Over at This Blog Sits at the, there’s a good post on building reputation and identity in a way that defies traditional branding logic.

Here’s how it starts:

When theatre people say why Cate Blanchett is a good actress, they say she is:

* transformational and fluid
* open
* filled with contradiction
* uncontrolled at the core
* elusive
* ambiguous

Hah! Traditionally, this is the “no fly zone” of the branding world. It may do for actresses to work the more difficult and meaning rich tropes. Not for brands. No, brands preferred a rhetoric that emphasized emphasis, repetition, clarity and, um, emphasis.

But why can’t the brand be more like Cate?

It’s an important question to ask. See where it leads here.