many people today instinctively recoil
from the concept of a brand the word
brand brings with it some disturbing
associations heartless commercialism
crushing uniformity blandness and a
dumbed-down experience there are plenty
of bad brands around so it’s
understandable that blame gets attached
to the whole underlying notion of brand
itself it becomes tempting to suppose
that ideally we live in a world that was
entirely unbranded but in fact the idea
of a brand is a really important one a
good economy needs good brands
essentially a brand is a constellation
of qualities it’s a personality in the
material realm the bad associations
around brand spring from the way that
often the personality feels crude
annoying or stupid Tommy Hilfiger
projects a vision of life in which group
sports of central and self doubt has
little glamour that can be a pity
consider by contrast how in the early
part of the 20th century
Virginia Woolf and her family and
friends created a brand known today as
Bloomsbury that stressed the centrality
of conversation flowers flowing garments
and sexual experimentation a brand where
groups sports and cheeriness had very
little glamour but a brand doesn’t only
symbolize a set of ideas it’s about
standardizing and reproducing them again
that can sound depressing but only
because we’re thinking of some pretty
uninspiring things being repeated in the
16th century the Italian architect
Andrea Palladio worked out some basic
designs for villas churches and public
buildings in the classical style as his
ideas spread they were branded and
universalized they were over the
centuries taken up all over the world in
the u.s. Thomas Jefferson bought big
into the Palladian brand his own house
Monticello in the University of Virginia
are key examples of franchise
architecture just as much as is the
design for McDonald’s restaurants the
key issue isn’t free creativity versus
the cold hand of the brand rather it’s
between a good wonderful inspiring brand
like Palladio and less impressive burger
brands brands helped to overcome the
unreliability of individuals
the brand offers the template and the
rules so that you don’t need to be a
genius to bring about something of
genius which is very good news because
there are very few geniuses around and
we don’t want good things to have to
depend on such a rare phenomenon most
brands have logos the logo is a visual
cue that immediately focuses on lines on
particular qualities that we can expect
of the location or object that carries
it again logos come in four great
criticism they seem to be everywhere and
to ruin the skyline but it isn’t a logo
that’s the problem
once again it’s the underlying quality
that the logo is representing for many
the Christian Lamb is a deeply cheering
logo ideally the aim shouldn’t be to
eliminate brands the big goal should be
to elevate the concept of a brand we
actually need and hugely benefit from
good things being developed as brands we
need more good things to shift from
being as they are now cottage industries
to being global brands for example it’s
a great pity that the British
psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott who died
in 1971 remains just one individual who
gave birth to a few books and lectures
that colored the education of
present-day psychoanalysts rather than
as should have happened a brand that
would outlive him complete with centers
films logos perhaps restaurants and a
clear ideology to communicate to the
world the amoral approach to economics
and business says that a good brand is
simply a brand that’s strong and popular
it doesn’t matter very much what the
content of the brand happens to be by
this way of thinking Krispy Kreme is a
great brand because of its global
success in getting people to eat
flavored fattening Donuts but we should
really be asking a different question
which is what makes a brand admirable in
broad human terms what makes it good in
a sense of contributing to human
flourishing and helping us to lead the
best lives we can a good brand is one
that’s built around a set of genuine
virtues we need a lot more of those
brands brands invite the recognition
that great things are not usually done
by individuals acting in heroic
isolation at some point every good idea
every important insight should go
through the process of
becoming a brand because this just means
that it would widen its power in the
world and other people can join in the world is in great need of better brands
from the concept of a brand the word
brand brings with it some disturbing
associations heartless commercialism
crushing uniformity blandness and a
dumbed-down experience there are plenty
of bad brands around so it’s
understandable that blame gets attached
to the whole underlying notion of brand
itself it becomes tempting to suppose
that ideally we live in a world that was
entirely unbranded but in fact the idea
of a brand is a really important one a
good economy needs good brands
essentially a brand is a constellation
of qualities it’s a personality in the
material realm the bad associations
around brand spring from the way that
often the personality feels crude
annoying or stupid Tommy Hilfiger
projects a vision of life in which group
sports of central and self doubt has
little glamour that can be a pity
consider by contrast how in the early
part of the 20th century
Virginia Woolf and her family and
friends created a brand known today as
Bloomsbury that stressed the centrality
of conversation flowers flowing garments
and sexual experimentation a brand where
groups sports and cheeriness had very
little glamour but a brand doesn’t only
symbolize a set of ideas it’s about
standardizing and reproducing them again
that can sound depressing but only
because we’re thinking of some pretty
uninspiring things being repeated in the
16th century the Italian architect
Andrea Palladio worked out some basic
designs for villas churches and public
buildings in the classical style as his
ideas spread they were branded and
universalized they were over the
centuries taken up all over the world in
the u.s. Thomas Jefferson bought big
into the Palladian brand his own house
Monticello in the University of Virginia
are key examples of franchise
architecture just as much as is the
design for McDonald’s restaurants the
key issue isn’t free creativity versus
the cold hand of the brand rather it’s
between a good wonderful inspiring brand
like Palladio and less impressive burger
brands brands helped to overcome the
unreliability of individuals
the brand offers the template and the
rules so that you don’t need to be a
genius to bring about something of
genius which is very good news because
there are very few geniuses around and
we don’t want good things to have to
depend on such a rare phenomenon most
brands have logos the logo is a visual
cue that immediately focuses on lines on
particular qualities that we can expect
of the location or object that carries
it again logos come in four great
criticism they seem to be everywhere and
to ruin the skyline but it isn’t a logo
that’s the problem
once again it’s the underlying quality
that the logo is representing for many
the Christian Lamb is a deeply cheering
logo ideally the aim shouldn’t be to
eliminate brands the big goal should be
to elevate the concept of a brand we
actually need and hugely benefit from
good things being developed as brands we
need more good things to shift from
being as they are now cottage industries
to being global brands for example it’s
a great pity that the British
psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott who died
in 1971 remains just one individual who
gave birth to a few books and lectures
that colored the education of
present-day psychoanalysts rather than
as should have happened a brand that
would outlive him complete with centers
films logos perhaps restaurants and a
clear ideology to communicate to the
world the amoral approach to economics
and business says that a good brand is
simply a brand that’s strong and popular
it doesn’t matter very much what the
content of the brand happens to be by
this way of thinking Krispy Kreme is a
great brand because of its global
success in getting people to eat
flavored fattening Donuts but we should
really be asking a different question
which is what makes a brand admirable in
broad human terms what makes it good in
a sense of contributing to human
flourishing and helping us to lead the
best lives we can a good brand is one
that’s built around a set of genuine
virtues we need a lot more of those
brands brands invite the recognition
that great things are not usually done
by individuals acting in heroic
isolation at some point every good idea
every important insight should go
through the process of
becoming a brand because this just means
that it would widen its power in the
world and other people can join in the world is in great need of better brands
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