Can awesomeness be a brand differentiator?

Let’s first discuss etymology. According to the built-in dictionary widget on my MacBook and contrary to the popular belief that the term was coined solely for Chuck Norris, awesome made its debut sometime in the late 16th century to describe something awe inspiring. Makes sense. Flash forward a few hundred years, sometime around the filming of Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and the word is now a part of the pop culture vernacular. See also excellent, killer, rad, wicked and way cool.

Awesomeness, then, is something that exhibits the qualities of being awesome. At Red Square Agency, we believe that awesomeness, while ethereal and certainly intangible, is a very real brand differentiator.

A couple of weeks ago, over at the Harvard Business blog, Umair Haque posted The Awesomeness Manifesto. Fascinating stuff.

What is awesomeness? Awesomeness happens when thick — real, meaningful — value is created by people who love what they do, added to insanely great stuff, and multiplied by communities who are delighted and inspired because they are authentically better off. That’s a better kind of innovation, built for 21st century economics.

Beancounters feel challenged and threatened by it, because it feels fuzzy and imprecise. Yet, it’s anything but. Gen M knows “awesomeness” when we see it — that’s why it’s part of our vernacular. It’s a precise concept, with meaning, depth, and resonance.

Whether you think Haque has only jumbled around some conventional wisdom on brand authenticity and given birth to some new buzzwords or not, the bigger point is this: people know awesomeness when they see it. And they love it.

Awesomeness is hard to fake. Passion is palpable. Your stuff is either great or it isn’t.

This again brings us to the rare air a brand finds when it gains fans rather than “customers.” Think about your brand in this context. Re-read Haque’s definition of awesomeness and ask yourself, seriously, “is this us?”