Why you should want people to dislike your branding
Apologies in advance if this feels jarring or confrontational.
Our businesses are our babies, right? We naturally want them to be liked, trusted and purchased from…So it might seem backwards to want people to dislike your branding…
Before I explain, let me rewind for a sec. If you have done your foundational work before diving into design, you should hopefully have profiled your target customers very specifically, down to their likes, dislikes, personality, hobbies, and brands they love. Literally have been a creeper with how specific you know these your customers’ preferences. Because this then allows you to leverage their preferences and curate your branding/ messaging in a way that speaks to this person and makes them think, “wow this business really gets me”
So if you have branded strategically, your visuals should be curated to deeply resonate with your target audience.
So where does the disliking part come from?
To have a truly magnetic and captivating brand, you have to polarise to magnetise*.
A magnet is polar, magnetising some and repelling others. If you want your branding to be truly magnetic to your people, it will feel niche and specific - which in turn will probably repel the people it is not for.
AKA some people won’t like it, and this is actually a good thing because it means you are standing in authority and in your authenticity.
If you try to be liked by everyone, your brand will probably fall in this vanilla middle ground where no one feels much of anything about it and this is sooooo much worse than being disliked.
(*you have to polarise to magnetise) concept credit to Samantha Daily
Hope you found this helpful!
Steph
