Paradessence

There's a novel out there called Savage Girl by Alex Shakar, that talks about a really cool theory that seems to hold a lot of truth. It's called "paradessence" and it's essentially the thought that every successful product has an inherent paradox. I don't remember the examples from the book, but here are some I've thought of: Harley Davidson has created a community of individuality, McDonald's is a cold and undifferentiated family restaurant, bottled water is a commodity that's a luxury.

If you take this theory one step further you can actually begin to concept on your product this way. You take the characteristics of your brand, and you begin to market the opposite. Look at the H3 "Monster" ad, they don't sell the Hummer as big, they sell it as small.

I like to do this when I get writer's block, or I can't get my head around a brand benefit, I'll just draw a line with 2 arrows on the ends and put one aspect of the paradox on each end and think about where the brand is, and sell the opposite. It's kind of a Yin and Yang way of branding.