The Commons

Are brands powerful signifiers of social identity, or are they mere corporate claptrap  – or both? I recently read two books that made provocative arguments.

In Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are, Rob Walker (New York Times Magazine’s “Consumed” columnist) laments the role that consumer lifestyle brands play in how young people determine who they are and forge communities in the absence of genuine human connections.

Lucas Conley in Obsessive Branding Disorder: The Illusion of Business and the Business of Illusion derides the vast sums spent on superficial branding “makeovers” in lieu of what he deems the “trusty, dusty principles of business – innovative products, good service, solid management.”

I’d like to rescue branding from this bonfire: I think Conley is merely identifying bad business practices, and Walker is rightly concerned about how we’re raising our children. In my view brands – like the agencies, organizations, products, and people they represent – can be good or pernicious, substantive or superficial, fostering of collaboration or of competition. No one can deny that Barack Obama created a universe of meaning in his campaign brand that profoundly intersected with the aspirations of those who signed on. And nonprofit organizations can do the same.

- Joselyn Zivin, Senior Vice President, Brand Strategy and Planning

Tags: nonprofit branding, resources