There I was, strolling across Broadway in NYC last week when I looked up and saw it.
An ad that I wrote, hanging right over the entrance to a busy subway station.
It’s always thrilling to see your copy out in the real world. Odds are you’ve slaved over it, and seeing actual humans encounter it is a sweet reward.
Except this time, my thrill quickly turned to disgust.
There. Were. Typos. On. The. Ad.
Not just one...but TWO OF THEM.
I nearly keeled over and died on the spot (I feel that intensely about brand typos).
Somehow, some way, between my desk and the ad’s final placement, someone in the production process had altered the subheadline to the tune of two grammatical errors.
(I’d show you the ad but I don’t want to get sued, nor do I want to shame my client. They made an honest mistake.)
This was bad, bad, bad.
I texted my client contact immediately.
“What typos?” he said.
SIGH.
Anyway, they’re being fixed.
But this whole thing reminded me just how much it irks me when brands don’t take serious care in how they deliver their words to the world.
And now, whaddya know? I’m writing a piece of content about it.
That very thing I detest so much has become fuel for my brand. By knowing my brand enemy—or brenemy, if you will—I can make more stuff to attract potential customers. You feel me?
Allow me to explain further why it’s such a great idea for your brand to hate something.
Choosing something to fight against will make people pull for your brand, the way they pull for the scrawny nerd in every ‘80s movie.
It all comes down to one of the great tenets of storytelling: tension.
Tension makes people pay attention. Imagine The Three Little Pigs without the wolf wanting to blow their house down. Or Star Wars without Darth Vader.
Negative forces are what make people want to follow along, pull for the protagonist, and stick around for the happy ending.
Take Method soap, for example. Their longtime brand idea and tagline is, “People against dirty.” They make it super clear what they’re against, which made it even easier for throngs of people to rally behind them — launching their brand into the stratosphere.
Or think back to Dove. They launched the Campaign for Real Beauty with one of the most viral videos of all time: a time lapse of a model being Photoshopped for a billboard. It clearly established the modern beauty and fashion industries as the villain, and women rallied in support.
Or remember Apple’s iconic “Mac vs. PC” commercials? The nerdy, complicated PC guy represented everything the Mac wasn’t. Apple made PCs the enemy — in a lighthearted way (note: just because you identify an enemy doesn’t mean you have to be hateful and negative with it).
Another perk of picking a fight?
Choosing something to fight against is a clever way of highlighting what you’re for.
Look at Method. Sure, they could have said, “People for Clean” instead of “People against dirty.” But being “against dirty” was arguably a more interesting route and allowed them to really push the buttons of clean freaks everywhere.
When you talk about being anti-something, it’s obvious you’re pro-its opposite. Anti-car, pro-bike. Anti-meat, pro-veggies. And so on. Now you’ve got two different ways to attack your message.
How to identify your enemy
As a brand, you first want to know what you stand for. This is the more positive angle, the core belief you’ll come back to time and time again (if you’re doing this branding thing right).
Simply flip that belief around and look at it from the other side. What’s the thing that’s the opposite of what you stand for?
I’m for getting your words right, because your words are your brand.
I’m against lazy and sloppy writing that makes brands look amateur.
You can also pretend your business is a person and ask it questions like…
What’s its biggest pet peeve?
What would make it take to the streets in protest?
What would it never, ever do in a million years?
So you’ve identified your nemesis. Now what?
You simply use it as another tool in your brand communications toolbox.
It could inspire your tagline, like Method.
Or your overarching brand idea, like Dove.
Or your next ad campaign, like Mac vs. PC.
Or it could simply inspire a new wave of content for your brand.
Kinda like how I turned my enemy, the big-brand typo, into this blog post. I could also do an Instagram post about it (and probably will at my new handle, @jenn.aspinwall).
I could do a video tutorial about how to prevent typos.
I could create a list of the all-time worst typos ever written.
I could make a pledge for brands to sign that they’ll avoid typos at all costs.
And so on.
Point being, there are lots of opportunities to turn this thing I hate into content or other creative ideas that reinforce my brand and rally the support of people who share the same view.
And when you’ve got the support of people who share your values, you’ve got loyal customers.
So. Sit back and think about it.
What’s your brand enemy and how can you use it to your advantage?
Let me know in the comments. I’d love to hear.
