Brands as Non-Shitness Guarantees

“I suggest it is by far the more valuable economic role that brands play: not to be a promise of ultimate superiority but a cast iron assurance of pretty dependable non-shitness. The Fina ad is one good example. Even better is that great CDP ad for Smirnoff: “why waste money on real lemons”, which I can’t find, or the Volkswagen promise of reliability. But overall this proposition of “loss avoidance” is rare — most ads seek to boast a lot more than they reassure. Yet when you are handing over £1,000 to buy that flat screen TV, how much of your brain is worried about whether it is the best TV you can buy for £1,000, versus the part of the brain thinking “I hope this TV isn’t a crock of shite?” I’d put the ratio at about 1:2.”

“By fitting in, you may not have the best musical taste in the world, or eat the best food, or drive the best car — but you won’t go far wrong either. And, when making a purchase, what most people want, most of the time, is not the best they can buy: they want something that’s very unlikely to be crap.”