Why I Don't Like Creator Brands

I am not a fan of creator (or founder-led) brands because the best brands don’t focus on the person or company, but on the customer.

The most powerful brands are vehicles of empowerment and self-expression.

Customers choose products to build or align with their identities. A big part of a brand is the identity that is associated with it.

Creator brands or “founder personality led growth” limit the identity development facet of brands that is super powerful by making the identity about the creator/founder.

People care more (and will always care more) about their own person and identity than the personality of the founder and creator, no matter how much of a fan they are.

People want to be empowered as leaders of their own lives. Creator or founder-led brands don’t make the customer a leader, but a follower.

Giving customers something to follow and an aspirational identity to attach to might be useful for some time, but ultimately it is not anchored in themselves - and that does not last.

The people that inspire us always change, but the identity we build for ourselves stays and evolves with us.

We evolve the narrative about ourselves in parallel to the narrative we create about the things we associate with.

A brand’s job is to provide a framework and foundation for that narrative to be built on that is consistent and timeless. It is a balance of providing just the right amount of input without overtaking the space of identity for the customer to fill it and make it their own.

The problem with personalities: they take up all the space, and are neither consistent, nor timeless.

It is therefore not only a matter of empowerment, but also of longevity.

If a brand is designed to be built, compounded, and sustained over time - then that might be an even bigger problem.