1. Surprise #1: Differentiation or “Death”

Once upon a time there was a planet called Earth. There, seven billion people lived together under the same sky. Their lives intertwined in many different ways, almost as many ways as there were communities in this great and diverse world. Once upon a time, in short, a massive quantity of human beings were all trying to find their place in a space that, as big as it was, was not infinite.

In an attempt to find our place in the world, we have – throughout history – organized ourselves into various types of societies, which, today, have taken on characteristics that run the entire length of the spectrum.

Tribalism still exists in less developed areas of the planet, a primitive form of social organization marked by the tendency to feel a great attachment to the group to which one belongs, even to the extent of ignoring the rest of society. On the other hand, in the most advanced contemporary societies the height of individualism has culminated to impose a way of life based on differentiation from the rest of our fellow human beings.

Therein lie the two extremes we indicated earlier: societies that rely on its members identifying with each other and those based on differentiation between them.

This book, however, is not an anthropological work (or perhaps it is). In any case, the paragraphs above are not based on any study or verifiable anthropological knowledge, but rather on intuition – a feeling that we cannot escape each time we see a documentary about distant lands, every time we flip through a magazine featuring exotic destinations and, above all, upon returning from a trip to a so-called “third world” country. At first glance, it appears that less developed societies boast greater collaboration, solidarity and identification among their members, as well as lower competition to excel and stand out from the pack.

Individuality and detachment seem to be characteristic of more developed societies. In the United States, a country that is universally accepted as the Mecca of progress, young people tend to leave home at an early age, just after high school, to move to a university town. The U.S. culture of labor mobility is also particularly strong, and it is very common for young people, after finishing their university studies, not to return to live in the same town as their parents. Family reunions are held on holidays and special dates, but it is clear that the sense of family has changed: transformed into individuals at a very early stage, young Americans struggle to find their niche in a highly competitive society in which only those who excel prevail.

It is no coincidence, then, that it is precisely in this context that the consumer society has found its ultimate expression.

Throughout history brands have evolved in parallel with society because they are, after all, a reflection of how we live, our wants and our needs. Today, brands are facing the same challenges as young Americans who have recently left home and are looking to find their place in the world: if they want to set themselves apart, they have to distinguish themselves.

The mass availability of consumer products and services makes our brains unable to differentiate between brands if they do not make an effort to bring to the table something unique that separates them from the rest.

But being different is not easy, neither for brands nor for people.

Consider for a moment the effort we all make to stand out, even if only just enough so that others identify and remember us. To do so, we often employ our résumés, professions, hobbies, ideologies, the products we consume... Let us think about travel, for example. We often want to discover new places that are truly authentic and that are far off from the typical destinations that attract large crowds of tourists. If that is not possible, we at least try to go back with a new and original recommendation, a little gem we discovered before anyone else (“you have to go there,” “it’s not to be missed,” “no tourists,” “it’s like this or that place 20 years ago”). In an era in which many people travel, what identifies us is not traveling but doing it in a different way.

The world of brands is facing a similar situation. At a time in which technology is facilitating the manufacture of good products, in which all segments of the market are on a par, in which our consumers already have an arsenal of products to suit their tastes and needs, we have to find other ways of distinguishing ourselves.

Brands today find themselves in a gulf of similarity that absorbs them in a uniform mass and in which it is very hard to stand out via the product they offer, the market in which they operate or the consumer profile they target. Obviously, there are still brands that get noticed by way of these traditional areas of focus. In our society, however, in which we often turn away from our relational frameworks, fighting individually for our own identity, the brands that grab our attention, while they could do so via product, market or target, are finding success through something very different: their values.

The Values That Unite Us

Values are what encourage us to recover a certain sense of sociability and belonging. In a society in which we struggle desperately to distinguish ourselves and excel, we are yet tempted at times to lower our guard and form bonds with our fellow human beings. At times, something calls on us to be part of it all, to assimilate into a group in which we all have something in common that identifies us. That “something” is nothing less than the values we share with other group members.

Individualism is a long-distance race; we often need to stop and rest. As much as competition and distrust weaken our gregarious instincts, we occasionally get to express our feelings of belonging when we are attracted to something rich in values. Increasingly, these values are also associated with brands.

Just as we leave individuality aside to become followers of our sports team, we also like people to recognize us as followers of a brand. Like a music band or sports association, a brand can also attract fans if it represents values that appeal to and retain the people around it.

We want to be different, but sometimes we also need to feel like part of the group.

Being different is not easy, but it is essential. Brands will either distinguish themselves or die.