Define enemies to build a stronger worldview
Naming an enemy makes a brand sharper. Calvin Ross Carl walks through his subculture framework, from belief and conviction to slang and rituals, and argues enemies complete the worldview.
Summary
Calvin Ross Carl closes his subculture framework with the question of who you’re against. An enemy doesn’t have to be a person; it can be something you’re naturally opposed to. Calling it an enemy, in black-and-white terms, makes the brand sharper. Put together with belief, people, cultural artifacts, what you provide, and the places and things of your world, it gives a brand a strong worldview.
Highlights
- Enemies can be ideas, not just people.
- Black-and-white language makes a brand sharper.
- Enemies are the final piece of the subculture framework.
Key insights
Opposition creates focus
Being clear about what you stand against makes it easier to know what you stand for.
A worldview has many parts
Belief, people, slang, rituals, symbols, contribution, and places all build the world; enemies give it an edge.
Detailed analysis
This is Calvin’s recap of the framework he proposes for defining a brand subculture. Each element answers a different question, but the enemies step is the one most brands soften or skip. Calvin argues for keeping it blunt, because a clear opponent is what turns a set of traits into a point of view.
Conclusion
Name what your brand is against. It’s the piece that makes the whole worldview hold together.
Who are you against? You’re not always necessarily against someone. You might be against something. There might be something you’re just kind of naturally opposed to, or naturally the opposite of. But I think defining who your enemies are is really good, and in very black-and-white terms. So I like using the term enemies. It makes it much stronger, much sharper, much more focused.
So I think that’s kind of the stuff: if you can define the belief and conviction, the people, the cultural elements (the cultural artifacts, that’s the slang, rituals, symbols), how you give back and what you provide to them, the nouns, the places and things, and then finally the enemies, I think that gives you a pretty strong worldview for a brand.