What is Applied Chaos?
‘Aurochs, Horses and Deer’ painting from the cave complex at Lascaux (EUX, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
Most brand thinking starts too late.
Often with the obligatory 4Cs of brand strategy—Company, Category, Consumer and Culture.
Then moves on to the most interesting problem to solve, proposition and campaign.
Applied Chaos starts earlier.
With people. The drives, instincts, beliefs, rituals, identities, symbols and social codes that shape how we behave long before a brand enters the picture.
Brands don’t operate in a vacuum. They enter the rich tapestry of our lives, already saturated with meaning.
Nature gives us the drives. Culture gives them form. Brands learn to work in the space between.
That is the territory I’m interested in.
Because marketing is ultimately a tool of human influence. And to understand how it influences behaviour, we need to understand the two systems that help create it: Nature and Culture.
That is also the central premise of HERESY, which argues that marketing is far more powerful and misunderstood than the industry often treats it. It doesn’t simply communicate products or propositions. It interacts with the forces that shape what people believe, desire and ultimately act on.
Applied Chaos looks at what really makes brands work.
Sometimes that means archetypes (i.e. the recurring patterns that give brands character, emotional resonance and symbolic power).
Sometimes it means culture (i.e. the beliefs, norms and behaviours that shape what feels acceptable, valuable or true).
Sometimes it means behaviour (i.e. how biology and culture interact to shape what we value, choose and do).
It also means looking at the consequences of all this influence.
What happens when advertising takes more attention than it gives back in meaning?
Why do some brands become iconic symbols whilst others remain products?
Why do some ideas enter culture and generate fame while billions of dollars of advertising disappear without a trace?
Why do certain brands make immediate sense, whilst others need pages of strategy to explain what they stand for?
Brands are not passive. They do more than reflect culture. They participate in it.
They repeat ideas. Reinforce norms. Create symbols. Give language to identity. Help define what feels desirable, normal, necessary, relevant or even possible.
That gives marketing a strange kind of power.
The power to create meaning. To shape behaviour. Or add something useful or culturally valuable to the world.
Power can also be misused and abused.
The same system can create noise, repetition, blandness and distraction. It can consume attention without leaving much behind.
Marketing can contribute to culture—or it can pollute it.
Through Applied Chaos, I’m interested in both. Not just what makes brands effective, but what they put into the world—and what happens as a result.