Thinking about U2, and You Too
I recently treated my boyfriend to a trip to Las Vegas for his birthday. I knew he’d love the chance to hit the craps tables, but I timed the trip around an event that was more of a gift to me: the U2 concert at Sam Boyd Stadium.
I’m a diehard U2 fan: I think they are truly one of the greatest bands and brands of my lifetime. In fact, I think about the U2 “brand” quite frequently when I’m brainstorming big ideas for the terrific brands I work with at MMC. Why? Because I think that at some point, really big brands pick their path towards one of two end points on a spectrum of the emotional relationship they want to have with consumers.
I’ve dubbed these emotional end points “lowest common denominator” vs. “highest common denominator”. The lowest-common-denominator brands can be seen everywhere around us: they peddle products that appeal to our need to be noticed, to be attractive, to be successful, to be envied, to be cool.
Highest-common-denominator brands, on the other hand, offer us stuff that feeds our need to make a difference, to make friends, to give back or pay it forward or add some beauty or laughter to this life. And that, to me, lies at the core of a winning brand’s survival strategy for the long term. Oh sure, these brands often gratify lots of our less noble desires along the way, but they tap into some higher-order emotion that’s intensely personal and yet universal and they use that connection to accomplish more than simply selling more stuff.
U2 is a great example of how to rock the high end of that spectrum for me. Sure, music and merchandise are the band’s artistic commodities, but activism, passion and philanthropy define their brand and keep fans like me showing up. (In fact I’m already plotting my 2010 tour date destination vacations ;)
