What STAR WARS can teach us about branding

To start, are you familiar with the words “vision” and “mission”? These two terms come up again and again as keywords in branding.

A vision is the picture of what an organization or an individual wants to become—an ideal image, something more concrete and aspirational than a simple goal, almost like a deep-rooted desire.

A mission, in turn, refers to the actions and strategies you take to make that vision a reality.

When a company, organization, or individual sets out to build a brand, the first thing they think about is what the brand should be and where they want it to go.

And since presenting an attractive future to users is what leads a brand to success, you need to accurately understand what your consumers truly want.

What’s already out there in the market? What value can you offer compared to your competitors? What needs aren’t being met?

You approach the strategy from many different angles like these.

Branding requires giving each individual user a clear, lasting impression of your brand—and it only begins to come together once these two pieces, vision and mission, are firmly in place.

Source: https://outatimes.com/967/starwars-opening-crawl-eng/

Before we get into the main topic, let me briefly share how STAR WARS came to be and what kind of story it tells.

The first STAR WARS film was released more than 40 years ago, back in 1977. The world was in the middle of the Cold War, and in the United States, the air was heavy with growing distrust of the increasingly entangled Vietnam War. On top of that, dark, anti-establishment films known as the New Hollywood movement were dominating cinema, and many people were longing for “a happy world that everyone could feel excited about.”

That was when STAR WARS suddenly burst onto the scene.

An evil empire ruling over outer space. The protagonist Luke Skywalker, who stands up against it. A story of him growing into a Jedi—a knight of the light—wielding a weapon called a lightsaber.

STAR WARS, exactly as described, was something everyone could get excited about and rally behind Luke Skywalker for. It hit precisely on what people at the time wanted—an escape from that dark world—becoming a massive hit in America and spreading across the globe.

Now, here’s my own take on why STAR WARS became such a hit and how it connects to branding.

As we touched on above, STAR WARS was the kind of film that lifted up a dark, heavy America, presenting a compelling world that drew people in at the time. A brand likewise needs to offer users a more compelling world—one that makes them think, “I’d love that.” It has to be a specific, vivid world that gets people imagining the kind of future this brand could bring them.

Imagine, for example, you’re struggling with skin trouble. When you’re trying to decide which cosmetics to buy, wouldn’t you naturally reach for the one that makes you genuinely picture a wonderful future—“If I use this, my skin will look beautiful”?

In the same way, presenting users with a compelling world they can vividly step into is just as important when it comes to branding.

Did you know that STAR WARS actually earns more from related products like merchandise and games than it does from the films themselves?

In point 1, we said that presenting a compelling world is essential—because the users who want to step into that world are exactly who become your customers. STAR WARS took that desire to step into the world and channeled it into a flood of merchandise, built around the idea of letting fans “take the world home with them.”

On top of that, STAR WARS also became a world that fans could freely move in and out of by themselves, because spin-off works created by people outside the official productions were recognized by Lucasfilm as part of the unofficial canon.

STAR WARS competed in ways that were almost unthinkable in the film industry at the time. Behind those record-breaking box-office numbers, there was a hidden mechanism like this at work.

Meeting needs that no other company is meeting is, you could say, an essential ingredient of brand success.

Using STAR WARS as our subject, we’ve looked at the elements that translate into branding. When you find yourself with time on your hands at home, why not go beyond simply watching the films and try uncovering the secrets behind their success as well?

I’d be glad if this article gives you a little hint for that kind of viewing.