How to Handle Perfection in Branding

Should we strive for perfection or embrace the incomplete? When crafting our strategies or designing our advertising, is it good for us to aim for the perfect outcome or are we only trading our sanity for something unattainable? Is imperfection really a weakness or does it bring our brands closer to reality and to our human (read: imperfect) audience? Here’s some advice from our brand experts:

BRAND STRATEGY?

Alison Tilling in Strategy of the Imperfect: Brands’ perfect future is one of nuance, of really taking the rough with the smooth, and in letting some of the power of negative thinking help us, there’s progress.

• The way we’re working with imperfectionist thinking has its own tyrannies. These are tyrannies of monotony, positivity, and process, and they are keeping brand strategy from being its best self (see, it’s catching).
• Relentless positivity, even when it is used in an expression of imperfection, translates into missed opportunity for brands. It’s also a growing problem as we position an increasing number of brands as activist brands, or at least as purpose-driven brands.

BRAND ARCHITECTURE

Daniela Maestres in Unique Brand Architecture: The perfect brand architecture is the one that fully adapts to the unique blueprint of a business... The real breakthrough lies in going beyond the limitations of these standard solutions and realizing that, in most cases, the “perfect” brand architecture must be custom-built.

• There are only a few mainstream brand architecture types, each cleverly crafted to suit companies with different needs: the house of brands, the endorsed brand, the sub-brand, and the branded house. These “types” are described as the go-to models, which might lead someone to assume there are no alternatives, and these four variations are the only way of implementing BA.?
• A concept that’s been tested and verified tends to make us feel more confident and bold, especially when those who have tried it first are successful corporations. It’s also much easier to use a model someone else came up with than develop a new one. But it’s important to realize that these pre-conceived options, efficient as they may be, are nothing more than examples of how a powerful principle can be implemented.

ADVERTISING

Olaf van Gerwen in Full Circle? Boring AF: Perfection leaves no room for improvement. It’s the evil murderer of ambition.

• Which degree of perfection triggers that ‘I-need-that-in-my-face-now’ kind of desire? At which point does it become unrealistic, clinical, or just plain boring? We then cook up phrases like ‘perfectly imperfect’. I’ve heard German agencies call it a ‘could-be-you’ moment.
• How does this work for brands? It’s not coincidental that just one out of the 12 brand archetypes even refer to perfection: the Ruler… The platform does not leave much room for emotion or human interaction. Neither is it very dynamic. Most importantly, it isn’t market-oriented – it is self-oriented.

GROWTH

Chloe Schneider in The Enemy of Action: There are plenty of clever abstractions in branding – and hot air. Acting and applying ideas in the real world is so often where things fall apart. Branding needs a closer resemblance and connection to life.

• ‘Perfect’ comes from the Latin for ‘completed’. It is unrealistic and dull to think of brands as complete, not as living and responsive parts of culture. It is too narrow to think only of a brand’s end product or service, its final form in isolation.
• However, the “perfect” brand and strategy are almost invariably directed towards growth. The electrifying Silicon Valley mindset of shooting into space. Does growth always have to be the goal, the pinnacle of success? Branding certainly seems to be addicted to the idea. I can’t help but think it misses the point.

P.S. See the newsletter with Part 1 of our Branding’s Perfect 10 series in our previous Brand fitness newsletter here.

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