Paradoxes are the spice of life and a little poetic inclination never hurt anybody. Every time I get romantic with anything (not limited to my significant other but including a particular project, my bike, my new jacket, my new video game and the list goes on). Talking about figures of speech oxymorons create the same sense of levity of thoughts, images and internal tensions needed in a brand experience - ‘silence can be noisy’.
Brands have several communication touch points that enable the brand steward to instill the tension and bring the brand to life. The name, the tag line, the logo, the advertisement (creative), the medium (communication), the package, the of course the product, after all it is all about creating memorable experiences that draw her again and again and again.
The subtlety of the tension creates enigma that enables excitement, in numerous cases I studied I realized it was the innovation in the brand, the sort of contrarian thinking that helps identify true white spaces or adjacencies that leverage core equity. Who ever thought original Apple brand was about easy sharing of audio/video files(the iPod); Nike is about confidence not athletics, the kind that is visible in the flight of Michael Jordan as he dunked the ball into the basket; Trader Joe's is about the old styled, the classic, the small, the artisan, the under dog in a world where big box grocery stores are abound.
The tensions from these paradoxes is not a domain of marketing alone but the canvas for every bold citizen to express. The one thing to always remember though, all things being equal authenticity, simplicity and relevance trumps any paradox!
