Obvious

Sometimes the obvious is exactly what we need.

After hearing that the book “Obvious Adams” by Robert Updegraff is a strongly recommended book by Ogilvy’s chairman Rory Sutherland, I couldn’t help but pick up this short fictional story — one that is focused on a successful businessman who becomes known as Obvious Adams as he solves the business problems of many clients by doing what seems well… obvious.

Ironically, the intelligence and bravery he is awarded for always being so obvious becomes his calling card for the high-profile, corporate accounts he serves. As obvious as his answers may be, all of the executives are consistently left speechless and wondering why they didn’t think of that.

I love theis brilliant story and can see how it has impacted even the mind of a great thinker like Rory Sutherland. The book highlights how sometimes it’s not a matter of being crafty and clever, but being obvious in our approach to marketing and problem-solving. He even gives examples of inventions that impacted the entire world, but were obvious answers to problems that were simply being looked at the wrong way or approaching the problem one-way because “that’s the way it has always been done.”

Simply put, the obvious is often overlooked or even looked down upon.

Obvious Brand

Applying “obvious” to a brand is just as relevant. Sometimes business owners and marketers feel an urge to be completely novel. To be out-of-this-world creative and do something so different. However, great brands aren’t sustainably built on this. When we look at amazing brands, they are built on the obvious.

Disney took attractions and gave them themes. Apple took computers and made them friendly. Tesla took EVs and made them sexy. Nike took running shoes and made them for artificial turf. Liquid Death took water and put it in cans. Netflix took DVDs and put them in the mail. McDonalds took burgers and made them systemized. Target took designer styles and made them accessible. WalMart took wholesale to small towns. Amazon took books and sold them online.

As revolutionary as these ideas seemed at the time, they were all rather obvious. They address a desire in the market and (a majority of the time) relieve a “pain” in the market. They are right under the nose of the industry and it takes a brave pioneer to address them.

Similar to gold being dug up from the ground, we could be standing on a gold mine and it truly becomes “obvious” after we remove some dirt and reveal the gold. Just as we may not know there is gold under our feet (obviously), we may not see the obvious treasure in our market sector.

Just as these obvious answers built trillion-dollar companies, we can see how obvious answers applied to brand can bring us advantages in the market. Brands that were built on obvious positions and marketing are famous ones like Volkswagen’s “Think Small” campaign or even the timeless slogan, “Got Milk?” that we are all familiar with — these are not snazzy, but are intelligent and obvious.

A great brand built on the obvious in strategy has to be the genius position of Amazon. The “everything store” that simply leverages the endless shelf space of the internet and brings immense value to its members. Similarly, Costco is an obvious brand as it is laser-focused on deals for its members. The simplicity of these brands, draw in their users just as the obvious luxury of Lamborghini draws in its buyers. The obvious signaling makes them an obvious choice for their ideal audience.

As obvious as these brands are in their signaling to their audience, it is a superpower when it comes to standing out. Brand empowers this because it allows each entity to speak directly and clearly. When you compare Volkswagen to Lamborghini, the brands couldn’t seem more different. Yet they are owned by the same company. The very obvious fact of one being the accessible “people’s wagon” (VW) and the other being of top tier Italian luxury makes the company shared ownership much less obvious. This shows how a brand can be abundantly obvious to help speak directly and clearly to its ideal audience so it can resonate.

When a brand has clarity as to who it is selling to then it can discover and leverage obvious attributes that empower not only its marketing, but advantage in the marketplace as well.