Home » Blogs » andrew ladd's blog

Lessons from the Purple Door: Marketing with Personality

I happen to live across the street from a building that has a bright purple door. One night last weekend I was walking the dog and passed as several neighbors were coming home. Standing outside the doorway, they were kind of at a loss; the purple door had been painted a shade of off-white. One of them wondered aloud "Now how am I going to find my house?" For some reason, I felt a certain disappointment too. Over the last week, something wasn't quite right without that purple door. Then I woke up this morning and took a look out the bedroom window -- the purple door was back! I was legitimately excited. About the paint color of... a... door. The whole process got me thinking about the marketing power of personality as I went about my morning routine.

The purple door was a symbol in our neighborhood. You gave directions by it (if you hit the building with the purple door you've gone too far); people said they wanted to live there, they enjoyed its originality, even named their Wi-Fi connections after it. The door brought a certain sense of identity to our little slice of Uptown and when it left, we all felt a little like my neighbor on the sidewalk -- Now how were we going to define our block? For many, the door was a something that bonded us as a community and was something we all had in common; we were able to unite around that door, as inconsequential as that sounds.

It doesn't actually feel like that novel an idea, however, many brands -- maybe in hopes of appealing to as many people as possible -- are hesitant to cultivate and embrace those qualities that might be seen as peculiar. Painting a door purple made a whole block "brand" loyal and that's a small example about how powerful a little dose of personality can be.

So how can you inject that into your brands? Here are three tips I've cribbed from the purple door:

  • 1. Don't go too far out of your way to make your product stick out, choose something interesting but don't effect core functionality for the sake of standing out. People love the eccentric but subdued University professor that lives down the block, but the office clown often wears thin after a while. We're not talking about making something totally outlandish; the doorway is purple but, from my views of the interior, the rest is traditional Chicago apartment building. From a functionality standpoint, the offering is no different from the rest of the market's, but the landlords have made a statement with the color of the entryway.

  • 2. If you're too worried about turning some people off by your offering, you'll NEVER be able to turn anyone on. Don't try to be all things to all people. I'm sure there are some people that hate the purple door, but just as many people likely love the building for that same reason. Just as Bachelorette Jillian was never able to fall for the guy who was "too perfect" last season (hey, my girlfriend has the remote on lockdown when that show is on), many people come to find perfection kind of dull. Don't aim for perfect, aim for engaging.

  • 3. Understand that people want to wear your brand like a badge, so give them something to be proud of. Some of the first brands that pop in my head (Apple, Google's Gmail, Budweiser, Whole Foods, BMW) have cultivated a group of passionate, loyal fans by understanding that people have a choice about what products they consume and understand that those choices reflect something about them to the outside world. Why pay a premium for a brand? Becuase it can be seen as a reflection of who you are as a person. These brands and others have won their following by telling people exactly who they are, what they stand for and for the most part, people are ready and willing to take sides. How many times have you heard someone say, "I'm a Mac" or "I'm a Bud man." It's no accident. Those companies have spent a lot of time and money not only defining exactly who those people are, but making sure their products best fulfill those people's needs (Mac of course = tech-savvy trendsetter, Bud = the loyal, dependable American man). *Notice that Apple requires a product cue to serve the core customer, whereas Bud's is focused less on the product itself, but rather needs the marketing messaging to remain strongly aligned with who that consumer is. What will be interesting is tracking how faithful the Bud strategy remains with the new input from InBev, whose ownership role in A-B likely deserves it's own blog post down the road.


As you look at your products, think about what they offer to the consumer, not just from a functional standpoint but from a psychological one as well. It is in that insight that you might find the subtle, yet ultimately, vital strategy that differentiates your offering from the competitor's. Sometimes, its as easy as painting the door purple.