often conflict. We believe in one thing but do another. The world we live in offers us lifestyle ideals which clash. 

Our tensions make life interesting. Think about this the next time you enjoy stand-up comedy or chuckle at a cartoon in The New Yorker. Almost all humor finds its appeal in cleverly pointing out the tensions which rule our lives.

Tensions make people interesting too. Part of what makes Pope Francis so charismatic is that he represents an authoritarian institution but is himself democratic and approachable. 

As it goes for people, so it can go for brands. The folks at Brand Asset Valuator – the consultancy first started at Y&R three decades ago – point out that many of the strongest brands they’ve ever studied don’t have one-note personalities but embody tensity, an attractive combination of seemingly opposite qualities. 

Land Rover: Hardworking Luxury. 

Trader Joe’s: Fun and Value. 

Harley-Davidson: Rebellious Camaraderie.

What if we looked for lifestyle tensions – and their clashing desires– and used the energy of this opposition to form part of the basis of the brand’s appeal? 

This means that instead of just mapping big lifestyle trends, we would also map their countertrends. 

And we would embrace paradoxical human nature to build brand ideas that ripple with the energy of these tensions.

Tesla is a powerful brand which is completely “on trend” for sustainability. But its attraction is not solely based on its appeal to the selfless pursuit of reducing our carbon footprint. It’s also a brand which appeals to our egoic side. Tesla has made EV’s into cool status symbols. It is led by a colorful, swaggering CEO. Its user experience is thrilling and gratifying. All of this is quite the opposite of the self-controlling mindfulness of sustainability.

Tesla connects with a tension. One the hand, we want to be part of the solution to impending climate catastrophe, to be good stewards of the Earth. One the other hand, we just want to enjoy the egoic pleasures of life. And, as one Tesla owner put it, “Tesla lets you drive like a saint but look like a sinner.”

Similarly, what could be more hedonistic than an outdoor music festival? Yet last year, the Glastonbury Music Festival went entirely plastic free. And when the godfather of ecological mindfulness David Attenborough appeared on stage to salute the festival goers for their commitment, the crowd went wild - as did Sir David. The excitement comes from the lifestyle tension between enlightenment and hedonism.

And what could be less “mindful” or self-limiting than punk music? Yet Indie beer icon BrewDog, which takes its inspiration from the spirit of punk music, proudly publishes an online sustainability report showing that their brand is not just becoming carbon neutral but carbon negative. Their report proclaims, with a punk rebel yell, “F*ck You CO2.” All while cleverly inviting you to buy stock in BrewDog and to try one of their latest brews.

Change topics. Think about sincerity and authenticity. 

Now think about music. 

What kind of music did you think about? 

Chances are it was not K-Pop. 

Yet history was made by the boy band BTS whose owner Big Hit raised $400 million in an IPO which values the company – and therefore the band – at $4 billion. Key to the success of BTS is the passionate advocates in its fan base. And key to the passion of its fan base is the steady stream of documentary content the brand members put out about their daily lives. The content is not idealized; it’s quite confessional, full of struggle and pain. As The New York Times put it, they made a bet that “human vulnerability would be more interesting than superficial polish.”

On the one hand, we enjoy the aspirational polish of K-Pop. On the other hand, we equally aspire to know who we really are, how we really feel and to not be afraid to show it. BTS connects with both of these contradicting desires simultaneously.

When you think about the iconic doll Barbie, you might think it plays into the gloss and polish of the idealized self. Yet look at the new Barbie Fashionistas. They’re disabled. They have prosthetic limbs. They have vitiligo. They’re trans. And they’re Barbie - in all of Barbie’s glory. Barbie Fashionista straddles the tension of authenticity versus gloss.

You can see a similar appealing energy in how Chipotle lights up Tik Tok. None of their content looks like polished advertising. But it’s delightfully comedic and quirky. And it’s getting results. The silly, home-spun fun of their UGC drive #GuacDance got, for example, over 250,000 consumer contributions. Indeed, looking at Chipotle on Tik Tok, you see not just a fast food chain but a lifestyle brand.

Covid revealed something about our changing global cultures. The simple fact that it engendered a response of lockdown in most of the countries in the world – with the notable exception of Sweden – revealed a shift away from danger and death as “just part of life” to a technical problem to be solved by health and safety experts. This Safety First desire is also expressed in the radically changing nature of childhood with many children in developed countries growing up having never faced any serious danger – as well as the over-abundance of warning signs on almost everything we use.

Opposing Safety First is a growing desire for Deeper Experiences. To escape the prison of comfortable predictability, we crave unusual, unsettling and challenging immersive experiences. Consider the fabulously successful Punchdrunk Theatre, often described as “Eyes Wide Shut” meets “Clue.” Punchdrunk produces mysterious, haunting plays which unfold on an explorable set. You’re obliged to wear an anonymous carnival mask and are free to walk about and explore. You can’t interact with the actors - but they can interact with you. In parallel to that is our changing relationship with food. Eating strange-tasting foods from around the world has emerged as a badge of lust for life and daring imagination.

So how can a brand make meaning in Safety First vs Deeper Experiences?

In the midst of the lockdown, two young Italians, Carolla and Vittoria in Liguria, Italy began playing tennis on the rooftops of their apartment buildings on opposite sides of the street. They made a video of themselves playing and something about the hint of danger combined with the safety of social distancing captured our hearts and made it go massively viral. Enter the pasta brand Barilla who arranged a surprise visit by Roger Federer to play with Carolla and Vittoria followed by…this is, after all, a brand activation…a delicious lunch courtesy of Barilla spaghetti.

Coors beer is indissociably linked with the Rocky Mountains and the thirst for adventure that they signify. In the midst of the lockdown, what to do with this brand asset? Coors ran a sales promotion “Win a trip to the Zoom background you’ve been seeing all these months.” A witty way of positioning the brand as an antidote to the surfeit of safe screen life we’ve all been experiencing. 

Look at what Lifebuoy has started doing at one of the world’s largest gatherings of human beings, the Hindu festival of Kumbh Mela – where water is plentiful but soap is in short supply. Lifebuoy helps support Kumbh Mela by giving people hand stamps made from soap which stay dry until water is applied – all supporting the festival experience - and its safety.

Individuality versus Conformity is a decades-old, if not centuries-old, cultural tension. But both trends keep accelerating. In one generation, the badge of weirdness has gone from marginal to mainstream. So much so, that Stassi Schroeder hit the bestseller list with her humorous style guide, Next Level Basic, enthusiastically celebrating mainstream lifestyle codes. 

On the one hand, we are caught up in the unrelenting quest for personal uniqueness, willingly embracing the anxious loneliness this can create. On the other hand, we might be equally drawn to let go of the restless quest for personal difference and take comfort from “one size fits all” identities.

Enter Hendricks, “a most peculiar gin,” as it says about itself. If you’re an urban sophisticate, this might well be your go-to gin bar call. It’s different from all other gins because it’s flavored with rose and cucumber and it comes in a vintage-style apothecary bottle. You don’t look weird ordering it but what it does in all of its brand action is to celebrate weirdness. However, it doesn’t tell us who we’re supposed to be but what inspired the brand: arcane Victorian exotica. So even though it proclaims itself to be “most peculiar,” it’s actually a big tent under which all kinds of personalities can congregate.

Similarly, MAC Cosmetics which serves as popular safe choice held in high regard by its users. First made by professionals for professionals, MAC has grown in 30 years to become an icon of inclusive individualism. Most recently, its UGC drive #YouOwnIt became the most successful activation ever on Tik Tok. Another big tent under which all kinds of personalities can congregate.

And look at what Levi’s is up to. You could argue that Levi’s are quite “basic” in the richly varied and hyper-competitive jeans marketplace. Yet, right now, with most of its stores closed, Levi’s has introduced customizable DTC Levi’s, called Future Finish, and is using Tik Tok’s “Shop Now” to double traffic to its site. Popular, even arguably “basic,” but with Future Finish, Levi’s become a canvas on which to signal your individualism.

The quest for individuality is outer directed.

Concurrent with it, is an inner-directed desire to lead as meaningful life as we can. We don’t want to just be contented; we want our time on Earth to amount to something important. Think of how big the practice of meditation has become. No longer the pursuit of a mystical few, mindfulness meditation is now the single biggest global trend in wellness. And look at the importance of everyday creativity. Pursuits like sketching, photography, journaling and making music have shifted from “hobbies” to strategic investments in holistic self-development.

But at the same time that we are drawn to pursue more meaningful lives, we might be equally drawn to crowdsource more and more of our lives - letting popularity-guided choices steer us to “sure winners.”

Top 40 music lives on and on. Whether it’s nostalgic playlists or right-now top tunes, we can still be drawn to music which doesn’t affirm our unique tastes as much as it just makes us feel good.

Even on-line dating. Being matched by algorithms that respond to our self-descriptions has emerged in the U.S. as the #1 route to coupledom.

And auto-purchasing. Rationalized as more convenient and economical, we are increasingly comfortable letting our computers do the buying for us.

So, in this dichotomy of pursuing meaningful lives versus running our lives on crowd-sourced auto-pilot, what’s the opportunity for brands?

Popularity itself is the ultimate algorithm. But its reassurance can also tilt into blandness. Budweiser, the most popular beer in America, is now shifting its focus away from huge crowd-pleasing Superbowl ads into a focus on hyperlocal. With strategies like getting its brand made “the official beer of Utah” to making LEPs in partnership with Detroit local hero rapper Big Sean, Budweiser is adding more intense local meaning to its super-popular brand.

Apple dominates its field. You can’t go wrong buying an iPhone or a MacBook Air. Yet one of its biggest sources of marketing during Covid times is Apple at Home. Like going to the Apple Store and signing up for a self-development class but all of that made easy and convenient. The whole focus is on making yourself a better communicator; it connects with our thirst for a more meaningful life.

And Moleskine serves as an “analogue” version of the Apple experience. Its plain cover notebooks, once the tool of Bohemian artists, now promise us a thoughtful life – available practically everywhere paper is sold.

The trends and countertrends we’ve just looked at cover a wide gamut of human life: 

The individual and society

How we present ourselves

The kinds of experiences we want to have

The kind of lives we want to lead 

Our shared relationship to the Earth

We’ve seen paradoxical human nature at work creating trends and countertrends:

Individualism & Anxiety          vs         Conformist Security

Sincerity & Authenticity          vs         Gloss & Filter

Deeper Experiences                vs         Safety First

Meaningful Lives                     vs         Autopilot

Stewardship of the Earth        vs         Having it my way

And the 15 leading brands we’ve seen in action all demonstrate the attractive excitement that can be generated by three simple shifts:

1.     Embrace the dichotomous human mind.

2.     Follow trends AND their countertrends.

3.     Tap into the energetic tension of contradictory desires.