The Grinch

Merry Christmas everyone!
I’m having a great time this morning being the brand advisor of The Grinch himself  🙂
 
First thing I notice, is that being the Grinch isn’t the worst thing. Being unknown is far worse.
And having Santa as a rival is also a good thing: it’s just one.
 
Believe it or not, there are a lot of people who don’t like Christmas. There are plenty of reasons for that. Take religion, for example. And then there are the folks who hate the traffic around Christmas or the ones that have a problem with all the resources spent for organizing the Holidays. There are even some who just don’t like the red dressed oversized old Santa and even some who are afraid of him.
 
So, there is a niche and plenty of followers. We just need to identify them. Building those personas would be a fun exercise.
 
Now how about brand strategy?
It wouldn’t be a good brand strategy to just turn everything upside-down. Advising the Grinch to become nice and to love Christmas would be a big mistake. The Grinch couldn’t ever compete on niceness with Santa. It would be against his beliefs and the ones of his fellowship.
As a result he would instantly lose his advantage.
 
The point is, a brand doesn’t need to be nice and jolly. As long as you find and serve your people, you also have a business. Being the Grinch is not that bad so don’t be grumpy. It’s still Christmas.
 
Ho, ho, ho…