Shadows in the Cave

Not long ago, while channel-surfing for a football score, I landed on one of those educational stations smack dab in the middle of a recital of Plato's Republic—the allegory of the cave.That's when it struck me—no one understood brands like Plato understood brands.The cave allegory is about truth. A man is born in a cave, with his back to the opening. For his entire life, he faces the inside of the cave. Call him Zeb. While Zeb's sitting there, people and things go by the opening, casting shadows onto the back of the cave. All day long, all Zeb sees are the shadows of things. But Zeb doesn't know they're shadows. He thinks the dark things passing in front of him are real. They are his reality. The truth. In short, it's all Zeb knows. But one day, Zeb turns around and is amazed to see that the shadows aren't real at all. The things casting the shadows are what's real.Enough about Zeb. What does this have to do with brands?Look around. If you are like most people, you have surrounded yourself with objects of one sort or another: a shirt, a car, a house. For a moment, think of each object as a shadow, and think of the idea that created it as casting that shadow. In other words, it's the idea of a thing that is the truth, while the actual thing is only a physical, and therefore imperfect, manifestation of that truth. Objects are transient, but the idea of an object is not. The idea is eternal.Well, a brand is an idea. Actually, a brand is a special kind of idea: A brand is an ideal. A brand is an ideal that manifests itself as an object. While it eventually rusts, wears out and becomes obsolete, the ideal of the brand doesn't. Since 1964, there have been 36 models of Ford Mustangs. Ben & Jerry's offers more than 50 flavors. Harley Davidson makes clothes, and Led Zeppelin made 10 albums.True, not all shadows are deserving manifestations of the ideal. The '81 Mustang, for example, or Zeppelin's In Through the Out Door. Sometimes, the manifestation is so far from the ideal that people lose sight of what the actual ideal of the brand is (see Porsche 924, Wrangler leisure suits). But it's a testament to the power of an ideal, the power of truth to the human mind, that such aberrations do not necessarily destroy a brand.A brand only dies when it becomes separated from its ideal. The biggest blunder we in the communications industry make is mistaking the shadow for the ideal casting the shadow. We create positionings based on a brand's superficial physical entity, its skin, instead of its soul.Which brings me back to Zeb.Born in a cave, with no innate need for objects like a car, basketball shoes or shampoo, he still has an innate need to aspire to something greater; to actualize and maximize his potential. He needs to make his way closer to the light of an ideal. A great brand tethers itself to the same ideals that Zeb is moving toward, it becomes important to Zeb, it enters his line of sight. The great brand reminds Zeb that it is like him: not a shadow but a soul. A soul trying with every new manifestation to get closer to its ideal

Brand Marketing

Shadows in the Cave

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