I suggested ways to improve how we measure brands, using recent findings in cognitive psychology which detail how psychological distance distorts the way in which we assess things.

1. IPA Excellence Diploma
Jean Francois Hector @jfhector
I believe that the future of brands
lies in re-enchanting the world we live in
In 1921 Max Weber predicted that modern society was undergoing a process of
“rationalisation” : all spheres of society were increasingly based on considerations of
means/end efficiency and calculation, rather than on emotion, custom or tradition1 .
He worried that our experience of the world would become increasingly “disenchanted”, ie.
that the personal, the traditional, the local, the sentimental, the subjective, the human
would all feel diminished2.
This process of rationalisation has since gone into overdrive. George Ritzer today talks
about a “McDonaldised society” 3 in which the principles of the fast-food restaurant are
dominating all domains of our lives – from eating and shopping to education, dating4, work,
politics, and even religion5 . Big business is often seen as the culprit.
I believe that this creates an opportunity for brands to stand out and win people’s
affinity by acting in ways that make them party to a re-enchantment of the world.
To show how they can do this, I will analyse the three main features of rationalisation and
propose ways for brands to define themselves in opposition to each of them.
1 Max Weber – Economy and Society (1921)
2 Disenchantment has two distinct aspects, each implicated in the other. On the one hand, there is secularisation and the
decline of magic. On the other hand, there is the increasing scale, scope and power of the formal means-ends
rationalities of science, bureaucracy, the law, and policy-making.
This paper focuses on the second aspect (Nick Gadsby wrote a brilliant paper looking at the first aspect from a semiotic
point of view: Enchantment: Using semiotics to understand the magic of branding)
3 George Ritzer – The McDonaldization of Society (1993)
4On Match.com, once a profile of interest is located, a simple click indicates a “wink” at a potential date. Other clicks can
organise potential dates into a “favourites” list so that, if one possibility does not pan out, another can be located quickly.
5In 1985 the Vatican announced that Catholics could receive indulgences through the Pope’s annual Christmas
benefiction on TV or radio.
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2. The rationalisation of day-to-day life
Weber worried that more and more sectors of society would become dominated by
cold calculations of means-end efficiency.
He saw this as the result of the growing scale, scope and power of bureaucracies who by
their nature strive to behave in a “formally rational” way 6:
1. defining their ends on a purely rational basis (not swayed by emotion or intuition)
2. determining the one optimal way to reach these ends
3. and formalising this process into rules that must be followed.
This gives us organisations that try to behave like purely rational, efficient machines and
root out anything that doesn’t optimally, directly & measurably achieve a given objective.
A rationalised world is a disenchanted world
We’ve undoubtedly gained much from this rationalisation, but we’ve also lost something of
great, if hard to define, value:
Emotions, customs, tradition, intuition, sentiments and human elements are all
taken out of the equation.
What rationalisation does to our experience
of the world is a bit akin to what the
orgasmatron7 does to love-making: it’s
ruthlessly efficient, but the whole thing feels
somewhat diminished – “disenchanted”.
Our experience of the world feels
disenchanted in two ways:
"
6 Max Weber – Economy and Society (1921)
7 In the movie Sleeper, Woody Allen envisioned a society in which people could enter a machine called an “orgasmatron”
that allow them to experience an orgasm without ever meeting or touching one another. It’s the quickest, most efficient
way from quiescence to sexual gratification. The whole thing feels somewhat diminished though – “disenchanted”
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3. " i) The rationalised world bores us stiff by its predictability & homogeneity
Rationalisation gives us products & services of consistent quality, but the price to pay is
often a mind-numbing feeling of predictability & sameness.
As Paul Goldberger wrote, the stuff you’re offered at McDonald’s or IKEA “may be good
but it’s not special” 8 .
“The truly special and inventive is something harder to find, unless you are very, very rich
or have lots of time to look. [...] A kind of high-level blandness begins to take over. [...] You
begin to yearn for some off-note, something wrong, something even a bit vulgar”.
" ii) The rational world is a cold one, we’d like to believe there’s more to it than that
The excesses of rationalisation also give us the feeling that we live in a society of
strangers, driven by the anonymous exchange of commodities.
It’s a vision that we don’t want to accept, and we constantly look for things that go
against (or have been untouched by) that logic.
You can see examples of less-rationalised alternatives gaining broader appeal everywhere
– from the growing preference for B&Bs9 over standardised options, to the recent fad for
farmer’s markets, knitting 10 or Burning Man11 .
But what’s even more telling is the sheer number of experiences in re-enchanting the
world that have sprouted with the Internet:
• Initiatives of un-calculated generosity (eg. bookcrossing 12, guerrilla gardening13, the
broom army of Clapham after the riots14).
8 Paul Goldberger – The sameness of things (NYT Magazine, 1997). http://nyti.ms/o9ZlCS
9 June Herold – B&Bs Offer Travelers Break From McBed, McBreadfast (in Business First – Columbus, 1991)
10 Knitting is making a revival among young people, as highlighted by Mark J. Penn – Microtrends 2008
11Burning Man “seeks emancipate participants from their usually distanced, prosaic, marketised social experiences” –
Robert V. Kozinets – Can Consumers Escape the Market? Emancipatory Illuminations from Burning Man (in Journal of
Consumer Research, 2002)
12The idea of bookcrossing – leaving a book in a public place to be picked up and read by others who then do likewise –
was conceived in 2001
13 The term was coined in 1973, but guerrilla gardening only gained momentum since 2004.
14 http://bit.ly/q8hTdh
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4. • Projects promoting random contacts among complete strangers (eg. currency note
tracking15, the payphone project16 , geocaching17, letterboxing 18, the postcrossing project19 ,
the big lunch20 , chatroulette).
• Happenings seeking to make the world more random and surprising (eg. flash-mobs, the
return of the lost sock21 ).
They are all little gestures of the particular, the odd, the unpredictable, the un-economic.
Commodities are replaced by highly personal offerings stamped by the giver's taste &
circumstances22.
They all re-enchant the world. As a culture we’re fascinated by them all.
15 The first currency tracking website started in the US in 1998. http://bit.ly/sWqxZ
16 The payphone project started in the late 1990s. http://bit.ly/qJCrlv
17 Geocaching was first played in 2000. http://bit.ly/214i
18Letterboxing was created in Dartmouth as early as the 1850s but only gained momentum in the early 2000s http://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letterboxing
19 Postcrossing, similar to book-crossing but by sending and receiving postcards, was started in 2005. http://bit.ly/dlURxz
20 http://www.thebiglunch.com/
21 http://vimeo.com/19855604
22 Grant McCracken – http://cultureby.com/2003/01/tag_were_it.html
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5. The opportunity for brands
This unmet psychological need represents a huge opportunity for brands.
I believe that brands that will be seen as party to a re-enchantment of the world will
be more successful.
The opportunity lies in getting noticed by not acting according to the principles of
rationalisation, by clearly signalling that your brand is not representative of organisations
that make the world more routinised, more purely commercial, more predictable, less
interesting 23.
This I believe can make your brand benefit from a Rage-
Against-The-Machine-VS-Simon-Cowell Effect 24 : people
will want it to be successful because it provides an
alternative to the thoroughly rationalised world they resent.
Applying re-enchantment beyond just communication
At a basic level, brands can promote the myth of a re-enchanted world through their ads25.
Nike’s Tag advert for example made you feel that even strangers could make the city more
playful and less predictable. It made Nike a party to the re-enchantment of the world26.
But I’m more interested in how, through their behaviour, brands can signal that they’re an
active party to this re-enchantment of the world.
To show especially how big brands can do this, I will analyse the three dimensions of
rationalisation as outlined by the sociologist George Ritzer27 , and propose ways for brands
to define themselves in opposition to each of them. These dimensions are optimal
efficiency, calculability and predictability.
23There’s a lot to be said about whether this thoroughly rationalised process leads to better branding decisions. But
others have focused on that already (Feldwick and Heath for example*) so I’ve chosen a different angle.
* Heath, R & Feldwick, P – 50 years using the wrong model of TV advertising (2007)
24 Why a Rage Against the Machine Christmas No 1 would be a great pop moment (The Guardian, Dec 11 2009).
http://bit.ly/6Nn1mU
25Taking the example of Mountrain Dew, Douglas B. Holt described how brands can become icons by embodying myths
that are of value to people, because it resolves a tension in their lives.
Douglas B Holt – What becomes an Icon most? (in Harvard Business Review, 2003)
26 Grant McCracken – http://cultureby.com/2003/01/tag_were_it.html
27 George Ritzer – The McDonaldization of Society (1993)
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6. " i) Optimal efficiency
People expect organisations to maximise profit by seeking optimal efficiency like coldly
rational machines – even at the expense of the customer experience. Henry Ford
commissioned surveys of scrap yards to find out which parts of
the Ford T never broke so he could make them to an inferior
specification. McDonald’s, in its early days, was worried about
people dwelling too long in its restaurants. To prevent this, it
created that hard edge (garish colours, uncomfortable seats) that
gave them little incentive to linger28 .
This expectation that people have creates a demand for brands that define
themselves in opposition to the logic of ever-greater efficiency.
Starbuck’s defined itself in opposition to McDonald’s hard-edge:
instead of stiff and unwelcoming seats, they offer overstuffed
armchairs and sofas that you’re welcome to occupy for as long as
you want.
There are a couple of ways for big brands to show they’re more than coldly rational
efficiency-maximising machines.
One is to dramatically over-deliver on some dimensions of the product 29 . Ben & Jerry’s for
example put absurd quantities of chocolate chunks in their chocolate ice cream.
Another way is to present the brand in a human and personal way rather than as an
impersonal slick machine. Douglas Holt showed how Snapple, before being bought by
Quaker Oats, acted out an utopia where companies are run by amateurs who care more
about having fun with their customers than in generating profits 30. Domino’s Pizza’s “Pizza
turnaround” also moved the company’s image from a faceless organisation that doesn’t
care about quality to a bunch of real people trying to do the best they can31 .
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28 In recent years McDonald’s has altered the designs of its restaurants to reduce some of these harsh characteristics.
29Adam Morgan showed how dramatically superior performance is a way to create product enthusiasm. I believe it’s also
a way to signals that the brand is not representative of organisations that make the world more coldly commercial and
rationalised.
30 Douglas B. Holt – How to build an iconic brand (in Market Leader 2003).
31 Case study: http://bit.ly/6Z9lpT
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7. " ii) Calculability
People expect organisations to do something only if the impact on the P&L is direct and
precisely foreseeable. For example in Las Vegas casinos comping has been reduced to a
highly calculable phenomenon32 .
This expectation creates a demand for brands that overtly embrace “obliquity” 33 (a
bit like Steve Jobs when he said "if we manage the top line, the bottom line will follow”34.)
One way for big brands to demonstrate obliquity is to do small,
cheap-to-implement, fun things that don’t appear to be motivated
by economic considerations – like the “real facts” Snapple puts
under each of its lids35.
These little things are even more talk-worthy when they’re
not put on display, just there for the more attentive to notice
– a bit like the “easter eggs” hidden in video games36. The
best example of this is the extensive “secret menu” at In-N-
Out Burger available for those in the know 37.
Another way is to appear to be guided by principles of how the product should be,
principles the brand won’t compromise on.
This of course isn’t new, but what’s interesting is the role advertising can play in signaling
that: when it comes to telling people about the deep beliefs your brand lives & breathes by,
the body language of the ad can rarely lie. Apple use their ads to give viewers the same
feeling they’d get entering an Apple Store or opening the box of an iPhone for the first
time: the feeling that what you have in front of you has been extremely well thought out
and executed to an incredibly high standard. They manage to make their ads convey this
feeling by spending an excruciating amount of time planning all the nitty-gritty details that
appear on the screens of the devices – more details than 99.99% of viewers would notice.
32Free perks used to be doled out to gamblers largely on the whim of casino officials, but now it is all reduced to
numbers. On average, regular gamblers are likely to receive about $1 worth of "comped" rooms, meals or other perks for
every $3 they can be expected to lose.
33 John Kay – Obliquity. Why our goals are best achieved indirectly (2010)
34 Interview on youtube: http://bit.ly/olHfHi
35 http://www.snapple.com/real-facts/
36 http://bit.ly/7Z4g3
37There are additional named items not on the menu, but available at every In-N-Out. These variations include for
example the "Animal Style" fry where the onions are fried directly in the sauce, not separately. Try and ask McDonald's to
cut your tomatoes in quarter next time you go .. http://bit.ly/Nnuw
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8. " iii) Predictability
Rationalisation involves ensuring predictability from one time or place to another. The
assumption is often that consumers neither expect nor want surprises.
But don’t they, really? I believe that, because they’re surrounded by a sea of mind-
numbing sameness, people are yearning for an element of unpredictability in what they
buy. The successes of SecretCinema and Lastminute’s SecretHotels are testimony to that.
There’s an opportunity for mass-market brands to base themselves on a new kind of
promise, one that doesn’t rely on providing the exact same product/experience
across time and space and for everyone.
This new breed of brands won’t promise a predictable experience. They’ll promise an
experience that’s up to the standard you’d expect from them, but without revealing all the
details in advance: they’ll be a promise of something special each time.
They’ll be a bit like someone whom you trust the good taste of, and who recommends a
book to you. They’ll be a bit like a good restaurant you go to without knowing what will be
on the menu, but knowing it’ll be good in a slightly different way than last time.
How can mass-market brands achieve this?
Experience brands – restaurants, coffee-shops and retail chains – could include varying
elements from location to location, details that could be left up to the staff at each location.
Local staff could decide on 5% of the menu/selection on offer, select which local artist to
exhibit on their walls each month, and even randomly give small extra perks to customers.
Traditional mass-production brands – from shoes to mobile phones or
cars – could embrace co-creation38 and think of their products as blank
canvases for others to build on, in the same way that anyone can design
and sell an app for iPhone or a t-shirt on Threadless39. Threadless
provides hobbyist designers with a development kit to create unique t-
shirt designs, and a market to sell their creations. The best t-shirts (as
voted by visitors of the site each month) are made in small batches for
anyone to buy.
By engaging a hobbyist community with the right tools and opportunities, it is now possible
for any mass-production brand to offer seemingly unlimited variants.
38 C.K. Pralahad and Venkat Ramaswamy – The Future of Competition (in HBR Sept 2003)
39 http://www.threadless.com/
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9. Conclusion
Today more than anytime in the past people are finding themselves locked in a series of
thoroughly rationalised systems – from rationalised educational institutions, to rationalised
workplaces, to rationalised recreational environments.
There are signs that they’re increasingly seeking to escape this “iron cage of rationality”40
by choosing non-rationalised alternatives – smaller “more authentic” brands, indy shops,
or even doing things themselves.
This makes it important for big brands to find ways to operate on a large scale without
participating to a dis-enchantment of the world we live in.
But there’s also an opportunity: those brands that'll be seen as a party to a re-enchantment
of the world will be liked for the refreshing vision of capitalism they embody as much as for
their intrinsic value.
They achieve this by defining themselves in opposition to the logic of ever-greater
efficiency, by demonstrating obliquity rather than calculation and by delivering something
slightly different and special each time.
Word count: 1,978
40 Max Weber – The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1905)
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