Should we still adapt the brand to the audience?

Let’s be honest: marketers today are bombarded with one cardinal rule—adapt your brand to your audience’s needs and expectations. Every marketing 101 class, every guru will preach that if you want to succeed, you better get to know your customers like a stalker with an affinity for surveys. Your audience must identify with the brand.

But what if this strategy is, well, boring? What if the greatest brands didn’t bow to audience whims but made the audience adapt to them?

It’s time to challenge the norm. Let’s dive into the brands that ignored the usual rules, broke from convention, and built identities so strong that their audience eventually followed.

Welcome to the Jungle: Ignoring the polite corporate mask

Corporate culture has always been portrayed in a sanitized way. LinkedIn, HR departments, and workplace resources traditionally avoid discussing real issues—taboos like burnout, toxic bosses, or why nobody really wants to work on Fridays. So when Welcome to the Jungle decided to pull back the curtain on workplace taboos, it didn’t exactly align with the clean, suit-and-tie corporate image everyone expected.

They didn’t care. They created a raw, edgy brand that directly addressed uncomfortable truths. They made it clear: this is who we are, and if you can’t handle it, we’re not for you. They didn’t adjust to fit the buttoned-up corporate world. Instead, they created a space where the audience now expects—no, craves—brutal honesty. And it worked. Their community is thriving because people respect the fact that Welcome to the Jungle didn’t dilute its message for the sake of mass appeal.

Starbucks: Coffee plus… a "Third Place"?

You’ve heard it before—Starbucks didn’t just brand itself as a coffee shop; it branded itself as a third place. Not home, not work, but a space where you could chill, be productive, or pretend to write the next great novel while scrolling through TikTok.

Now, did the world ask for a third place? No. People just wanted decent coffee. But Starbucks wasn’t interested in playing the same game as every other coffee chain. They didn’t want to just give you caffeine; they wanted to own a moment in your day. Starbucks gave its audience something they didn’t know they needed, and now the “third place” concept is synonymous with their identity. It’s a brand vision that stood out and defined a new expectation for what a coffee shop experience should be.

Apple: A fruit as a logo? For a tech company?

Let’s be real. When Apple started out, tech companies had logos that screamed “digital.” Abstract shapes, circuit-like symbols, or futuristic fonts. Then Apple came in and slapped a fruit on their logo.

At the time, this wasn’t just unconventional—it was downright bizarre. Did the digital audience expect this? Absolutely not. But Apple didn’t care. They had a vision for simplicity, beauty, and creativity, and their logo was an extension of that. By choosing something as everyday as an apple, they made tech approachable, human, and iconic. It didn’t align with the typical tech branding, but it didn’t need to. People gravitated towards it because it wasn’t what they expected.

Now? That bitten apple is one of the most recognizable logos in the world. The audience adapted to Apple’s vision, not the other way around.

Netflix: The anti-streaming brand

When Netflix first got into the streaming game, everyone expected the same thing from them that they expected from cable TV: movies, shows, and maybe a documentary or two. But Netflix? They decided to play by their own rules. They started producing and distributing content that made no sense to traditional media norms—controversial reality shows, fitness programs, stand-up comedy, and even fun, unpolished social media posts by employees who weren’t afraid to stir the pot.

Was this the content people were asking for from a streaming giant? Not at all. But Netflix wasn’t interested in doing what everyone else was doing. Their branding was bold, quirky, and sometimes controversial. And guess what? People loved it. They adapted to Netflix’s brand identity, not because it aligned with what they wanted at the time, but because it was so different from everything else on the market. Netflix proved that if you build a strong identity, the audience will follow.

So, should we keep adapting? Or should we just be ourselves?

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: maybe it’s time to stop tailoring your brand to fit the current desires of your audience. Maybe the path to real success is in creating something new that your audience didn’t even know they wanted. When you mold yourself to fit the fleeting expectations of today’s market, you risk losing the unique essence of your brand.

Tesla, Apple, Starbucks, Welcome to the Jungle, Netflix—they didn’t wait for their audience to tell them what they wanted. They created a vision so compelling that the audience adapted to them.

In 2024, the bold move isn’t adapting to your audience. It’s having the courage to trust your vision, stick to your identity, and let the audience come to you. If you’re afraid of standing out, you might just end up being forgotten. But if you’re bold enough to build a brand that’s unapologetically you, the right audience will follow.

So, the question is: are you going to keep adapting? Or are you going to make the world adapt to you?