In 1880, William Morris gave a lecture in Birmingham and handed the audience a golden rule: “Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.”
Whilst he was talking about furniture, he was really talking about discipline - everything that enters the house earns its place, or it goes.
When Dave and I sat down to define what Crop should be, we kept circling the same idea, and eventually we realised we were writing Morris’s rule for brands: have nothing in your brand that isn’t true or beautiful.
People are busy. Life is complicated. Nobody is waiting to process your seven messages, your four sub-brands and your three tones of voice.
Those messages might individually be good, but too many causes confusion. More is less.
A brand is a promise that is consistently kept. That means being ruthlessly clear about what the promise is and then show that you’re keeping it everywhere: in your comms, in your product, in your service, in how you behave when nobody is watching.
A promise kept in the advertising and broken at the front desk isn’t a brand - it’s a slogan.
Crop, then amplify - and have nothing in your brand that isn’t true or beautiful.