A brand reading
Virgin.
Outlaw The establishment’s foil.
Branson built a holding company out of one rule: enter categories the establishment had calcified, and shame them in public. From music to airlines to space, the new entrant always looks like it is having more fun than the incumbent.
The reading.
Outlaw with a Jester counterweight, expressed.
- Character
- Outlaw
- Drive
- Freedom, change, justice, independence, revenge.
- Fear
- Captivity, conformity, complacency, subjection, dependence.
- Strategy
- Act as an agent of change, and let people break with convention.
- Counterweight
- Jester
- Opportunity
- Staid industries had no insurgent. The challenger lane was open.
- Diagnostic
- Expressed
The Outlaw as challenger. Virgin enters calcified categories and makes the incumbent look joyless. The Jester counterweight is that it always seems to be having more fun.
Famous spot
Virgin Atlantic ‘Still Red Hot’, 2009