The Writer, originally posted by dknNYC.
Years ago Kevin introduced me to William Gibson's observation: "The Street finds its own uses for things." You can't always predict what happens to your product or service in the hands of its users: baking soda starts off as a rising agent in baking, but ends up deodorising refrigerators and sinks; Avastin starts as a cancer drug but is discovered to be a treatment for the blind. Your brand can profit (sometimes unethically) by understanding how people have adapted it for their lives.
There was another great example (via Boing Boing) today: Ikea Hacking. For about as long as Ikea has been around, people have been using Ikea doors as desks, Ikea desks for beds, Ikea drawers for nightstands, etc. Since June last year, this blog has been actively collecting examples of intentional misuse.
Which gets me thinking: we ascribe arbitrary values to brands. We demand that our brands have consistency, essentialism, personality, salience, and recently, John Grant has written about giving brands enthusiasm. So why not "hackability"? Shouldn't we build ideas that people can adapt to suit their lives usefully? It's no less valid than those other demands we put on brands, and it could be a lot more fun.
