Recently, I walked out of a meeting genuinely excited.
Not simply because it was a great brand, or because there was an interesting commercial opportunity. What fascinated me was the point the brand had reached in its relationship with people.
For years, it had been finding its place. Building slowly, learning where it belonged, becoming useful and earning trust. Then something shifted. People began to move towards it.
What had once needed to explain its relevance was becoming relevant. What had needed to earn attention was beginning to attract it. The brand was no longer simply asking people to believe in it. People were beginning to believe in it for themselves.
That is an incredibly powerful moment in the life of a brand.
Because brands don’t become meaningful simply because businesses decide what they stand for.
Meaning is created in the relationship between a brand and society.
Brands are not static things
We often talk about brands as though they are objects to be constructed. We build positioning, define purpose, create identities, develop propositions and establish distinctive assets and communication systems.
All of these things matter. But ultimately, a brand doesn’t exist in a strategy document, a logo or a piece of packaging.
It exists in people’s minds, memories, behaviours and conversations. It is shaped by what a business puts into the world, but equally by what people take from it.
And that makes branding fundamentally relational.
A business can create the conditions for meaning. Society ultimately decides whether that meaning matters.
This is where brand strategy becomes far more interesting. The question moves beyondWhat should this brand say?to something much bigger:
What kind of relationship should this brand have with people?
Relationships change
Like every relationship, the relationship between brands and people is dynamic.
Sometimes we need brands. We need reassurance, simplicity, confidence, belonging, expertise, escape, inspiration, permission or pleasure. At particular moments in culture, certain brands become incredibly powerful because they understand what people need and find a meaningful role within it.
At other times, brands need us. They need people to notice them, try them, trust them, advocate for them and bring them into their lives.
A new brand may begin by asking for attention. A growing brand must earn trust. An established brand may provide reassurance. A loved brand can become part of how people see themselves.
And occasionally, something even more interesting happens. The relationship becomes reciprocal.
The brand gives people something they genuinely value, and people begin giving something back: loyalty, advocacy, relevance and belief.
That is where brands begin to move from being known to being wanted.
Trust changes the trajectory
Trust is one of the most valuable things a brand can earn because it changes the nature of the relationship.
When trust is low, brands have to work hard. They explain, persuade, prove and repeat.
As trust builds, friction starts to disappear. People become more willing to try something new from the brand, more forgiving when it evolves, more interested in what it does next and more likely to recommend it to someone else.
Eventually, trust can become admiration. And admiration can become desire.
This is where the possibility of becoming a cult brand begins.
Cult brands aren’t created by declaring themselves iconic. They become iconic when people begin participating in their meaning. They talk about them, recommend them, identify with them and bring them into culture.
The relationship becomes bigger than the transaction.
People start carrying the brand forward.
The most powerful brands participate in culture
Culture has always shaped brands. But brands shape culture too.
They introduce ideas, behaviours, aesthetics, rituals and language. They can make unfamiliar things feel normal, give people permission to behave differently, challenge conventions or make complicated things easier to understand.
And if brands have the ability to influence society, then brand strategy cannot simply be about extracting greater value from people. It should also ask how value can move in both directions.
What can this brand contribute? What can it make easier, better or more enjoyable? What can it help people believe, experience or access? What role has it earned the right to play?
And what does society give the brand in return?
Attention, trust, participation, loyalty, advocacy, cultural permission and ultimately, growth.
This exchange is where enduring brand value is created.
This changes the role of brand strategy
For me, this is one of the most exciting opportunities in our industry.
Our job isn’t simply to manufacture relevance. It is to uncover where a meaningful relationship can exist and then design the conditions that allow it to grow.
That requires us to understand three things.
Brand.What is inherently true? What makes it distinctive? What can it credibly offer? What should never be lost?
Society.What is changing? What do people value now? What tensions are emerging? What are people moving towards, or away from?
Relationship.Where can those two things meaningfully meet?
That intersection is where opportunity lives.
Sometimes the answer is already inside the brand and simply needs to be revealed. Sometimes the relationship exists but hasn’t yet been articulated. Sometimes culture changes and creates an entirely new role for the brand.
And sometimes the greatest strategic decision is recognising that a brand doesn’t need to become something else at all.
It needs the confidence to become more itself.
From positioning brands to designing relationships
This is why I increasingly think our industry needs to broaden its definition of brand strategy.
Positioning matters. Distinctiveness matters. Design matters enormously. But they are all tools in service of something bigger: creating a relationship that people genuinely want to participate in.
That relationship can shape everything from innovation and identity to experience, communication, portfolio, partnerships and behaviour.
Instead of asking only, How do we make this brand more desirable?
We can also ask, What would make this relationship more valuable?
It is a subtle shift, but an important one. Because it forces us to consider not only what the business wants from people, but what people should reasonably expect from the brand.
Designing the relationship between brand and society
That is ultimately what excites me about the work we do at BrandSociety.
There is something extraordinary about meeting a brand at a particular moment in its life and seeing what it could become.
Sometimes that means rediscovering something that has always been there. Sometimes it means recognising a cultural shift before the organisation has fully understood its significance. Sometimes it means giving a brand the confidence and clarity to occupy a space it has slowly earned.
And sometimes you can see the beginnings of something much bigger: a brand moving from recognition to trust, from trust to admiration, and from admiration towards genuine cultural significance.
You cannot manufacture that journey. But you can understand it, reveal it, nurture it and design for it.
Because ultimately, the most valuable thing a brand owns isn’t its logo, its packaging, its campaign or even its positioning.
It is the place it has earned in people’s lives.
The relationship is the asset.
At BrandSociety, our mission is to design that relationship between brand and society in a way that creates value for both.
Because when a brand contributes something meaningful to society, and society responds with trust, participation and belief, extraordinary things can happen.
