Strategy Sandwich Edition 1: Purpose, Unaccountability, and the Death of Brand

Hi all. Introducing Strategy Sandwich. ??

I’ve decided to do a weekly drop of reads that inspired me. Strategy is all about fresh perspectives, so I live for finding new ways to look at things. And why not share the best with others?

Why sandwich? Because hopefully it'll be as satisfying as a great sandwich. And as diverse.

My target audience is:

• People who work in strategy or strategy-adjacent roles
• People who are interested in culture and foresight
• People who work in brand and marketing
• Anyone who wants to stay up to date with what’s happening in the brand, culture, and design worlds

Here’s Strategy Sandwich Edition 1.

1. The Pitfalls of Purpose TLDR: Brands fail at purpose for three reasons: Not being credible, taking a stand for the sake of connecting to a specific demographic, and treating purpose as a marketing campaign instead of an organizational compass.
2. The Unaccountability Machine Read the book recently but the article sums it up well. Fascinated by the idea of the “accountability sink”: how systems and algorithms built to increase efficiency result in no individual accountability. It explains so many negative customer experiences.
3. Brand is Dead Bobby Hundreds discusses the shift from brand storytelling with a focus on being “your friend” to a focus on product features. Interesting how this is linked to the fragmented way we consume media and the loneliness epidemic.

See ya next week ??

Image credit: Ponyo, 2008