The value of brands that push back

The cliché is that products should be silver bullets and brands should make life as rosy as possible. But when brands ask people to do their fair share of the work, they make a valuable contribution to society.

Maybe the problem starts with the word “consumer”. Is that all people want to be? Consumers? When you pass billboards and fend off digital ads, that’s how things seem to be. Many brands seem to think that ordinary folk, in an ideal world, would love to be Roman emperors, reclining on couches, being drip-fed the grapes of modern society. In other words, they seem to think that people simply want to be recipients in their lives, not participants. Consequently, brands seem to think they must be all-smiling and all-solving. Even their communication shouldn’t ask too much of the recipient.

Brands that over-rate the power of consumerism and believe too much in their own importance are making a mistake. As outrageous as it seems, ordinary folk actually like to play a role in their own lives. They don’t want a stream of service providers arriving at the door to make life perfect. And your product doesn’t have to be a silver bullet, it just has to be the right tool for the job.

Many well-known brands realise that. They push back. We are not the be-all and end-all, they say. You have work to do. You have a role to play in your own life.

Take tea brand Five Roses, for example. “Nobody makes better tea than you and Five Roses.” That thought is vastly different from “Nobody makes better tea than Five Roses.”

Who would have thought, in the depths of apartheid South Africa, that white housewives would buy into the idea of making a cup of tea for themselves? But there it is. “Nobody makes better tea than you and Five Roses” was written half a century ago. Five Roses has always invited people to participate in their own lives, to stand up and do something. And for 50 years, they’ve appreciated that.

“Just do it.” Nike’s message to the most obese nation on the planet? If you don’t set your alarm and get out of bed, nothing is going to happen. The brand pushes back. We are not solving everything for you; we are simply giving you the right tools for the job. Judging from the stature of the Nike brand, people understand the value of that.

Our own work for Ability, a business management solution, does not promise to solve every problem facing a CEO, but it does promise to be the right tool for part of the job. The hard work of actually leading a company is another matter.

The new Investec brand campaign, too, pushes back. It doesn’t promise magical wealth. Instead, it challenges the viewer. Not only in the communication – How ambitious am I? – but in his life too.

It’s a question that will make the right people come alive. They will get up and make a cup of Five Roses. Then they will make a mental note for next time their financial advisor has an appointment.

The big take-out: Successful brands don’t promise a silver bullet – they push back and expect that consumers want to play a role in their own lives.