The Dopest Brands on Earth All do These 6 Things

Photo: Ficky/Pexels

Take a quick glimpse into your bedroom closet. Or how about peeping inside your kitchen cabinets for that matter. Heck, let’s make it even more convenient for you; the next time nature calls, and you walk into your bathroom—have a glance at your bathroom countertop and you may notice something that you’ve never paid much attention to—until now. 

Most people (especially those who live in the United States), are inundated by products we've purchased from brands everywhere we turn; even on our bathroom countertops.

But just because our bedroom closets, kitchen cabinets, bathroom counters, and other areas that we frequent in our day-to-day lives are packed with multiple brands’ products we’ve purchased over the years—it doesn’t necessarily mean that we have an affinity for those particular brands. 

That’s because subconsciously, from a consumer perspective, every brand whose products we purchase will either fall into one of two categories in our minds: Functional or Aspirational. Brands that fall into the functional category provide products that we purchase purely for functional purposes.

However, brands whose products we purchase for aspirational purposes—tend to be the brands whose products may not be made out of the best materials, have the best designs, or have any functionality advantages over their competitors—but we still have an affinity for them because they deeply appeal to us on an emotional level. 

Simply put, aspirational brands are brands consumers support mostly because they're considered cool. Or in other words—they're dope. And if you want your brand to be considered amongst the dopest of brands—it’ll have to do these 6 things. 

1. Remain youthful 

Merriam-Webster defines the adjective dope as Excellent - used as a generalized term of approval. Much like hip-hop culture, which the slang word derived from, the dopest brands on earth all make a concerted effort to always remain youthful. 

If you were to write down five brands that you currently consider to be dope, without looking at your list, I could just about guarantee that all five brands you wrote down have CMOs that prioritize keeping the perception of their respective brand as being youthful.

Try and think of your brand along the lines of Taylor Lautner’s character Jacob Black in the Twilight series. No matter how much the werewolf aged, the way he looked, talked, and moved—never eclipsed that of a 25-year-old.

2. Go against the grain

As complex as the human mind is, it’s still designed to steer towards simplicity. Take our memory for example. The people that we tend to remember most, aren’t those who are ordinary and blend in with the crowd. 

Whether it’s how a person acts, dresses, talks, or even walks—our minds are designed to recall those who are remarkably distinctive. As opposed to those who fail to distinguish themselves from the masses in a remarkable manner. 

The dopest brands in the world work the same way. 

Their public persona is so remarkably dissimilar—their target customers cannot help being drawn to them like a moth to a flame. 

3. Avoid competing on price 

As the saying goes, Any brand that volunteers to compete on price, is a brand that volunteers to participate in a race to the bottom. The dopest brands on earth become that way by ignoring the natural impulse to compete with their counterparts by offering the lowest prices to consumers.

Instead, they focus on attracting customers by being the most appealing brand.

Look, I'm sure we'd both agree that Walmart is one of the absolute most accomplished brands to ever exist. But we’re not talking about what makes a brand great in that regard. We’re talking about the qualities that brands that are perceived as being dopest by consumers all possess. 

One of the signs that a brand is considered amongst the dopest—is if their customers would proudly purchase and wear a T-shirt with the brand’s name, logo, and tagline front and center of it… in public.  

And let’s be honest, out of the hundreds of millions of customers the brand serves weekly; when was the last time you saw someone in public wearing a shirt with the words, Walmart, Save money. Live better; on the front of it, who didn't work for the company? My point exactly!

4. Embrace contemporary culture 

To reiterate, this list isn’t about what the greatest brands in the world do (you can find our list of 8 things that the greatest brands do here). This discussion is all about what the coolest, freshest, and dopest brands on earth all do. 

Regardless of which particular category or industry that those brands may belong to, a quality that they all have in common is that they totally embrace contemporary culture with open arms. 

Take Nike for example. For most of us, Nike has been the very embodiment of an aspirational brand for just about all of our lives. 

Nonetheless, although the footwear and apparel brand is just over 61 years old, you certainly couldn’t tell based on the fact that the brand has remained firmly planted at the intersection between sports and contemporary culture. 

Nike has always embraced contemporary culture. Which is a huge reason why for most of our lives—Nike has always been a dope brand.

5. Invite instead of stalk customers 

In his book, The Art of Seduction, New York Times best-selling author Robert Greene writes, “Your greatest power in seduction is your ability to turn away, to make others come after you, delaying their satisfaction.” 

The dopest brands in the world all follow this philosophy by seducing consumers through subtly turning them away by not overly pursuing them for a sale—like most brands do. 

Instead, the dopest brands simply invite consumers to join an exciting journey; one in which others who also share their mindset are already members of. By purchasing the brand’s products, consumers are just paying a mere admission fee to become part of an amazing emotional experience. 

6. Refuse to conform 

Rapper, actor, and entrepreneur, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson once said that respect comes from either admiration or fear. No doubt, 50 was 100% correct in his assertion. And whether people will admit it or not—we all have admiration for those who live their lives as rebels. 

Naturally, people have a respect for rebels because they live life on their own terms. They only follow their own rules. And they do absolutely whatever they want whenever they want to do it; regardless of who disagrees with it. 

Deep down, every person on the planet would love to have the courage to live their day-to-day lives that way without fear of any repercussions that may come as a result of doing so. 

For those very reasons, deep down, we all share an admiration for brands that rebel by unabashedly refusing to conform to the norms of their industry. 

Buffalo Wild Wings, Harley-Davidson, Savage X Fenty, and WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) are just a few of the brands that are beloved by audiences around the world, mostly due in part to their refusal to conform to the status quo of their respective industries. 

Conclusion: Ways that you could build a dope brand

They say that beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. Similar to that sentiment, at Decryption, we say that the people whose opinion matters most to a brand—are those who are most likely to purchase its products. 

In other words, it doesn’t matter if the world thinks your brand is dope or wack… as long as your target customers perceive it as being dope—that’s all that truly matters. 

If you’d like help with positioning your brand to become viewed as being the dopest in its industry by your target customers—reach out to us today to book a complimentary client consultation.