Age of Conversation 2.0 Teasers

Last week, Ryan Barrett put out a request for the authors of the upcoming Age of Conversation 2 book to share a brief snippet of their chapters.

Greg Verdino has some critical thoughts on why this should have waited and I tend to agree him. Perhaps it is just the nature of many who blog to want to share what they write almost as immediately as it is finished.

Anyway... After reading what others have given her, I'm really looking forward to the book's eventual arrival so I can read the rest of their chapters.

Given that, and in the spirit of playing along, here's mine - based on a quote from George Bernard Shaw:

"The reasonable brand adapts itself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to it. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable brand."

The unreasonable brand is something I intend to start posting more and more things about without giving away my chapter as it's something I've been thinking a lot about lately and where I'm going to go with it won't encroach upon the specific sub-topic I chose to write on.

To see all of the bits Ryan has collected so far, jump over here.

Comments

[Sean Scott]

Paul, looking forward to reading your chapter. I find it interesting that you chose a reasonanble vs. unreasonable which to me has shades of good vs bad.

I look at brands as entities in an ecosystem. Some of them have more adaptable traits than others as the environment they live within continues to shift and evolve.

[Dion Hughes]

i'm looking forward to it too. being something of a historian of advertising, i recognize the change that has come over the way brands move through the world. years ago, there was a reliance on the usp, of course. while this is outdated, there was an element that was 'unreasonable' in that brands simply said what they were good for, and did not pander. if bmw were to be started from scratch today, would it be inclined to identify a specific lifestyle or worldview through which to equate itself to the dreams of its audience. back then, though, they made an unequivocal claim, and at least had the posture of not caring whether you the audience agreed or not.

[neilperkin]

Funny but I just heard the exact same quote used in a talk by Bob Geldof the other day talking about how it is often restlessness that creates the spark and the impetus for innovation. I've just posted about it. I think I know where you're coming from relating that thought to brands so am really looking forward to reading the chapter