Why consistency beats playing it safe
A believable brand world needs rules about what’s in and what’s out. Calvin Ross Carl explains why the hard part is sticking to them, using McDonald’s and Patagonia.
Summary
Calvin Ross Carl links world building to a brand’s belief system. Fill out the McDonald’s world with characters and you get the Hamburglar. To create a believable world, a brand needs rules that define what’s inside it and what’s outside it, then has to ruthlessly stick to them. Inconsistency is the problem, Calvin says, not weirdness or absurdity. Patagonia’s question, what if a clothing brand could save the world, shows how those beliefs come to define everything a brand puts out.
Highlights
- A brand’s world is its belief system, Hamburglar included.
- Define what’s inside your world and what’s outside it.
- Ruthlessly stick to those rules, because inconsistency is the real problem.
Key insights
Rules make the world
A brand world becomes believable when it’s clear what belongs and what doesn’t. Those rules are what an audience learns to trust.
Beliefs shape everything
Once the rules are set, they drive messaging, aesthetics, and aspiration. Patagonia’s belief shapes everything it puts into the world.
Detailed analysis
Calvin’s point is that consistency takes nerve. Playing it safe often means bending the rules to please everyone, which is exactly what makes a brand world fall apart. Brands that decide what’s in, what’s out, and hold the line end up with a world people believe in.
Conclusion
Set the rules of your world, then stick to them.
We’ve talked a lot about world building in this show, and I think that’s what that belief system is. When you start filling out that world, when you start adding all the characters into the McDonald’s world, you get the Hamburglar. That’s your belief system right there.
So to create that believable world, your brand needs to create the rules that define it. What’s inside of your world? What’s outside of your world? And then ruthlessly stick to that. That’s the thing I was talking about earlier: inconsistency is the problem, not weirdness, not absurdity.
Those beliefs start defining your messaging, your aesthetics, the aspirational qualities of your brand. If you’re Patagonia and you say, “What if a clothing brand could save the world?” that starts really defining everything that you believe and everything that you put out into the world. But you have to stick to it.