PART 2: Revising Brand Adjacencies to Fuel Fresh Ideas
An Exercise in Pruning
In Part 1 of this article, I discussed why conglomerates like Celine, Jil Sander, Loewe, Prada, and The Row should be reviewed—and largely erased—from brand adjacency charts, pitch decks, and presentations. My argument is that acknowledging the irrelevance of huge companies to one’s work as an independent business will open doors to more personal, innovative, and encouraging ideas—rather than acting as a constant reminder of how far off you are from their level of success.
This weekend, I’d like to encourage you to spend some time reflecting on your heroes by doing an exercise which I designed to help my clients prune their brand positioning, or as I like to call it, ‘the axis of inspiration’.
This is a walkthrough exercise which will motivate you to see what is relevant and personally fulfilling to your work, instead of what we’ve been told is “success” in fashion, or the wider creative fields. This is one of the simplest – and strangely fun – ways to help you define the trajectory of your company and help imagine fulfilling achievements which matter to you, your team, clients and admirers.