How Brands Learn
Recently, I came across the book How Buildings Learn. Within the book's first few pages, I was pleasantly surprised as the author offered an adaptation of the timeless design principle, form follows function.
“Function reforms form, perpetually.”
― Stewart Brand, How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They're Built
As I considered this statement and the book's larger context, I couldn't help but draw similarities between the designing of buildings and the designing of brands. Because while the book's subject is buildings, if you look beyond the surface, it’s about people and time. What happens to the things we create over time? How do we shape and maintain things through our relationships with them? And how does that relate to designing and building brands?
The author’s thesis is that buildings "learn" and adapt best over time through the changing requirements of their occupants across every level of a system. He names and visualizes this system as six layers of a building, which he aptly calls the "6 S's." Site, Structure, Skin, Services, Space Plan, and Stuff. As you consider each layer from Site to Stuff, you increasingly have a shorter time for a change. For Site, you're talking about the location, which is impermeable and fixed. And you end at Stuff, all the accouterment you bring in and out of a building. While the Site doesn't ever change, Stuff can have a life of only a few hours or days.
Just like buildings must adapt to the changing requirements of their occupants, so must brands adapt. Within today's rapidly changing business environment, brands need to be much more flexible and fluid—responding to changes in the market, customer needs, advancements in technology, or other factors. This may involve changing the product or service offerings, adjusting GTM strategies or messaging, or evolving the overall brand positioning or purpose.
To more clearly draw similarities, here is my proposition on how the 6 S's aligns with brand, in order from what can’t change to what should change very frequently.
Site (brand): the relationship between an organization and people—without it, a brand doesn’t exist
Structure (brand purpose): your vision, mission, belief about the world, and how people fit into that
Skin (brand positioning): what sets you apart and makes you different than the competition
Services (brand offerings): how your brand interacts with users through your products and services
Space plan (brand personality) how you show up, your patterns of behavior, what you look/sound like
Stuff (brand touchpoints) campaigns, marketing collateral, events, online community, etc.
Adaptive brands constantly improve and evolve to meet the needs of their customers by actively exploring each level of the system and addressing necessary changes to ensure the core foundation (the relationship they have with a customer) can continue to be built upon for years to come.
Considerations
Buildings need constant maintenance and updating to maintain a good relationship with their occupants
Architects can't plan for how people will (in reality) interact with or adapt the building to their needs
Buildings are never "done"
Make choices that allow you to adapt the building quickly for future needs
Without a solid foundation, the rest of the structure fails
Buildings that aren't maintained die
Buildings that are designed to be easily maintained live on