Being a ‘Disruptive Brand’ sounds cool. The sound of it can appeal to businesses looking to get themselves noticed, ruffle some feathers and win over customers. All good, right? Maybe.
Disrupting can work, and has for many brands. But when someone proposes some disruption, it might be good to briefly disrupt the potentially rapidly escalating idea of deploying grand-scale irreversible disruption and ask yourself, or them, two questions:
What are we disrupting and why?
Whether it’s a new business entering a market and industry or an existing business looking to re-invent itself, make sure this isn’t merely some adolescent-like rebellious effort to prove yourself against competitors without much thought as to what happens next. Suggestion: Ensure your disruptiveness is something closer to what De Bono called Sur|Petition (Seeking above competition) – the addition of value and uniqueness as you rise above the competition, stop merely competition and ‘run your own race’ so to speak. Then the ‘disruption’ is productive. Being a real disrupter in an industry needs substance behind it, which leads to the next question…
Will customers care?
Much time, money and energy can be wasted on branding/rebranding on a cosmetic level that appears to challenge the status quo but offers little real value to the customer, so any success will be short-lived. If some new unique value (true innovation) to the customer is at the core of the proposed disruption and a bold differentiating brand image is projected, then it is real change you are bringing into play! And, well… disrupt all you like.