Earlier this week, I watched The Prof G Show's episode called "The Stupid," and it kept me thinking until now that if there were so-called stupid people in this world according to Professor Cipolla and The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity (1976), there were likely stupid brands out there? Since brand is created by people, so it would be likely that the stupidity of it all has everything to do with the people behind it.
Be Mindful or Be Stupid.
It is as simple as that. According to Professor Cipolla and his book, we can categorize people into 5 different types; the intelligence, the bandits, the helpless, the ineffectual and the stupid. I would agree with Professor Galloway that the helpless should be renamed to the artist or the dreamer of some sorts as I can see a lot of youngsters who put their hearts and souls into something for others before themselves, which sometimes could cause them harm unfortunately.
I couldn't help but try to apply this law and find some useful implications for my mindful branding concept. The idea is that if you were to mindfully create meaningful values for your brands and businesses, there is no way you could fall into the lower left quadrant. If you really craft your brand and business beyond yourself, there is no way you could harm others or yourself. Your brand or business might fail or not head to where you want it to be, but that's a learning with purpose, that's not the intention to cause others or yourself harm.
Mindful Branding Implications: Have a meaningful value for a healthier ecosystem
Just out of my curiosity, and forget the types predefined by the original idea for a second. I plotted brands that I could think of in no particular order into the context. My personal collection of mindful branding brands (patagonia, airbnb, sweetgreen, headspace, and lemonade) are obviously clustered in the top right quadrant; these are brands that from the scratch, mindfully at their cores to be part of the whole ecosystem, and be in it for a long-term with a real value of what they offer, no bogus. While I am skeptical of where should I put Amazon (my all time favorite as a brand and business inspiration), and Snap (my admiration of its authenticity and commitment on wellbeing for its audiences. I probably have to put them together with all the big techs giants, the typical capitalism institutions like the Government and the Media?
The Hopeful: The Artists and Visionary
I would rename this quadrant as I am hopeful that eventually, the good bandits will be reaching out to help those who may not have enough capital or resources to accomplish their dreams and impacts for others. Also I believe that most of the innovators and disruptive technology might start out here in this quadrant before scaling out to the right either remaining in the top right quadrant or moving into the lower right. Here I put Blake Mycoskie's two businesses, TOMS and MadeFor, as they reflected his visionary to give positive impacts for others. TOMS may not be the ideal brand in term of its growth and business model at the moment, but its "Buy One, Give One" model really put many into the maps including Warby Parker. Meanwhile MadeFor is just getting started so we just have to wait and see how far up and to the right of the quadrant.
The Bad, Bad, Bad, Bandits
The obvious bottom right quadrant however is reserved for the Bandits, and I would refer to Professor Cipolla's definition on this, "those who pursue their own self-interest even when doing so poses a net detriment to societal welfare." Recent examples would be the startup scam of Theranos and the controversial valuation of WeWork and its We trademark.
The Law of Brand Decency: Be Mindful
I believe that good brand is like a good human being, you can't just think the world will evolve around you because in reality it doesn't. A good brand cares about its surrounding and the impacts it has on others. A good brand takes responsibility for what it creates. A good brand mindfully thinks of an outcome and not just an output. Do yourself a favor, move far far away from the bottom left quadrant and help reinforce the law of brand decency. Nobody is deserved to be called stupid, honestly, neither does a brand.
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