WHY PLAYING IT SAFE IS RISKY BUSINESS

Today’s marketplace is crowded.

But you know this, because you’ve heard it. A million times before. Haven’t you?

That’s because ChatGPT loves to start articles with this phrase, or something like it. And to be fair, ‘those in the know’ will generally agree that beginning your piece with a framing statement, a line that sets the context, is best practice.

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with opening your article with a framing statement like this. It’s perfectly fine. But it’s getting boring. And boring is something you don’t want to be accused of when it comes to branding and marketing. In fact, boring is quite possibly your biggest enemy.

So, What’s Changed?

To be perfectly honest, being boring has never been acceptable, but applying best practice used to mean something. But that was in a world where only ‘those in the know’ knew what that was. But in a post-AI world, where we’re all ‘in the know’, best practice has lost all its power, because best practice now means standard practice.

And if you want to do better than bog-standard, then you’d better listen up.

Why so Beige?

Somewhere along the way, the world of branding and so-called ‘creative marketing’ became very flat. Now, we’re not pointing the finger at AI here, because it simply isn’t true. There are loads of reasons that we’ve ended up in this situation; the pandemic, globalisation, digital transformation, the constant pressure to scale up…just to name a few.

“You make something off-white or beige because you are afraid to use any other color – because you don’t want to offend anybody. But by definition, when you make something no one hates, no one loves it…We don’t talk about planes flying; we talk about them crashing.” Tibor Kalman

In this sprawling, blandscape, everyone has become scared of saying the wrong thing. They fear doing anything that might alienate a portion of their audience. And in their valiant efforts to be a ‘brand for everyone’, they end up doing nothing.

Maybe it’s because we’re in the creative sector that we feel it so acutely, we face the daily drudgery of everything becoming so diluted… from colour palettes and TOV to imagery and graphics. It all just starts to look the same, sound the same, feel the same.

Ready for a change

You know you’re probably guilty of this, and it’s ok, we get it. The stakes are high. You’ve got KPIs to reach. Metrics to achieve. A job to keep. And we’ll be the first to admit that the winning formula has worked for a long time. The path to success has been very straight forward.

But things are changing. And not just for marketers and number-crunchers. Audiences are changing. The way we measure success is changing. The very fabric of the Internet is changing. While this might sound scary, it’s actually good news, because change means opportunity, and opportunity means change.

Thanks to this almighty compression that has flattened the landscape of just about every sector in every corner of the digital universe, we’re in a situation where it’s become quite easy to stand out in the crowd. And by ‘easy’ we don’t mean ‘easy’. We understand that it’s never easy to find your brave.

Brands who broke the mould

Just look at brands that have broken the mould. SURREAL flipped the traditional cereal market with bold design and irreverent messaging, trading broad family appeal for standout, health-focused disruption. Oatly did the same in the alt-milk space, using quirky, self-aware copy on minimalist cartons to build a loyal following. These weren’t accidents, they were strategic decisions to be brave.

Afraid to Be Different?

“When we talk about finding your brave” says Mat Harris, Founder of Fluro, “we’re not talking about being reckless, we’re talking about true creativity, having the courage to stand up and be different in your category. If you think about it, the most reckless thing any brand can do is be safe and stick to the formula, because that’s the quickest way to blend in and get forgotten.”

“Playing it safe can be the most costly thing in the world”. Bill Bernbach

When Benchmarking Goes Wrong

If you keep benchmarking your brand against your competitors, then you will continue to blend in. It’s that simple. But if you can shift your perspective and see the immense power of going against the grain, then you’re on your way to building a brave brand.

Bold, strategic decisions aren’t about making affirmations that everything is fine as it is. Strategy isn’t about doing more of the same. If the status quo was working for you, you wouldn’t be reading this article. You could argue that being brave is about being prepared to give something up to stand out.

“The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.” Michael Porter

Brave branding in action

Consider how BrewDog deliberately positioned themselves as the anti-corporate brewery in a sea of traditional beer brands. Or how Patagonia consistently makes choices that might alienate some consumers but deeply resonate with their core audience, like their “Don’t Buy This Jacket” campaign that actively discouraged excessive consumption. Both brands made clear choices about what they wouldn’t do, and whom they wouldn’t try to please.

How do I Know if my Brand is Boring?

This might hurt a bit, but change is always hard. Here are some questions you could ask yourself…

Messaging and TOV

• Brave brands make you feel something. What does your brand make you feel?
• A brave brand has an opinion. Is your brand making a stand on anything?

Design

• Colour and imagery are huge emotional triggers. What emotion does your brand evoke?
• A brave brand doesn’t follow trends, it creates them. What creative risks are you taking?

Strategy

• Have you clearly identified who you’re NOT for?
• What industry “best practice” are you willing to deliberately ignore?

How Brave Is Your Brand?