Intention’s Cheap - The Practice of Positive Brand Impact
Every brand has power. The moment a brand enters the market, it begins to shape how people think, feel, and behave in its orbit.
Historically, when it comes to brand power, we tend to consider things like attraction and conversion, does it move the needle?
Only recently has the business world begun to explicitly discuss the idea of social impact, positive vs negative.
Brand As A Force For Good
Positive brand power produces what can be thought of as a gift. This is not the brand’s deliverables or its skills or strengths, it’s not even how it makes people feel, it’s the true social impact of its presence in the world.
For the sake of example, let’s look at two different brands through the Brand IdQ lens.
Brand A, which combines emotive styles of Sage, Ruler, and Creator, possesses powers of authority, wisdom, and imagination. Its gift is the ability to lead others toward a future that is both intellectually sound and aesthetically compelling.
Brand B, which combines emotive styles of Rebel, Hero and Magician, possesses powers of defiance, grit, and vision. Its gift is catalytic disruption.
A common practice around positive social impact, is acting with intention. And if you subscribe to this school of thought, you might com to the conclusion that a founder who seeks to activate their brand's gifts, need only possess good intentions.
Unfortunately, it’s not that simple.
A few months back I published “Why Good People (And Good Brands) Do Bad Things” which among other things cited a study by Monin & Miller's (2001) work on moral credentials and moral Merritt, Effron & Monin's (2010) self-licensing, that explored explored how people’s self-concept as “good,” “ethical,” or “values-driven” shapes their ability to perceive any harm they cause, particularly harm that is indirect, systemic, or unintended.
Across multiple studies, researchers have found that a positive moral identity can function as a psychological buffer. It reduces scrutiny while also increasing rationalization.
In short, when goodness is assumed, vigilance actually declines.
In other words, good intentions can actually make your brand more vulnerable to perversion. Founders, who truly want their brands to be a force for good vs merely stroking their egos, must understand this and get curious about what we call Brand Shadow.
(Representative research: Monin & Miller, “Moral Credentials and the Expression of Prejudice,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2001; Merritt, Effron & Monin, “Moral Self-Licensing,” Psychological Science, 2010)
Shadow Is Not Drift
Before we walk through some examples of Brand Shadow, it is important to distinguish shadow from drift. They are not the same thing.
Drift is what happens when energy dissipates. The brand loses focus, loses clarity, fades into incoherence. Drift is entropy. It is a passive failure — the brand simply stops being itself.
Shadow is what happens when the energy is fully there, fully concentrated, fully committed, and it is doing damage because of its power, not despite it.
A drifting brand forgets what it stands for. A brand with an emergent shadow knows exactly what it stands for and, often unconsciously, wields power in a harmful way.
This is what makes shadow so dangerous. It doesn't feel wrong. It feels like more of what's right.
Brand Shadow In Context
Let’s return to our previous examples, Brand A and Brand B and look at Brand Shadow through the Brand IdQ lens.
Brand A, which possesses powers of authority, wisdom, and imagination, will see its Brand Shadow emerge when the systems it creates become more important than the people they serve. Now, infallibility becomes the operating fuel. The brand convinces itself it is raising the standard for everyone's benefit; in fact, it has raised a wall that keeps other out.
Brand B, which possesses powers of defiance, drive, and vision will see it’s Brand Shadow emerges when the stops leading transformation and begins treating destruction as the point. Now, combustion becomes the operating fuel. The brand convinces itself that the disruption is purifying; in fact, it is burning down the very structures its people needed to stand on.
Same power. Same brand. Same identity. The only variable that changed was the quality of attention from the people holding it. But if intention is not the practice that’s required, what is the right practice?
It’s a dual practice of anticipation and vigilance!
The Practice Of Positive Social Impact
Consider that brand work is the practice of self-awareness for businesses.
Founders who are truly committed to raising brands that have a positive social impact vs. those content to value-wash their marketing and call it a day, must do the work of articulating their intended brand identity, understanding its inherent powers, considering both the gifts and abuses that could result from that power, and regularly seeking feedback to determine which way the power has shifted.
If you know your brand's power — which in the Brand IdQ context results from its unique combination of Core Motive and Emotive Styles — you can ask the questions most founders never think to ask:
"Given that our power is generosity, what does abuse of that power look like?"
"Given that our power is truth, where are we most likely weaponizing it?"
"Given that our power is excellence, who are we most likely crushing with it?"
Reflections like these help train founders and their teams to notice the symptoms of Brand Shadow. They empower a culture of operational policies that account for the predictable corruption. All of which means less time and energy spent on crisis management.
Conclusions
This is the work. Not the polished brand deck or the mission statement on the wall. The ongoing, unglamorous discipline of asking your brand hard questions and being willing to hear the answers.
That’s why when I built Brand IdQ™ 2.0, I made sure to include Brand Shadow work as a core feature of the complimentary Brand IdQ™ dashboard.
Each profile now includes a shadow reflection for each of the profile’s three emotive styles, plus a composite shadow write-up that reflects on the unique integration of the three emotive styles. If you are serious about raising your brand up right and ensuring it makes a positive social impact, claim your complimentary Brand IdQ™ dashboard at humanizcollective.com/brandidq
Who We Are
"We don’t create brands, because we truly believe that every business already has a brand. Rather, our role is to help founders and their teams embody the brand fully, express it with more clarity, and expand its influence and impact with more confidence."
~ Charlie Birch, Author of On Raising Brands + Founder and Creative Director @ Humaniz Collective
Bringing a brand to market is just the beginning of your brand’s development and life story.
And that’s where we come in!
We’re creative, marketing and operational experts working together to ensure brands come to life from the inside out.
We support brands throughout their lifecycle across three phases of service:
Brand Strategy
Brand Design
Brand Stewardship
If you’re looking for a brand partner to walk beside you, ensuring your brand grows up healthy and strong, makes good life choices, and attracts the right people into its orbit, Humaniz Collective is the obvious choice.
Engage with Brand IdQ - our complimentary brand strategy generator - and let us prove our worth.
