WHO’S AFRAID OF AMBIGUITY
It’s of one of those scruffy-but-trendy shops, run by people with little money but a well-honed instinct for the Zeitgeist. Somehow the shopkeeper knows the power of ambiguity. He appreciates that materials are both real and abstract carriers for ideas and values.
Hence the shop’s name: (IM)MATERIAL.
Moving from the high street to culture: it’s said that the postmodern world is volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA, for the initiated). In fact the world has always been ambiguous. Even without fake news life is messy, with more noise than signal.
Fortunately humans have solutions to deal with chaos:
at a neurological level our brain produces ‘stable hallucinations’ in the form of consciousness; every day we get up feeling more or less the same person, venturing into a world that seems mostly unchanged
at a psychological level we have developed mechanisms that help us function in fluid ecosystems: identity, attitudes, motivations
and at a cultural level we create narratives that provide order and a sense of direction; think all sorts of -isms: humanism, socialism and, most recently, (neo)liberalism
Liberalism’s ideological hegemony (at this stage there is no viable alternative) has caused ambiguity to become more a prominent feature of culture. As a mitigating force between competing left and right-wing narratives, it rewards ambiguity through suggesting that there is no right or wrong, only different points of view. So, in spite of growing polarisation, its built-in pragmatism and relativism make our pluriform, globalised world go round.
But now the neoliberal narrative is fraying. In the West in particular different socio-cultural groups are competing for power through full-blown Culture Wars. Therefore, liberalism needs to work harder to keep it all together.
In such circumstances ambiguity is inevitably rearing its disorientating head, spinning even more uncertainty. But it also creates opportunity for brands.
Let’s take a step back - it’s clear that brands that are attuned to the Zeitgeist are most resonant and, in theory, successful, because cultural head winds make their marketing dollars work harder (these brands are generally perceived as ‘fresh’ and therefore more salient).
But how could brands leverage cultural ambiguity? For example, in countries where the debate around national identity is polarised, brands with national provenance (e.g. most dairy and alcohol brands) face a choice. They could:
side with the nationalistic camp and play up their Dutchness, Britishness or Frenchness, espousing clearly defined views around national identity
position themselves as global citizens instead, claiming progressive or Woke values
or they could frame national identity as a fuzzy concept that is worthy of ‘investigation’ and debate, deliberately dialling up its ambiguity in e.g. communications
Brands that choose the latter path understand that ambiguity feeds the cultural conversation, increasing the likelihood that branded information hits a nerve (as a bonus ambiguity makes the brain work harder, making it more likely that information is processed at a neurological level).
That friction is precisely where brand engagement reveals itself, something that HSBC, a global bank, seem to appreciate.
Assuming his clientele’s desire to be at the forefront of culture, (IM)MATERIAL’s owner also understands that ambiguity positively challenges the more binary worldview of the mainstream. This makes (IM)MATERIAL a great example of cultural branding.
