Disruption is so pre-pandemic.
“We want to be disruptive.” Likely one of the most used phrases in a creative brief from established brands to agencies. If you ask any agency person what they think of the word disruption, you might find yourself greeted with a collective eye-roll. It’s not that disruption isn’t something agencies want to deliver; it is just that it is an overused way to say “we want to do something different than we are doing now, because we are scared of some new or emerging competitor,” and most established brands, do not execute disruption, even when they ask for it. That’s where, as a startup brand, you have the advantage. The ultimate leg-up. You already have natural disruption built in by virtue of your newness and you don’t have any baggage that hold you back. What you need is to exploit your novelty to reorder the category and go one step further beyond disruption to eruption
What is eruption?
It is what it sounds like. Blowing up the category conventions, including reordering who leads it.
As a result of this time we are in, we have learned now that everything has the potential to be dismantled. Today’s startups - and those coming out of this time - can cause more than disruption, but eruption: a complete and total reordering of leadership in the category that will disproportionately favor your newness, innovation, and empathy for consumer needs. This moment has blown up long-standing codes and conventions around behavior, leadership, and mindset. Category leaders have never been more vulnerable as a result. It is extremely difficult if not impossible for established leaders to cause eruption, because they created the norms they would be railing against, whereas startups can blow it up. That’s why startups shouldn’t use disruption as a barometer for success.
Why disruption is not enough for startups
Disruption is often anything BUT disruptive. Brands say they want to be disruptive, and then oftentimes will water down the effort out of fear. Disruption has a reputation of underdelivering when executed because of fear. That’s why it doesn’t suit startups. Startups are unafraid to take risks because they can.
Disruption is a flash in the pan. It suggests a moment in time when a category, industry or environment is intended to be ‘shaken up.’ It is mostly executed as a short-term, Hail Mary stunt or gimmick. As a startup, when you are launching a new brand, you need an approach that is bold, yes, but more permanent and long-term so you can instigate hypergrowth and sustain it. How you behave when you launch needs to be reinforced again and again over time, so you don’t lose your hunger, and to consumers, you don’t lose your shine.
Disruption can be perceived as a cheap way to get attention. Your startup newness and your product or service’s potential to do more than fill an unmet need, but rather to create a new condition no one ever thought of, can gain attention without executing desperately.
The principles of eruption
You can have the coolest product, cutest name, logo, and packaging in the world, but if your launch strategy doesn’t have eruption as its goal, it will never be seen. To cut through, you need an approach to communications built on five key principles:
1. Conviction: Today brands have to stand for something and contribute meaningfully to culture. Develop a belief system that you wear on your sleeve as a company, especially among your leadership (the CEO in particular), and sharpen your cultural intuition to act on behalf of that belief system when it is put to the test. You must take an all-in approach to your point of view for it to be taken seriously by potential consumers.
2. Focus: Creating an integrated launch plan that isn’t “spray and pray” – which means getting in front of as many people as you can and hoping for the best. Reordering requires a strategic, long-term approach that delivers the right message to a VERY SPECIFIC audience, most critically at the RIGHT TIME. Understanding culturally when it is the right time for your brand to launch is paramount. Choosing when to launch must be deliberate and shouldn’t just center around when your product or service is ‘ready.’
3. Bravery: Asserting yourself as a leader, at launch and beyond, while being unafraid to take a stand on issues in and outside of your category. Provoke conversation with competitors and challenge existing conventions. Legacy brands have a tough time recalibrating category conventions and codes they help to create, so you pushing for a rethink will automatically put legacy brands on their heels. After all, to be perceived as the new leader, you must lead, or no one will follow.
4. Relentlessness – Stay active in innovation and communication. Keep raising the bar for yourself in how you behave and reinvent so you don’t become like the legacy brand leaders you replace. Also, don’t stop communicating. Address your lovers and your haters (and turn them into believers) by creating continuous dialogues publicly about more than your product, but also about your ethos.
5. Empathy – There are so many startups out there vying for share of consumers’ wallets. Knowing how you can help them and who you want to be in their lives beyond the problem you product is solving for is paramount. Also, it’s not just what you say but how you say it. Brands are constantly acknowledged for how they engage w/their customer base. Not just through customer service but across all touch points. Show them who you want to be for them. Is your brand the class president? Student council president? The nice/trustworthy next door neighbor? Establish your unique role in the lives of your consumer to create a deeper connection built on mutual understanding of expectations and how to meet them.
Eruption is relevant to today’s ever-evolving context
Eruption spotlights the explosive potential of the new. It echoes the reality of today’s marketplace where anyone or any company can change the game overnight. It recalibrates the goal for startups, which should be more than just making noise or shaking things up; it should completely reinvent consumer behavior toward a category for the long-term and fast - - faster than you can say, “disruption.”