The Flywheel Effect
In my last post I wrote about ecosystems to make the case for world building in cultural brand strategy. Read that here.
Flywheel as another word for ecosystem. Networks orbiting around brand ethos to establish a management framework.
The purpose of this post is to officially enter this model into the record, using Goop to illustrate.
I’ve emphasized world building as a proxy for heritage. In the luxury model, heritage is a brand thread that allows design and comms to evolve with the times (blog post).
Next comes the flywheel, a framework for managing the brand.
The purpose of this post is to officially enter flywheels into the record, using Goop as a case study. It builds the momentum to drive awareness at scale.
In 2008, actress Gwyneth Paltrow starts writing a luxury and wellness newsletter (about). The early details of bringing it to life account for world building, even down to a name could mean anything (New York Times, 2018).
Each email blast is curated with an editor’s note. She shared travel, shopping and wellness content that became one of the brand’s signatures. It worked because it was niche (The Atlantic, 2019) and community centered. I’ve talked about taste communities before (blog post).
Let’s situate this in the context of building an independent, cultural brand from the beginning (blog post). First establish brand identity (blog post). Then give ethos to your brand through world building (blog post).
A flywheel as touch points connected to brand ethos to achieve 1- community, 2- scale, and 3- influence.
