Diego Rodriguez' October 3 post about how the Federal Aviation Administration does not have a fractal brand led me to his January 2005 post explaining that all good brands are fractal. By that he means that every interaction you have with a good brand reflects the brand as a whole.
An example of a fractal brand, I think, would be Cirque du Soleil, in which every detail is designed to support the brand image as a whole. Another example is iPod, according to William Mitchell's April 2005 post. Kathy Sierra suggested the Dummies books are fractal, in her long, but very interesting May 2005 post.
Diego gave us one example of a non-fractal brand. Another example is the airline on which my wife and I flew last month. The company trumpets its attention to safety, but the seat backs were falling apart on the plane. It was impossible to reconcile poorly maintained seats with supposedly well maintained aircraft flight systems. That surely is not a fractal brand.
My suspicion is that fractal brands are much more successful than non-fractal brands. So, I'd love to make sure any business I am associated with is creating fractal brands.
It seems pretty easy to create a brand that is not fractal. Just don't pay attention to the details of the customer experience. Let the little stuff slide.
But creating a fractal brand - that has me stumped.
- Where do you start, if your brand is not fractal?
- How do you reconcile the disparities between the overall brand you are trying to build and the actual micro-experiences of your customers?
- How do you remove your blinders and actually see how far your brand is from being fractal?
I don't have answers, but I do want to understand what the concept of fractal brands means for what I do day to day as a leader. Any thoughts, advice or links would be appreciated!
[Fractal fern image from an article called "Fractal Ferns" by David Nicholls.]
