The Paradox Planet
Creating Brand Experiences for The Age of I
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We live in a world of contradictions In today’s social, economic, political, institutional, personal and business environment, addressing conflicting needs helps create and build value for customers, shareholders, employees and other stakeholders. There are two major conflicting forces affecting marketing.
1. The Age of I Today’s customers want their individuality to be respected. At the same time they want to feel they belong to a group with similar desires. They do not want to feel alone in their uniqueness. The Age of I reflects the desire for both inclusivity and individuality, both assimilation and differentiation. In The Age of I, group and individual influences combine to affect the choices we make. Decisions are driven by our desires for both interdependence and individualism. Promising and delivering satisfying solutions for customers that integrate the best of both inclusivity and individuality is a winning, advantageous, commercial formula.
2. The global, local, personal world We live in a world of colliding trends of increased globalization, increased localization, and increased personalization. Some say that this means the end of global brands. The simultaneous growth of these three forces - globalization, localization, and personalization - continues to generate opportunities for business. In fact this means a new approach to global brand management. It affects how we market our brands. And it affects how we structure our marketing organization.
In the context of these fundamental developments marketing must change. This book discusses our world of paradoxes, focusing on how to build strong valuable brands in a world of contradictory needs and benefits. In today’s world, people want their individuality to be recognized and they want to feel they belong to a group that shares their distinctiveness. People want to be independent and interconnected, at the same time. This is the underlying paradox affecting how we make decisions today. In the 1960’s and 1970’s, a time of consciousness-raising, self-absorption, personal success, self actualizing, the focus was on “me’ – what is in it for me? Now, people desire the maximization of inclusivity and individuality.
At the global, local and personal levels, customers today do not want either/or solutions. Customers expect brands and businesses to optimize conflicting needs. For short-term and long-term success, single-minded solutions will not work. The old-fashioned idea of “positioning” by aiming to own a single word in a customer’s mind is outdated thinking that is destined to fail. Brands are promises of complex, multi-dimensional, multi-faceted experiences. Reducing brands to a single word is simplistic marketing.
In this new Paradox Promise environment this is even more important. Brands must deliver a compelling, differentiating, multi-dimensional idea. In every category the challenge is to identify the biggest, most relevant paradox promise opportunity. Paradox Promises address desired yet conflicting needs by delivering the benefits of an optimized whole. Promising and delivering Paradox Promises generates high quality revenue growth.
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About the Book
Beginning with the Age of We in the 1950s and moving to the Age of Me to today—the Age of I—this book examines how polarization and anger has changed how companies must manage their brands.
Larry Light and Joan Kiddon, the leaders of Arcature LLC, consultants in brand management, examine societal changes and global, local, and personal forces through the lens of marketers. They explain how to:
leverage “paradox promises” into brand-focused strategies and actions that create a pathway to profitability; create extraordinary brand experiences for individuals and communities; and build strong brands in a world of contradictory needs and benefits.
In today’s world, people want their individuality to be recognized, but they also want to belong to a group that shares their distinctiveness. People want to be independent and interconnected, which is the underlying paradox affecting how we make decisions today.
Navigate how to satisfy conflicting needs, and look beyond single-minded solutions with the insights and guidance in The Paradox Planet.
About the Author
Larry Light is the chief executive officer of Arcature LLC, consultants in brand management. He was formerly a senior executive and board member at BBDO, president of the international division of Ted Bates, the global chief marketing officer of McDonald’s, and the interim global chief brands Officer of IHG. He is the co-author with Joan Kiddon of Six Rules for Brand Revitalization: Learn How Companies Like McDonald’s Can Re-Energize Their Brands.
Joan Kiddon is the president and chief operating officer of Arcature LLC, consultants in brand management. She began her career as a market researcher at BBDO Worldwide in New York before moving into account management and becoming the head of marketing and market research for BBDO West, Los Angeles. She joined Arcature in 1990. She was a consultant to McDonald’s during its brand turnaround from 2002 to 2005, and, consulted to IHG with Larry Light from 2011 to 2014.