Every great universe has laws that govern it. Break them, and the whole thing falls apart faster than a chocolate teapot.
(I can’t lie, I have no idea if that’s a thing.)
Think about it. What makes Star Wars feel real isn’t just the lightsabers and space battles. It’s the consistent rules about how the Force works. Those laws create tension, drama, and meaning.
Your brand universe needs laws just as unbreakable as gravity.
And I’m not talking about those sad “core values” plastered on office walls everywhere. You know the ones – “Integrity,” “Excellence,” “Innovation.”
Please. Fuck outta here with that.
If your brand laws sound like they came from a corporate buzzword generator, you’re doing it wrong.
Real Laws Have Teeth
Here’s the thing about real brand laws: they hurt. They cost you something. They force you to make hard choices.
If your brand laws aren’t making you uncomfortable, they’re not real laws – they’re just suggestions.
Take Patagonia. One of their universe’s fundamental laws is environmental responsibility. Sounds nice, right? But this law forced them to examine their entire supply chain, change materials, and actively tell people NOT to buy their products unless they really need them.
That’s a law with teeth.
Or look at Apple. They have a law about simplicity and user experience that’s so strict, they’ll delay products, cut features, and ignore market demands to maintain it.
It costs them market share, makes some customers angry, and limits their options. That’s what a real brand law looks like.
The Physics of Your Brand Universe
Just like the real universe has gravity, electromagnetic forces, and quantum mechanics, your brand universe needs its own physics. These aren’t just rules you write down in a brand guide. They’re forces that actively shape everything you do.
Think of it this way: In the real world, gravity doesn’t care if you believe in it or not. Jump off a building, and you’re going down. Your brand physics should work the same way.
They should be so fundamental to how you operate that breaking them feels impossible.
I once worked with a luxury brand that had a simple law: they never discount their products. Ever. Not during Black Friday, not when sales are down, not when their biggest competitor is having a fire sale.
This law shapes everything from their production numbers to their customer relationships.
It’s not just a pricing strategy. It’s physics.
Finding Your Unchangeable Forces
Here’s where most brands screw up: they try to create laws they think will make them successful instead of identifying the laws they already operate by.
It’s like trying to create gravity instead of understanding how it works.
Your strongest brand laws probably already exist and you just need to uncover them. Look for the hills you die on. The things that make you irrationally angry when competitors do them differently. The decisions that feel obvious to you but puzzle everyone else.
I remember working with a software company that couldn’t figure out their brand laws until I asked them why they kept turning down acquisition offers. Turns out, they had a deeply held belief about software independence that was driving every major decision they made.
That wasn’t just a preference. It was a fundamental law of their universe.
Making Your Laws Real
Laws don’t mean jack if they only exist in your head or in some document nobody reads. They need to be as present and active as gravity. They should influence every decision, from the biggest strategic moves to the smallest customer interactions.
This means two things:
- First, your laws need to be clear enough that anyone in your organization can understand and apply them. “We never sacrifice quality for speed” is a law. “We strive for excellence in all areas” is a fortune cookie.
- Second, your laws need to be testable. You should be able to hold up any decision, any product, any campaign against them and get a clear yes or no. Not “maybe” or “it depends“. Yes or no.
When Laws Need to Change
Here’s a mind-bender for you: Even the laws of the actual universe might change over time. Your brand laws can too, but changing them should be as serious as altering the fabric of space-time.
If you’re changing your laws because they’re hard to maintain or because you see a market opportunity, you’re doing it wrong. Laws should only change when you discover a deeper truth about your brand universe that makes the old laws obsolete.
The Reality Check
By now, you might be thinking this all sounds nice but impractical. That’s the point. Building a universe isn’t practical. It’s necessary.
Without clear, unbreakable laws, your brand is just a collection of products or services floating in space. With them, it’s a universe that people can believe in, participate in, and belong to.
So here’s your homework: Find the laws you’re already following. The ones that cost you something. The ones that make you different in ways that matter. Write them down. Test them. And then build your universe around them.
Because in the end, your brand’s laws aren’t just rules – they’re the forces that hold your universe together. Make them matter.
