About a decade ago, the “Turn your brand into a movement” idea started becoming fashionable.
And why not? Why wouldn’t you want to have an army of folk evangelizing your stuff for free? Profit!
What they didn’t tell brand managers was, though having your own movement is nice (and profitable), your brand has to be movement-worthy in the first place.
i.e. Why should anyone care?
There’s an old idea in the film business, that a movie is only as good as the reasons for making it: Is it made for art? For love? For money? For career? For posterity? And does it matter, anyway?
And so be it with brands.
We can all remember the time when Apple felt like a movement. Ditto Starbucks. They were trying to change the world for the better, and yes, they did.
The trouble begins when you try to force it, when you try to create a movement without a valid reason, without a valid motivation to do so.
And yes, people can tell when you’re faking it…
