Creative Failure...

Tolstoy once said “ All happy families resemble each other, but each unhappy family is unhappy in it’s own way.” So, why would I include a touchy-feely quote about happy families when I am supposed to be blogging about branding and marketing? It’s simple… plainly stated, “in many ways, failure tends to be more creative and unique than success.”

When we look at the big brands, we notice some very common templates in the way they advertise and take their products to market. Sure, they get creative with the imagery and the angle, but the overall approach usually fits into one of a few molds. From an administrative standpoint, most successful business ventures share a similar discipline in the way they structure their companies. As a result, most of us look to these successful businesses and brand leaders as a model when we approach a new venture. Why reinvent the wheel… right?

Well, it seems that many business ventures fail for that very reason. They confuse creativity and differentiation with reinventing the wheel. In an effort to be different, their business models and subsequently their brands become distorted to the point of failure. So, like Tolstoy’s quote about successful families… we discover some well very defined models for brand-building and advertising success. But on the other side of the coin… wow, there are a million uniquely creative ways to fail. Learn from the big boys and you’ll save yourself a lot of time and money, and even more aggravation.

Don’t reinvent the wheel! Just make the wheel your own and make it better than the competition.

Remember… “Doing it the right way may not guarantee success, but doing it wrong almost surely guarantees failure.”