81 Promising Something

There is a reason positioning templates are structured to force an organization to consider what they are going to be the best at: Are they going to be the cheapest? The coolest? The smartest? The easiest? These are simple paradigms well understood by customers, making ownership in one of these areas worth seeking.

Brand identities are built on such paradigms. The value proposition doesn’t need to be all about superlatives per se, but people do seek ideals in their daily lives. Meaningful brands align their offering with customer needs, emphasizing their solution as the best.

Many businesses will require healthy doses of pragmatism as well, but unless the ideal customers are striving for is to be the most pragmatic (which is unlikely), pragmatism should not find its way into the brand identity. There are casualties in every conflict, and building a strong brand requires isolating the ideals represented by the team’s flag.

Herman Miller Always Building People Design

Brands worth following strive for an idealized state that is well understood and valued by customers. For its Always Building book, Herman Miller wanted to inspire a sense of possibility about the evolved workplace.