Fluid Brand

In the context of the technological revolution that we are experiencing with the first year of AI, companies will increasingly have to warmly embrace distinctive human values and take an ever-increasing position on social issues by entering a continuous definition of themselves, starting from defining its purpose and the value pillars that support it, transparently and sustainably. These foundations will become increasingly important concerning the corporate context in which they are rooted. To do so, brands will need a change of mindset by engaging with the people they encounter precisely as a human being would. Not just by supporting them and observing their behaviors but also by reasoning about one’s evolution of identity in the same way people compare, reason, and evolve.

Today, companies connect with audiences that are increasingly broader in age range and differentiated in terms of needs and requirements. They are also jagged in how they approach the communication tools they use and are intercepted by communication, whether the contact points are inside or outside the companies.

Values ​​and consistency, as we have said, are essential, but conveying them correctly to be increasingly influential becomes central. The models companies use to build their identity sometimes risk getting them stuck in constraints and cages, making it more complex to adapt to the context. Behind the idea of ​​a fluid brand are the following main ideas:

• Giving brands the possibility of making themselves flexible, dynamic, and fluid.
• Breaking pre-set patterns and building their own identity on models that provide the chance to evolve and change.
• Always remaining faithful to their principles, increasing the ability to adapt to the context, situations, and people with whom one interacts.
• Changing one’s look, language, and way of being and standing in situations.

There are many challenges in building or redesigning a fluid identity, but they rest on two main pillars: a new vision of the brand model and a new way of creating the brand identity (Figure 1). The fluid brand model puts the corporate purpose at the center, where it inserts all the classic elements of brand models, organizing them into levels. The more we move between levels, moving away from the purpose, the more quickly the elements within can be modified, thus responding to the need to be closer to changes in the corporate context and becoming more fluid. The fluid brand identity, on the other hand, breaks some traditional patterns. Moving from a single tone of voice to the construction of a brand signature, combined with a series of coherent voice tones close to the different audiences, allows the language to be adapted to brands depending on the situation. This then moves to the principle of “no format”, where the elements that make up the brand’s visual identity are expanded according to needs and inserted into a system made up of graphic signs, colors, fonts, images, and illustrations, that can be adapted to all touchpoints. Storytelling also plays a fundamental role in the fluid brand ecosystem, constantly redefining itself to integrate all the elements of brand evolution.

Becoming a Fluid Brand does not mean distorting oneself but instead helping to broaden the brand’s perception while maintaining its recognizability. It is an operation that requires constant envisioning work that allows companies to investigate what is happening outside the window, anticipate trends, and intercept conversations on hot topics that help them direct the evolution and growth of the brand and speak the language of today, knowing what will happen tomorrow.

The fluid brand is the natural response to the constant need to confront oneself and find a way to grow while keeping people at the center of one’s way of being on the market. A noble purpose is essential to bringing value to society and developing the ability to tell it by reaching as many people as possible is more important. We’ve had enough of brands that age and, years later, decide to break with their identity and strive to be contemporary again. Long live the brands that consistently transform one step at a time while maintaining the core of their identity.

Massimo Tanganelli