Ego is the root of all brand planning evil. Okay, will maybe not evil but it can still screw up a good insight. (For returning readers, it can also screw up a good incite.)
When you read your briefs and decks and find this nuggets that sounds and feel motivating you must ask “Is this me talking?” Is this my point of view? Or is it a fair and unbiased observation – supported by fact. NY ad agencies have often been ridiculed for making ads that don’t sell between the wickets, the wickets being the east and west coasts. Are we including everyone when we observer trends, when we ideate? That’s why testing and researching outside of the big metropolitans areas is important.
Good planners are paid to think beyond the ego. To think beyond the subject before them. Planners catalog a lifetime of experiences and observations and use them when sorting through their day jobs and assignments at hand. They drop the ego. They drop the leash (Pearl Jam reference).
Remove the ego, the self-projection and you can begin to truly see. (It’s hard.) Peace!